Sand Captains: summary, characters and analysis

Sand Captains is a work by Bahian writer Jorge Amado, published in 1937.

It is a modern novel of social denunciation with the theme centered on the misery of street children.

The name of the book refers to the gang of boys, the sand captains.

This was censored by the government of Getúlio Vargas and Jorge Amado was arrested during the period of the Military Dictatorship. For this reason, many books (about 1000 copies) were burned in a public square in the capital of Bahia: Salvador.

Book Summary "Captains of Sand"

The minors involved in the plot live in the capital of Bahia, Salvador. Known as captains, the group gathers about forty minors (between 9 and 16 years old) who live in an abandoned warehouse (old warehouse) on the port's wharf.

Much of the story takes place in the market, one of the important commercial agglomerations. There, street children begged for money to eat or robbed passersby.

In addition, they used to walk along the Vitória corridor, a prime area in the city of Salvador. Pedro Bala is the leader of the group, a blond boy who has a scar on his face from fighting the former leader: O caboclo Raimundo.

Brave boy who knows all parts of the city, as he has been wandering around Salvador for years. He has an affair with Dora, one of the members of the group.

The group's routine was to walk around town asking for money or stealing something to eat. Since they stole on a daily basis, they terrified a large part of the population. Thus, they were wanted by the police, but because of their age they could not be arrested.

When caught, they would be sent to the reformatory, a place closed to minor offenders. However, they preferred to live on the streets and be free.

Dora and Pedro were caught stealing from a mansion and were sent to the reformatory. Dora gets sick and ends up dying.

In one of the moments of the plot, the city of Salvador was devastated by smallpox. One of the members of the group did not survive: Almiro. Eventually some are captured, others killed. In the last part of the book, the author presents the fate of each one of them.

Characters from the book "Captains of Sand"

• Pedro Bala: leader of the pack who had a love affair with Dora. He is a central and fatherly figure. His father, called Loiro, was a union leader and was murdered by police during a strike. He later becomes a revolutionary communist leader.
• Teacher: his name is João José. He is dreamy and very talented. He steals books to introduce stories to the boys in the pack. She feeds her love for Dora, the girl from João Bala. He represents the intellectual part of the group, planning the robberies. He later becomes a painter and moves to Rio de Janeiro.
• Father José Pedro: helps and preaches the word of God to street children. Later, she moved to the sertão.
• saint mother: Aninha is a saint-mother of the African religion called Candomblé. She is a friend of the boys and sometimes advises the gang.
• back dry: joins Lampião's group and becomes a cangaceiro. However, he was captured and convicted.
• Big John: tall and brave boy. He becomes a sailor, boarding Lloyd's cargo ship.
• No legs: one of the members of the gang who shows great bitterness. He was a handicapped man who walked with a limp. In the end, he commits suicide while on the run from the police.
• Lollipop: member who cares about the sins committed. He became a friar, joining a religious order. Before, he was one of the most cruel of the group, however, he was influenced by the words of Father José.
• Dora: Zé Fuinha's sister, Dora has an affair with Pedro Bala. She is seen as a mother to the group. After being captured, she dies.
• Good Life: one of the most roguish and conquering members of the group. He played the guitar and rarely appeared at the warehouse.
• Dalva: whore and cat lover.
• Cat: one of the group's seductive rogues. He has an affair with Dalva, the whore, becoming his pimp. In the end, he moved to islanders.
• Admiral: member of the group who died of smallpox.
• barandão: member of the group that becomes leader of the sand captains. Pedro Bala nominates him before leaving with the intention of being a communist leader.
• Ezekiel: leads another group of abandoned boys.
• dear of god: a capoeirista and friend of the gang. He taught capoeira to some members of the group.

Structure of the work "Capitães de Areia"

Jorge Amado's novel is divided into three parts:

First part: composed of eleven chapters. Its title is: “Under the moon, in an old abandoned warehouse”.

1. the warehouse
2. Night of the Captains of the Sand
3. Pitangueiras Point
4. carousel lights
5. docks
6. Ogun's Adventure
7. God smiles like a little black boy
8. Family
9. morning as a picture
10. alastrim
11. Destiny

Second part: composed of eight chapters. Its title is “Night of the Great Peace, the Great Peace of your eyes”

1. Daughter of pockmarked
2. Dora, mother
3. Dora, Sister and Bride
4. reformatory
5. Orphanage
6. night of great peace
7. Dora, wife
8. like a blonde haired star

Third part: composed of eight chapters. Its title is “Bahia Song, Liberty Song”.

1. vocations
2. Vitalina's love song
3. on the tail of a train
4. like a circus trapeze artist
5. Newspaper news
6. Companions
7. The drums resound like war bugs
8. a homeland and a family

Analysis of the work "Capitães de Areia"

Narrated in third person, Sand Captains presents an omniscient narrator, that is, one who knows the whole story and knows his characters very well.

The time of the work is chronological, marked by the passage of time. Parallel to this, we also have psychological time, marked by the thoughts and memories of its characters.

As for the protagonist of the story, we must emphasize that the work does not have just one person. In other words, the central character is collective and would be the gang of street kids: the sand captains.

Jorge's work introduces us to the daily life and adventures of a bunch of street children. For this reason, their language is often informal (colloquial) gathering traces of orality.

Based on the theme and the way he exposes the adventures, we can highlight it as a novel of social criticism.

The focus is on the characters that compose it, presenting the reflections and actions of abandoned boys. Here, the oppressed are heroes. The very name of the work reveals this characteristic, after all they are “captains”.

This is the great importance and uniqueness of the work. Street children are seen as normal people and not as mean people. They steal from the rich to share with the poor.

Deep down, they are children and despite having malice (since living on the street requires it), they contain a certain purity and dreams.

Thus, Jorge Amado demystifies the vision of this group, deconstructing the idea that people who live in marginality are bad. From this context, he presents the reality and the reason for the theft of children who were abandoned and are starving.

With this, it provides a revealing and sensitive portrait of one of the social problems that still affect our country today.

In short, street children are victims of a system of violence that involves abandonment and misery. Here is an excerpt from the work that reveals the dream of one of the characters:

What he wanted was happiness, joy, escape from all that misery, all that misery that surrounded and strangled them. There was, it is true, the great freedom of the streets. But there was also the abandonment of all affection, the lack of all kind words. Lollipop looked for this in the sky, in the saint paintings, in the withered flowers he brought to Nossa Senhora das Sete Pains, as a romantic boyfriend from the chic neighborhoods of the city brings to the one he loves with the intention of wedding.

Sand Captains Movie

Based on the work, the movie Sand Captains (2011) was directed by Jorge Amado's granddaughter: Cecília Amado.