Livro São Bernardo, by Graciliano Ramos: summary and analysis of the work

Published by Graciliano Ramos in 1934, São Bernardo is a classic of the second phase of modernist literature. Through the romance, divided into thirty-six chapters, we meet the protagonist Paulo Honório in a hard life not inside the Brazilian Northeast.

I summarize

Paulo Honório decided to write a book to tell his story about him. Or personagem assim introduces himself to the reader:

"I begin by declaring that I am down Paulo Honório, weighing eighty and nine kilos and completing fifty years of São Pedro. At the height, or weight, as overhanging closed and grizzled eyes, this vermelho and hairy face, têm-me given a lot of consideration. When I lack these qualities, I was considered less. "

At the beginning he asked to help some friends, they would divide them as tasks for compor or work, due to the fact that it was sozinho nessa empretada. Raised sem pai nem mãe - that we need to place your nomes in your birth certificate - Paulo Honório cresceu assisted by a blind and pela velha Margarida, uma doceira. He worked on the rock I gave you two years, when he committed or first crime.

He is enchanted by Germana, who depois meteu-se with João Fagundes. Paulo Honório esfaqueou João Fagundes was imprisoned for three years, nine months and fifteen days. Na cadeira he learns to read like Joaquim Sapateiro, who tinha uma Bíblia. Ao sair da cadeira he wanders the world afora, I have a cranky life, walking and doing business in terra em terra. Always cold and calculating, he never shied away from using violence when he was precise.

I told Paulo Honório resolved to establish himself in the São Bernardo property, he had never worked years before. Or old dono das terras, Salustiano Padilha, fez de tudo to see or filho Luís doutor, or what does not happen. Paulo Honório resolved to go behind the herdeiro. Perceiving innocence of rapacious and his difficulty in dealing as alcohol and as a game, he craved amizade and foi lhe borrowing money. Finally, he managed to buy a property that he wanted so much.

Já dono do latifúndio, Paulo Honório made problems like a vizinho, Mendonça, who ended up sending assassination. In this way, he incorporated the terraces and also increased their properties. São Bernardo year after some time passed to give profits to our protagonist who it was time to conceer a herdeiro.

He married Madalena, who moved to a farm, and took Aunt Glória with him. O casamento logo deu sinais de problema, Paulo Honório já nas nas nas first discussedões felt-se ameaçado pela culture da mulher. Tudo piorou com a chegada do filho do casal. The situation was degraded in such a way that Madalena deu cabo gives her own life.

Finally, Paulo Honório, a widower, was abandoned by Glória (aunt is now wife), accountant, by Padilha and Padre Silveira. Isolated and solitary, an alternative found with the protagonist was a compor or free thing that we read, where we understand the tragic history of his life.

Personagens principais

Paulo Honório

Protagonist gives history. Cold and violent, Paulo Honório has a peculiar relationship with those around him.

Margarida

Negra, doceira, helped to raise Paulo Honório when he was little.

Madalena

Teacher, married with Paulo Honório and was born in São Bernardo.

Glory

Madalena's aunt, Paulo Honório's wife, moved as a home for São Bernardo.

Ribeiro

Accountant and bookkeeper by Paulo Honório. He had a full past, he was happy, cultured, fair, he was considered better, but he ended up losing everything.

Luis Padilha

Herdeiro da fazenda São Bernardo, embora with any talent to maintain it. He ended up becoming enthusiastic and losing property for Paulo Honório.

Mendonça

He was assassinated by Paulo Honório (quem de fato executou or crime foi or coast guard Casimiro Lopes).

Azevedo Gondim

Journalist friend of Paulo Honório.

Casimiro Lopes

Faithful coast guard by Paulo Honório, described as "corajoso, laçá, rasteja, tem faro de cão e fidelidade de cão."

Tempo, space and narrative I do not live São Bernardo

Published in 1934, the romance of Graciliano Ramos passes in Viçosa, Alagoas, not interior do northeast. A narrative and feita em primeira pessoa own hair protagonist Paulo Honório.

Many times or personagem addresses directly to the reader, as in the case of passage below, withdrawn from chapter um:

"João Nogueira wanted a romance in the language of Camões, with periods formed from behind to day. Calculem. "

A film adaptation of the book

São Bernardo virou film no year 1971 thanks to the director of Leon Hirszman. The film was very much celebrated by critics and awarded various awards, among them or by melhor ator (Othon Bastos) no Festival de Gramado, or de melhor filme, diretor, ator (Othon Bastos) and atriz (Isabel Ribeiro) no Prêmio Air France de 1973. Ganhou also a Coruja de Ouro from melhor director and coadjuvant actress (Vanda Lacerda). O longa metragem was recorded in Viçosa (interior of Alagoas), terra onde viveu or writer for many years.

Quem foi Graciliano Ramos?

Born in Quebrângulo (inland of Alagoas), on October 27, 1892, Graciliano Ramos de Oliveira was the first of six years. Filho by Sebastião Ramos de Oliveira and Maria Amélia Ferro Ramos, he belongs to the inner school of Alagoas.

Three years after he moved, he moved as a country to or part of Pernambuco, and a year ago to Viçosa, in Alagoas. In 1905, he was studying in the capital Maceió. He barely finished or in the middle of it, I have not entered a higher grade. At the age of 22, he migrated to Rio de Janeiro where he worked as a reviewer two days Correio de Manhã, O seculo e A afternoon.

After returning to Alagoas, he did not trade in the country and held public office. On October 7, 1927, he was elected chief of the city of Palmeira dos Índios, where he exercised or was appointed to 1930.

Because he was born and was raised in the northeast, he was deeply aware of the economic and social difficulties of the region. His first romance published in Caetés (1933), released when he was forty-five years old. Depois vieram São Bernardo (1934), Angústia (1936) among other titles. His most celebrated work é Vidas secas (1938). Foi modernista, it belongs to the second phase of modernism.

He returned to reside in Rio de Janeiro depois de já ter books published and atuou as Federal Inspector of Ensino.

In relation to her personal life, she married Maria Augusta Barros and you had four films. He came alive in little time. In 1936, he married Heloísa Leite de Medeiros and had more than four films. He died with cancer on March 20, 1953, in the sixties, in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

In a letter sent to his Argentine translator, Graciliano Ramos also defined himself:

“You biographical data that I don't have to start, because I don't have a biography. I was never a man of letters; Unhappily, I visited the interior prefect of Alagoas and wrote some stories that disgrace me. Veja o senhor as seemingly harmless things useless. Depois that redigi these infamous stories, you know the government resolves not leave me in peace. Houve a series of disasters: changes, intrigues, public offices, hospital, pior coisas and three romances fabricated in horríveis situations: Caetés, published in 1933, S. Bernardo, in 1934, and Angústia, in 1936. Obviously, this is not a biography. What hei from fazer? Eu devia shaved-me some lies, but maybe melhor deixá seja-las for romances. "

Graciliano Ramos

Graciliano's works

Graciliano published a year of his life romances, stories and children's literature. His work continued to be published posthumously, following the list of the most important works published by the author:

• Caetés (1933)
• São Bernardo (1934)
• Anguish (1936)
• Dry Lives (1938)
• A Terra dos Meninos Pelados (1939)
• Stories of Alexandre (1944)
• Two Fingers (1945)
• Childhood (1945)
• Incomplete Histories (1946)
• Memórias do Cárcere (1953)
• Viagem (1954)
• Linhas Cakes (1962)
• Alexandre e Outros Heróis (1962)
• Viventes das Alagoas (1962)
• Letters (1980)
• O Stirrup of Prata (1984)
• Love Letters to Heloísa (1992)
• Garranchos (2012)
• Minsk (2013)
• Cangaços (2014)
• Conversas (2014)

Conheça also

• Main works of Graciliano Ramos
• Livro Angústia, by Graciliano Ramos
• The 11 free melhores of Brazilian literature that you need to know the same
• Rachel de Queiroz: biography and works
• Livro Quarto de Despejo, by Carolina Maria de Jesus