Essay Questions

How does Macabea's upbringing affect her life in the southeast?

The southeast is the land of opportunity within Brazil. It is an urban sprawl, a trading hub, a place where there are many ways in which a person can improve their lot in life. Unfortunately, these opportunities are not available to young women like Macabea, basically because she is uneducated. Education is really both a way out and a way up for girls like Macabea, who come from poverty, but who have common sense, and a strong work ethic. Her lack of education and prospects also means that she is not able to date a more intelligent, educated man. She is forced to date from within the most misogynistic members of the male population and this is why her relationship with Olimpico is so abusive and terrible. He treats her as though she is worthless because that is how an uneducated woman from the northeast is viewed by society, especially in Rio de Janeiro. As hard as she tries she is unable to change her life, because of where she came from.

Gloria is both friend and foe to Macabea. How is this?

Gloria violates girl code in the worst possible way; she attracts her friend's boyfriend, to the point that he dumps her friend for her. This is not the way that friends are supposed to behave towards each other, and it is also significant because it shows that Macabea has not made any friends or connections upon whom she can truly rely.She does, however, feel very guilty about taking Olimpico and tries to make amends. She suggests that Macabea sees a fortune teller to show her that although it seems sad to her that Olimpico has dumped her, there are actually far better things than a relationship with him to look forward to in her life.Without realizing it, she is the unwitting catalyst for Macabea's untimely death, because as Macabea leaves her reading with the fortune teller, she is hit by a car and killed. Gloria is the most influential person in Macabea's life without meaning to be at all; circumstances that she has created, and caused, alter everything, and ultimately end in her death.