Arquivo

The story of migrants fleeing the drought, who in a first stage in the migrations to the south of Brazil made their way to the coast, and met with a sad fate of madness, poverty, treachery, and hopelessness from which the main character, a boy, wishes to escape. One of the families consists of an aged father, an invalid, and somewhat unstable, the mother, a washerwoman, the son, as yet young, but already encharged with the subsistence of his family. His little brother dies unassisted. The sister sees poverty put an end to her dreams. The search for a way out favors the disintegration of this family. Northeastern maternal lore devised to bear the high rate of infant mortality is exposed: the mother must not weep so as not to hinder the angel-child from admittance to heaven.