José Lins do Rego was born on June 3, 1901, in Pilar, in the state of Paraíba. Your first book — ingenuity boy — was published in 1932 and has autobiographical traits. With him, the novelist won the Graça Aranha Foundation Award. Also, the writer studied law in Recife, and worked as a prosecutor in Minas Gerais.
The author, who died on September 12, 1957, in Rio de Janeiro, she was part of ggeneration of 30 of mBrazilian modernism. Therefore, her works have a regionalist character. In addition, the sociopolitical critique, made by its narrators, shows the author's view of the Brazilian reality at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.
Read too: Rachel de Queiroz – one of the most important writers of the 20th century
Biography of José Lins do Rego
José Lins do Rego was born on June 3, 1901, in Pilar, in the state of Paraíba, in the Corridor ingenuity. In the same year, he lost his mother, who, before she died, asked that the child not be raised with his father. Thus, the grandparents were responsible for the boy's education, while his father, João do Rego Cavalcanti, lived on another farm.
Aunt Maria was the one who took care of the boy on the Corredor plantation. When she died, the writer went to study, in a boarding school, at the Instituto Nacional do Carmo, in the city of Itabaiana. He then studied at the diocesan school Pio X, in João Pessoa, and at the Carneiro Leão Institute and Ginásio Pernambucano, in Recife. In 1920, he started law school in that city, while writing for some periodicals.
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Four years later, he married Filomena Massa. The following year, he became a promoter in Manhuaçu, in the state of Minas Gerais, but he soon left the position and moved to Maceió. There, he started working as a bank inspector, in 1926, and wrote the novel ingenuity boy, published in 1932. Three years later, in 1935, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he worked as a tax inspector.
In 1953, he intended to visit one of his daughters, who lived in the United States, however, due to McCarthyism, his visa was denied, as the country's authorities considered him a supporter of the communism. Two years later, he joined the Academia Brasileira de Letras. He died on September 12, 1957, in Rio de Janeiro.
By this time, he had already conquered a place in the history of Brazilian literature, in addition to winning the following awards:
Graça Aranha Foundation
Felipe d'Oliveira
Fabio Prado
Carmem Dolores Barbosa
Read too: Graciliano Ramos – another big name from the 30s generation
Characteristics of the work of José Lins do Rego
José Lins do Rego's books, in addition to presenting autobiographical traits, have characteristics of ggeneration of 30 of brazilian modernism:
regionalist elements
sociopolitical criticism
dynamic narrative
realistic objectivity
colloquial language
Eyesight deterministic
Character ideological
Works by José Lins do Rego
![Cover of the book “Fire dead”, by José Lins do Rego, published by Global.[1]](/f/85cf7001bc48cb3c0396a50d438ac5d1.jpg)
ingenuity boy (1932)
crazy (1933)
bang (1934)
the kid Ricardo (1935)
Power plant (1936)
Stories of old Totonia (1936)
Purity (1937)
Beautiful stone (1938)
sweet stream (1939)
mother liquor (1941)
fat and thin (1942)
dead fire (1943)
poetry and life (1945)
Eurydice (1947)
seven league boot (1951)
men, beings and things (1952)
Cangaceiros (1953)
the house and the man (1954)
Israel roadmap (1955)
my green years (1956)
Greeks and Trojans (1957)
Northeastern presence in Brazilian literature (1957)
the volcano and the source (1958)
flamengo is pure love (2002)
Mozart's harpsichord is eternal (2004)
Slight traces: writings of youth (2007)
Read too: Anguish: novel by Graciliano Ramos
Book summary Firemortho
O romancedead fire is one of the author's main books and tells the story of master José Amaro. He lives, with his wife and daughter, on the Santa Fé plantation, owned by Seu Lula. This farm has had better days, when its owner was Captain Tomás Cabral de Melo.
After the captain died, the lands were transferred to his son-in-law, Seu Lula, who was married to Amelia. However, in addition to being authoritarian, he is also incompetent and lets the mill go into decay, becoming a “dead fire”. It is in this part of the story that José Amaro is introduced as a sad and frustrated man.
He can't accept the fact that he doesn't have a son to pursue his career as a saddler. And also dissatisfied with the political situation of the place, which is responsible, according to him, for his place of submission in that society. For him, only a cangaceiro, Captain Antônio Silvino, can fix the situation.
Thus, his sad reality gets even worse when he is kicked off the land of Mr Lula. He then has the help of Captain Vitorino, his compadre, who tries to intercede on his behalf with Seu Lula, but it doesn't work, and the master finds himself helpless and alone.
In addition, his wife believes he becomes a werewolf, so he leaves home. The daughter, Marta, is admitted to a mental institution. In the end, when Captain Antônio Silvino invades Santa Fé, José Amaro goes to prison for offering support to the cangaceiro, then ends up having a very tragic end.
Thus, the work portrays the decay of sugarcane mills, at the end of the 19th century, in the North East Brazilian. It also shows the geographic and cultural characteristics of this region. Through three characters — Seu Lula, master José Amaro and captain Vitorino — he reflects on submission, authoritarianism, injustice and social inequality.
Image credit
[1] Global Editorial Group
by Warley Souza
Literature teacher
