“O Grande Sertão: Paths”, published in 1956, is one of the most emblematic works of the Brazilian modernist writer João Guimarães Rosa and one of the most important in Brazilian literature.
It was translated into many languages and received several awards, including the Machado de Assis Award, received in 1961.
Guimarães Rosa, the author of the work, was born in Minas Gerais, was a doctor, diplomat and writer, and is also a great scholar of Brazilian popular culture. He represents one of the most prominent writers of the third modernist phase in Brazil.
Through a colloquial, regionalist and original language, the story of the novel takes place in Goiás and in the Sertões of Minas Gerais and Bahia. The work portrays the adventures and adventures of ex-jagunço Riobaldo and his great love: Diadorim.
Characters
The characters that make up the work are:
- Riobaldo: protagonist of the work, Riobaldo is the narrator-character, an old farmer, ex-jagunço.
- Diadorim: Riobaldo's great love represents the impossible, platonic love.
- Nhorinha: A prostitute, represents Riobaldo's carnal love.
- Otacilia: Another love of Riobaldo, represents the purity of true love.
- Joe Bebelo: a farmer with political pretensions, he intends to put an end to the jagunços in the Minas Gerais hinterland, especially with Joca Ramiro's gang.
- joca ramiro: father of Diadorim, the greatest leader of the jagunços.
- Medeiro Vaz: another leader of the jagunços, who leads the revenge against Hermógenes and Ricardão.
- Hermógenes and Ricardão: assassins of the boss Joca Ramiro, Hermógenes represents the leader of the enemy jagunços.
- only candlestick: another leader of the jagunços, becomes leader of the band of Hermógenes.
- Compadre Quelemém de Góis: confidant friend of Riobaldo.
Structure of the Work
O Grande Sertão Veredas is an extensive work with more than 600 pages, divided into 2 volumes and not into chapters.
Marked by orality and a language full of neologisms, archaisms and Brazilianisms, the work has a non-linear plot.
That is, it does not follow a logical sequence of facts, being narrated in the first person (narrator character), whose narrator is Riobaldo, who reflects on the events of his life.
For that, the narrative time is psychological, to the detriment of chronological time.
Work Summary
Riobaldo is the protagonist of the novel, the character-narrator who presents an account of his life, from his fears, loves, betrayals, among others.
In this way, Riobaldo makes a self-reflection about his life by describing beyond the events, the landscape from the sertão, to a doctor who recently arrived at the farm where he lives, whom he refers to as “Sir” or “Boy”.
With the death of his mother, Riobaldo went to live with his godfather, Selorico Mendes, on the São Gregório farm; later he will find out that Selorico is his real father.
Consequently, on the farm he meets the gang of jagunços belonging to Joca Ramiro, the chief of the jagunços. Later, he meets Reinaldo, a jagunço from Joca Ramiro's gang, who more tradedly reveals that he is Diadorim, his great love.
Note that, in his digressions, Riobaldo focuses mainly on his impossible love, Diadorim, and on the existence of God and the Devil.
Through a zigzag narrative (not linear), that is, labyrinthine and spontaneous, Riobaldo's ramblings are narrated, describing the characters that make up the work, as well as the fights between the gangs of jagunços, the conflict with the gang of Zé Bebelo and the death of the chief of the jagunços, Joca Ramiro.
Excerpts from the Work
To better understand the language of this classic, below are some sentences from the novel by Guimarães Rosa:
- “Don't doubt it - there are people in this boring world who kill just to see someone grimace...”
- “I was fire, after being gray. Ah, some, that's what it is, we have to vassal. Look: God eats hidden, and the devil goes around licking the plate...”
- “The Lord... Look: the most important and beautiful thing in the world is this: that people are not always the same, they are not finished yet - but that they are always changing. Tune or out tune.”
- “The devil exists and does not exist. I say so. Abruptness. These melancholies. You see: there is a waterfall; and why? But a waterfall is a bank of ground, and water falling through it, bouncing back; Do you consume this water, or clear the ravine, do you have any waterfalls left? Living is a very dangerous business...”
- “With God existing, everything gives hope: a miracle is always possible, the world is resolved. But if you don't have God, you will be lost in the hustle and bustle, and life is stupid. It is the open danger of the great and the small, which cannot be facilitated – it is all against chance. Having God, it is less serious to neglect a little, because in the end it works. But, if you don't have God, then we don't have a license for anything! because there is pain.”
- “Living is very dangerous... Wanting the good too strongly, in a uncertain way, may already be wanting the bad, to begin with. These men! Everyone pulled the world to themselves, to fix it, fix it. But each one only sees and understands things in their own way.”
Read more about the writer of the work: Guimaraes Rosa
