Sad end of Policarpo Lent... such an important work, so recurrent in many readings requested in college entrance exams and, above all, read when we are in high school. Well, contextualizing such work, now belonging to Lima Barreto, it is also necessary to contextualize the period to which the author belonged, the pre-modernism. Thus, in front of a renowned author like this, as well as the great contribution he made to the studies literary, we reserved a little of our time to have a rich and fruitful discussion, trying to get to know you more closely.
Whenever we talk about a writer, in addition to pointing out the ideological charge that he carries with him in the works he produces, taking into account aspects related to the society in which he lived, many of the positions come from his own way of life, that is, from his own routine, from the events that marked the existence of each artist. So when we discuss about Lima Barreto, knowing his trajectory better, we can identify clear traits that marked his work, especially by the fact that he does not have such a commendable financial condition, as well as the fact that he is mulatto. Orphaned at the age of seven, the father, in the year following his mother's death, lost his job, going to work as a storekeeper on Ilha do Governador, an environment in which the writer was raised.
Due to its financial condition, Lima Barreto he was only able to finish high school because his godfather, Visconde de Ouro Preto, provided him with financial aid, and the dream of becoming an engineer ended up farther and farther from being materialized. As if that wasn't enough, his father, who ended up going crazy, was admitted to an asylum for people with this pathology. Lima Barreto was employed as a clerk in the Secretary of War and became a press contributor. Through such a struggle and such an effort to survive, he managed to acquire knowledge autonomously, becoming a kind of self-taught, which gave him, as said before, some traits that he, in a unique way, portrayed in his construction. Thus, we can say that this lifestyle, clearly engaged with social causes above all, was very evident in Memories of the clerk Isaías Caminha and Clara dos Anjos. However, because he was a mulatto, he vehemently explored the issue related to racial prejudice and suffered by blacks and mestizos, in addition to brilliantly addressing the neglect of those who ruled the country in that era.
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About this issue, we can identify it in the work that opens our discussion - Sad end of Policarpo Quaresma -, in which the protagonist, played by a middle-aged civil servant, identified by Quaresma, presents himself as a patriotic fanatic, totally concerned with national causes. Due to the attitudes he had taken, considered by his neighbors not very conventional, he had only found support in Professor Ricardo Coração dos Outros, with who greatly wanted to learn to play the viola, precisely because they saw in the modinhas a way to portray nationalist culture in a more effective.
Just to imagine, this fanatical desire of Quaresma was so evident that he also proposed to implement Tupi as the official language of Brazil, which denounced a reform in the culture itself. However, in addition to cultural reform, he also wanted to change agriculture and then national policy. So, what we can see is that it was a complete renovation, really.
About the other works, he left us as a legacy Memories of the Registrar Isaiah Caminha (1909), Life and death of M.J. Gonzaga de Sá (1919), Numa is the nymph (1915), stories and dreams (1920), the Bruzundangas (1922) and clear of the angels (1924).
Despite this power, this artistic ability, it is worth remembering that his works only received the deserved recognition after his death. Thus, feeling lonely and embittered, the writer gave himself more and more to the bohemian life, and from it to intense depression, becoming a true alcoholic. Due to this disorder, he ended up dying where he was born, in Rio de Janeiro.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
