This novel is about how monotony, alienation, and disinterest in one's career and life can lead to damaging actions. The protagonist Jose becomes so bored with his life that he becomes obsessed with an unknown woman, whose file he encounters while working.
Names are incredibly significant in the text. One of the defining and most interesting aspects of this text is the fact that the protagonist is the only character in the text with a name. All other characters are named after a single characteristic or action. This is significant, as it shows the superficial way people see and define others. At the beginning of the text, Saramago includes a quote from The Book of Certainties: "You know the name you were given, you do not know the name that you have". This quote is significant, as it suggests that you have your given name, but this does define how you are seen by others, and the names they give you.
The title of the text is "All the Names," meaning that the concept of names is significant in the text. This is because Jose is a clerk who comes across countless names in his job, resulting in him stealing records and becoming obsessed with an unknown woman.
Jose's job makes his perspective about the human condition interesting. In his job he encounters many records about people, including their deaths, marriages, and births: "Not a day passes without someone's inscribing it with the causes of death and the respective places and dates." As such, he is constantly surrounded by the passing of history, leading him to question and think about it.
