Characterization in the Stories of Monteiro Lobato

CHARACTERIZATION IN THE STORIES OF MONTEIRO LOBATO Timothy Brown, Jr. José Bento Monteiro Lobato was born in 1882 in Taubaté, in the Paraiba valley in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and died in 1948 in the city of Säo Paulo. His career was active and varied: law graduate, public prosecutor in small-town Areias, planter, writer, publisher, director of die Säo Paulo literary magazine Revista do Brasil, campaigner for public health, commercial attaché in New York, and organizer and promoter of a campaign for the development of iron and oil industries in Brazil. He won fame as a writer of fiction with four books of short stories: Urupês (1918), Cidades mortas (1919), Negrinlia (1920), and O macaco que se fêz homen (1923).1 He wrote a few later stories and one novel,2 but the bulk of his serious fiction for adults (he became Brazil's outstanding writer of books for children ) is contained in these volumes. The short story was Lobato's chosen vehicle and Kipling and Maupassant his models.3 He became known for the realistic-regionalistic depiction of scenes and characters from the small-town and rural Säo Paulo that he had known during his years in Areias, and on the plantation that he owned and operated before moving to the city of Säo Paulo in 1917. This study will give illustrations of Lobato's techniques of characterization in his short stories. He is not always primarily interested in depicting character; his personages may be subordinated to plot, setting, or theme. Principal and secondary characters alike may be types or caricatures as well as fully-drawn individuals. Lobato fixes their personalities in various ways: through direct description or description by a character-narrator or other characters, or by depiction in a significant act. Lobato combines exterior description witii characterization by recording 'Lobato's short stories have been published in three volumes by the Editora Brasiliense of Säo Paulo: Urupês, Cidades mortas, and Negrinha; Obras completas de Monteiro Lobato, 1.a série, Literatura geral, L II, and III (Sao Paulo, 1959). Some of his stories are available in English translation: José Bento Monteiro Lobato, Brazilian Short Stories, ratio, by Isaac Goldberg, Little Blue Book No. 733 (Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Company, [cl925]); "The Vengeance of the Redwood," in The Golden Land: An Anthology of Latin American Folklore in Literature, sei., ed., and trans, by Harriet de Onis (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), pp. 372-383; and "The Funnyman who Repented," trans. Harry Kurz, Atlantic Monthly, CXCVII (February 1956), 161-165. 2The novel, O presidente negro ou o choque das raças ( 1926), added little to Lobato's stature as a writer. See Edgard Cavalheiro. Monteiro Lobato: vida e obra, 2d. ed. ( Säo Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1956), I, 310-311; Cassiano Nunes, "Mark Twain e Monterio Lobato: um estudo comparativo," Revistió de Letras, I (1960), 102-103; and Timothy Brown, Jr., "Monteiro Lobato as a Novelist," Luso-Brazilian Review, II ( Summer 1965), 99-104. f sSome of Lobato's ideas about the short story, as well as his appreciation of Kipling and Maupassant, appear in José Bento Monteiro Lobato, A barca de Gleyre, Obras completas de Monteiro Lobato, 1.a série, Literatura geral, ??-?? (Sao Paulo: Editora Brasiliense Limitada, 1946), I, 243-244. Characterization in Monteiro Lobato61 the dioughts of die main figure in the case of Das Dores in "Cábelos compridos ." Character dominates diis sketch; diere is little action and less setting . The opening sentence, "Coitada da Das Dores, täo boazinha . . . ," sums up all that is to come. Lobato begins with a short account of the physical shortcomings of the heroine, following with a similar appraisal of her mental endowment. The sermon of a traveling priest provides die motive for the interior revelation of character; the priest enjoins the parishioners to meditate on each word of their daily prayers. Das Dores attempts this, fails miserably, and concludes that the priest did not know what he was talking about. Through her disconnected dioughts while attempting to meditate during prayer, Lobato humorously reinforces his initial statement, completing die character sketch. The story "A vingança...