Lispector and Confronting our Mortality

“Because there's the right to scream. So I scream.” This novel is not supposed to have you gripping your seat with anticipation, it is a story of a mundane, normal life of someone who you might not have previously paid attention to. Rodrigo is using his voice, one of a higher status than Macabéa because people will listen to it. It is his duty to use that voice to encourage others to listen to her story and have empathy for others like it. Through highlighting this disconnect between classes, Lispector reminds the reader of their duty to break down the barrier of stigma and put themselves in another's shoes in order to understand.

Rodrigo discusses this duty of his to write Macabéa’s story and bring it to the attention of others as it is the story of many. “What I write is more than mere invention, it’s my obligation to tell about this one girl out of the thousands like her.” (Page 5, Kindle Edition). As he navigates the storytelling of an otherwise mundane life, Rodrigo attempts to bring glory to her life through his writing. Through Rodrigo's dialogue, he challenges our view of poverty. “But I suspect that all this chitchat is made just to put off the poverty of the story, because I’m scared.” (Page 8 Kindle Edition). In this line he challenges views of poverty by drawing attention to how people distort the narrative of poverty. Here, Rodrigo is admitting to distorting the narrative as he admits her situation scares him so much that he'd rather ignore her story. He says multiple times how Macabéa and her nonchalant-ness makes him uncomfortable. Macabéa does not react in angry or sad outbursts but remains oblivious to her suffering. He equates the uncomfortable feeling to feeling hollow, a feeling that often comes from seeing others suffer but we tend to brush it off. Rodrigo later goes on to explore this feeling of unease and wonders how he can make up for it. He says he will love his dog, who has food, more than Macabéa. This dives into the notion that when we are confronted with these feelings of guilt we often misplace our help into easy cop outs. It’s easier for an individual to rid that awful gut feeling by giving their love to someone they know already rather than show compassion to a stranger. This could be due to the fact that helping those in situations such as Macabéa’s reminds us of our own mortality. This is what Lispector is trying to challenge, we should confront our own mortality in order to help those in need. Let it be a reminder that things can change at any second and that there are so many people out there who used to have a home but things changed in the blink of an eye. 


My Question for you: If Macabéa hadn’t died, how do you think her life would have changed with this newfound hope, do you think it would have changed at all? 


Comments

  1. Jon Beasley-MurrayMarch 7, 2024 at 9:09 AM

    Yes, I like your focus on this sense of obligation or responsibility--it's connected I think to the idea of ethics that I mention in the lecture. Though (as you say) Rodrigo also feels ambivalent about it, and in the end wants to shirk it completely... it's as though he's glad that Macabéa eventually dies. So perhaps the responsibility becomes ours, the readers'.

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