the fifteen is the first novel by modernist writer Rachel de Queiroz. Published in 1930, the regionalist and social work presents as its central theme the drought of 1915 that devastated the northeast of the country.
Did you know?
Rachel de Queiroz (1910-2003) and her family moved to Rio de Janeiro to escape the drought.
Characters of the Work
The work is composed of 26 untitled chapters. The characters that make up the plot are:
- Chico Bento: cowboy
- corduline: Chico Bento's wife
- Little lady: Sister of Cordulina, sister-in-law of Chico Bento
- Luís Bezerra: compadre of Chico Bento and Cordulina
- weasel: wife of Luís Bezerra, godmother of Josias
- Josiah: son of Chico Bento and Cordulina
- Peter: eldest son of Chico Bento and Cordulina
- Manuel (Duquinha): youngest son of Chico Bento and Cordulina
- Vincent: owner and breeder of cattle
- Paul: older brother of Vincent
- Lourdinha: older sister of Vincent
- Alice: younger sister of Vincent
- Miss Idalina: cousin of Dona Inácia and the mother of Vicente, Paulo, Alice and Lourdinha
- Conception: teacher cousin of Vincent
- Mother Nacia (Dona Inácia): grandmother of Conceição
- Mariinha Garcia: resident of Quixadá, interested in Vicente
- pigtails good: worked on Vicente's farm
- Major: wealthy farmer from the Quixadá region
- Dona Maroca: farmer and owner of the Aroeiras farm, in the Quixadá region
- Zefina: daughter of cowboy Zé Bernardo
Work Summary
Chico Bento lived with his wife Cordulina and their three children on Dona Maroca's farm, in Quixadá. He was a cowboy and sustenance came from the land.
However, with the problem of drought that increasingly plagued the region where they lived, he and his family are forced to migrate to the capital of Ceará, Fortaleza.
Unemployed and in search of more dignified conditions, he and his family walk from Quixadá to Fortaleza, as they did not have the money for the ticket. A large part of the work reports the difficulties, from hunger and thirst, that they went through during the journey.
In one of the passages, he and his family find another group of migrants satisfying their hunger with the carcass of a cattle. Moved by the scene, he decides to share the little food they took (brown sugar and flour) with his new friends.
Further on, he kills a goat, however, the animal's owner is enraged. Even listening to the sad story of Chico Bento in search of food for him and his family, the animal's owner, leaves only the viscera to feed them.
Faced with so much hunger, one of the couple's children, Josias, eats a raw manioc root, which causes his death.
"There was Josias, in his grave by the side of the road, with a cross of two sticks tied together, made by his father. He was at peace. I didn't have to cry with hunger anymore, out on the road. He didn't have a few more years of misery ahead of his life, to fall into the same hole, under the shadow of the same cross."
In addition, the eldest son, Pedro, ends up joining another group of migrants and the couple no longer sees him.
Upon arriving in Fortaleza, Chico Bento's family goes to the "Campo de Concentração", a space destined for those suffering from drought.
There, they meet Conceição, a teacher and volunteer, who eventually becomes the godmother of the couple's youngest son: Manuel, nicknamed Duquinha.
Conceição helps them buy tickets to São Paulo and as the child's godmother, she asks them to stay with the boy, since she considered him a son. Although they showed resistance, Duquinha ended up staying in Ceará with her godmother.
Conceição was a cousin of Vicente, a very petty cattle owner and breeder. She was attracted to him, however, the boy meets Mariinha Garcia, a resident of Quixadá and who was also interested in Vicente. In a comforting tone, her grandmother says:
"My daughter, life is like that... Since today the world is the world... I even think today's men are better."
With the arrival of the rain and consequently of hope for the northeastern people, Conceição's grandmother decides to return to her homeland, Logradouro, but the girl decides to stay in Fortaleza.
Work Analysis
Focusing on the northeastern region, the work the fifteen it has a regionalist character.
In a linear narrative, Rachel portrays the reality of northeastern refugees when this region was hit by a great drought in 1915.
Thus, the novel contains a strong social content, which in addition to focusing on the reality of local people, portrays hunger and misery.
The psychological analysis of the characters and the use of direct speech reveal the difficulties and thoughts of human beings in face of the social problems that are triggered by drought.
In simple and colloquial language, the novel is marked above all by short, brief and precise sentences. The prose is narrated in third person, with the presence of an omniscient narrator.
Excerpts from the Work
To better understand the language used by the writer, check out some excerpts from the work below:
"After crossing herself and kissing the medal of Saint Joseph twice, Dona Inácia concluded: “Deign to hear our supplications, most chaste husband of the Virgin Mary, and obtain what we pray for. Amen." Seeing her grandmother leave the sanctuary room, Conceição, who was doing her braids sitting in a hammock in the corner of the room, asked her: - And it rains, eh, Mother Nacia? The end of the month has arrived... Not for you doing so much novena..."
"Now, to Chico Bento, as the only recourse, all that remained was to take off. Without vegetables, without services, without means of any kind, he would not starve to death as long as the drought lasted. Then, the world is big and in Amazonas there is always rubber... Late at night, in the closed chamber where a dying lamp was ill-lit, he agreed with his wife the plan of departure. She listened, crying, wiping on the red porch of the hammock, her eyes blind with tears. Chico Bento, in the confidence of her dream, tried to cheer her up, telling her the thousand cases of migrants enriched in the North."
"The next day, at dawn early in the morning, Vicente, on his stone horse, galloped along the road. From a distance, the house in the street, built on top of it, appeared to him. The closed green windows, the empty porch, the corral with the dry dust of the manure half blown away by the wind. In front of Conceição's bedroom window, a fork where there was always a clay pot with a carnation stick stuck out alone, without plant or pot, extending its three empty arms into the air. And in front of the porch, a hungry cat, slender as a snake, meowed pitifully."
"All this was slow, and they still had to suffer several months of hunger. As the chair advanced, Dona Inácia informed the cowboy about what had happened in the street. The man only alluded to misery and death. From the old woman's glazed eyes, tears flowed hurriedly. And seeing his house, the empty corral, the farmyard devastated and silent, the dead life, despite the green sheet that covered everything, Dona Inácia bitterly wept, with the same desperate distress of someone who finds the body of someone very dear, who during our absence he died."
"The people crowded the avenue, the money circulated happily, the carbide lamps splashed over the hubbub very white light spots, which made the moon's sharp face dull and sad growing. In a group, in a lighted corner, Conceição, Lourdinha and her husband, Vicente and the new dentist in the land - a fat young man, plump, with curly sideburns and the pince-nez always poorly held in his round nose - they talked excitedly."
Film
The film the fifteen is based on the work of Rachel de Queiroz. The drama was released in 2004 and directed by Jurandir de Oliveira.
Also read about the Life and Work of Rachel de Queiroz.
