Abstract

This draft compares and contrasts a poem and tale, Drummond de Andrade Carlos’ Aurora and Rosa Guimaraes’ A Terceira Margem do Rio. The comparison looks at their functions in investigating the roles of spatial and chronological representation of happenings (cronotops) in determining the historical narration of any literary work. During the investigation process, the draft will attempt supporting a claim derived from paradox conceptions of various genres of literature.

Despite belonging to distinct genres, the two literary works have a similar structural outline. In essence, their similarities borders on a common principle. They have a combination of a selected linguistic phrases, signs and verb phrases indicating the background chronology of both the tale and poem. In a nutshell, this paper aims at showing that the probability of using cronotops to outline the spatial and chronological representation of events in a poem, novel or short story plays is not reliant on the genre.

This approach is also integral to unravelling the major theme that the authors and plots of their works are handling. Each work is trying to deal with the pursuit of spiritual strength (redemption) in line with the concept of eternal life. Exceptional readers adopt imaginative and cognitive capabilities that naturally guide them through understanding the finer details of the paper. 

The same capacities allow their minds to explore different worlds that the author visiting in the text. The judgment of any text, therefore, depends on the strength of the reader’s mind to make precise analysis of the writings. Central to this argument is the notion that the worlds presented by the writer are out of reach in reality. Therefore, the world of the narrative only exists after the reader takes, pictures, sets up and experiences it through analyzing the text. 

This article will use the same trick to help you join the audience that both Drummond de Andrade Carlos and Rosa Guimaraes are addressing in their literary works. In order to do that in a proper, the paper also tries to simplify some of the concepts, ideologies, issues, and facts that these authors have failed to unfold. Here, this work analyzes those texts by comparing and contrasting them by investigating the roles of spatial and chronological representation of happenings in determining the historical narration of any literary work.

Analysis of the Poem Aurora (Drummond de Andrade Carlos)

In his poetry, Drummond de Andrade Carlos sandwiches tension with a desire to have a talk with the rest of the world (“Nobody knew that the world would end”) and critical aspects of introspection. He is fond of expressing this feature in a wide range of conflicting ideologies as he explores a large set of themes. Some of the thematic concerns common to his works are different aspects of love (“How wonderful love...”), his prowess in analyzing the contemporary problems in political and social dimensions, language, and poetry (“The poet…”) itself. 

For example, his first works mainly covered social and political wrangles of the ancient days (‘20s) in Brazil. The poet’s prowess also extends to the cultivation of natural and ironic responses to the contradictory aspects of the world and poetry. Some of the crucial features of style that is reminiscent to Drummond’s poetry is the gathering of banal and refined imagery (“Between the trolley and the tree…”), as well as the prosaic and elevated experiences coupled with ironic and shifting perceptions (Grossman).

It is obviously the case that the poet’s profound reassessment and internal dissonance subvert all the aspects of contemporary poetry. The same line of thought is also apparent to the basis on which readers can understand the intertwinement between the features of poetry and world. There is a glaring homology between the paradoxes and contradictions of this poem and condition of the characters as he guides readers through assorted shifts in the directions in the suppositions.

For example, in Aurora, four characters are interested in discussing eternity despite the differences between them. Joseph likes nicknaming others, Helena is a lover, and Sebastian is lavish, while Arthur is a quieter. Evidently, there are no similarities between them, they could still talk about a common topic. Drummond is renowned for the expression of pervasive themes, in which he freely shifts from one aspect to another. 

He is fond of sabotaging love from personal experiences. In Aurora, he asserts that love is a wonderful feeling “how wonderful love” before subverting that argument with a close parenthetical claim by stating that “love and other products.” Irony is presented in the way he inverts ideologies and flaunts issues associated with rigorous interiority of humanity. In addition, readers can identify irony by analyzing the way Drummond treats matters that lead to devitalizing and clearing human interiority. 

When used in that manner, irony pulls readers towards accepting tones of voices that are associated with hatred or any other issues rather than love. For example, it is ironical that the other characters have to take orders from the drunk poet “The poet was drunk…” yet they are sober. The poet even asks them to dance “dancai, my brothers” to no music “Although no music.”.

A Terceira Margem do Rio (Guimarães Rosa)

A Terceira Margem do Rio loosely translates to “The Third Bank of the River and Other Stories.” This is one of Guimarães Rosa’s amazing books and Brazilian’s best short stories. Just like the other short stories by Rosa, is a quality blend of format, theme and style of literature. The Third Bank of the River and Other Stories is, by far, a quality, superior to other short stories such as Tutaméia.

However, the similarity between these works is based on the manner in which presents his ideas and themes of the stories. Rosa is an advocate of paradox and the presentation of excessive synthesis in work is apparent to the attributes of Baroque style. This style is an exemplary item of literary work. The author uses it to showcase its over-abundance nature of growth, multiplicity in the form of use, excessiveness in ornamentation, and diversity in every usage dimension.    

Baroque also promotes inward advancement, with literary works of modest parameters. As such, Rosa uses it to improve cramming, shoving and presenting many effects in his work. In this manner, he enters into an imaginary battle, in which he is aiming to oust other authors, critics and readers of his work. In this story, Rosa tries to depict the problems in his own world with an effort of communicating to the outside world. 

He uses an innovative, flexible prose style of writing to transform the oral tradition of the Brazilian sertao into the conventional fictions of literature. For example, In “The Third Bank of the River”, the author talks about his family in fictions way that readers are left with much suspense. Certain questions are not answered even at the onset of the story. Why would his father order a boat in a serious manner yet he has been a quieter all his life?

Why is he going away in a boat? What makes him depart the family without giving explanations to them? Why is he not talking to them after ordering the boat? Why would he only single out the author to accompany him before boarding the board? In attempt to find answers to these questions, readers directly enters the author’s fiction world where those things happened. In reality, the possibility of the above cases occurring is exclusively remote. 

In both ancient and modern families, men are the breadwinners (head, as Christianity depicts it) of their families. They give direction and promptly communicate to their wives and children. In essence, men report almost everything to their wives, who believe that they are mischiefs. In Rosa’s world, however, even the terrific author’s mother lets his husband walk away from the family with just one order ‘Do not come back if you go.’ 

That approach was uncommon of her because she was the ‘head’ and would viciously attack any member of the family with scolds. The fiction happenings of the author also extends to the fact his worth had no journey to go to. He only rowed around the shores of the river. The whole village (friends and family alike) was shocked by the event (‘phenomenon’ as the author describes it) and came to witness. 

Here, readers are left wondering why Rosa’s father would not even change his opinion even in the presence of that multitude. Why are they not asking him to come out of the river or even help him to do so? Instead, they try to presume that he must be fulfilling a promise he made to a saint or God. They also thought that he might be suffering from leprosy (“horrible disease”) and was only avoiding to infect others while also feeling the need to stay close to the family. 

Travelers reported that the author’s father never stepped out of the boat. There are no proper reasons or imaginations that readers would attach to these happenings. As such, they would unfold some of them by entering the world in which the narration is based. For example, if the writer’s father was fulfilling a promise to God, he was only showing the rest how to live in God’s way. 

Similarly, if he had departed due to leprosy then he was expressing care and love to the family and village in general. There was no cure for leprosy in that time and if he stayed long with it he would have infected the family members, leading to the spread of the same. Either way, he must have departed for the good of both family and village if any of that was the reason for his actions.  

Whilst the story begins as a ‘family issue’ the author uses it to connect to the outer world by touching the other aspects of life. For example, his mother invited her brother to help with the farming duties (farming), she asked a preacher to exorcise the demons that might have captivated her husband (religion/Christianity), and teacher had to come by to tuition the author and his siblings (education). At one point, she invited soldiers to threaten his husband out of the river (military/administration/security) while the newspapermen also received the invitation to come make news out of the event (media).

In part, Rosa is trying to link his fiction world to the real one and in part he is inviting the audience (readers) to move around his world with freedom. For example, readers develop two lines of thought by analyzing the author’s attempts to link his experiences to reality. One, Rosa is using his life to outline other features of life. Two, this approach could also mean that he has used this story to unfold the problems and structures of economy, social cohesion and politics of Brazil. 

Therefore, his mother’s attempts to rescue his father can be viewed as his way of introducing readers to issues taking place in Brazil. For example, the invitation of a priest symbolizes the nation’s belief in Christianity, soldiers are representations of administration, security and military situations of the country, and the schoolteacher is a symbol of education structure of Brazil.

In overall, the invitees to the escapade of this story collectively highlight the socio-economic structure of the country. They form some of the pillars on which social and economic factors are established. Rosa has extensively used suspense in “The Third Bank of the River.” For example, he is also in awe of his father’s actions. The unexpected are taking place and he cannot understand the reason for that. 

Why would his father exclude himself from the people? Why is he not cooperating with the people who are willing to rescue him from the messy situation? How is he surviving on very little food? What is making him stay in a boat for years? These are some of the question that even the author finds hard to answer. However, he believed the village would eventually understand why his father had to take such actions.

This story comprises of a mixture of themes that the writer encases in one event. One of the themes is neglect. Whilst the family tried hard to rescue Rosa’s father out of the river, they finally gave up and abandoned him. The writer describes that the people had to get used to the idea that his father had decided to live in seclusion. The end of their attempts is eclipsed by his admission to the fact that they would eventually learn why his father had to choose such a frightening way of life. 

Another theme of the story is love. Rosa’s parents might have been the great lovers in the village, but that changed when his father moved to the new ‘home.’ Despite fighting to hide it, Rosa’s mother sympathized with and loved her husband. She felt ashamed by her failure to stop her husband from going down the river when the onlookers started discussing the issue. She must have felt he failed to return because she warned him against him at the departure. 

On learning that the author had been stealing food to take his father, she strategically placed it on a place it at a place her son would easily ‘steal.’ Her love is also expressed through the attempts to find rescuers. She invited a priest, soldiers and newspapermen to help make her husband return. Her desperation underlined her deep lover that she had for her husband in abundance.  

Love theme also extends to the actions undertaken by the writer’s mother in attempts to take care of the family issues. She might have been scolding her children ‘daily’ as the author puts it, but readers get the notion that she did that out of her love for the children. She needed them to toe the line and the scolds were her tools for guiding them. Just like any other parent, especially mothers, would show their love to the children through ‘war’, she cared and loved her children. 

The epitome of love in this story is the marriage of the author’s sister. Closely related to love is the theme of remorse. The father’s decision to go the river triggered much remorse in many people, who totally failed to understand his reasons for it. They sympathized with him and the failure to state his reasons for it or communicate with heightened that feeling. Out of remorse, the mother denied her daughter a wedding party after marriage.

The taste of delicious food would remind the family about the father, who would be languishing in the harsh conditions of the weather at that time. The family took the feeling with them to their beds and it is only fair to argue that some of them (mother and author) must have had sleepless nights out of remorse. Like the other short stories by Rosa, “The Third Bank of the River” exhibits a wide range of imagery. 

He gives vivid descriptions that enable readers to ‘see’ most of the happenings in the story. “He looked at me gently and motioned me to walk along with him”, “when his back was turned, I ducked in the bushes to watch him”, and “the first night he left, we all lit fires on the shore and prayed and called to him” are some of the descriptions that highlight the use imagery in this story.

At one point, the writer admitted to picturing his father. “I pictured him thin and sickly, black with hair and sunburn, and almost naked despite the articles of clothing I occasionally felt for him.” People had started him to be resembling his father, yet he did not feel the same way. He believed that his father must have been having long nails and hair by that time. 

Another vivid theme that encases the whole story is family. Almost each event of the story is related to the family. The story starts off the description of the narrator’s family, in which he introduces readers to his family. “My father was a dutiful, orderly, straightforward man. And according to several reliable people of whom I inquired, he had had these qualities since adolescence or even childhood. By my own recollection, he neither jollier nor more melancholy than the other men we knew. May be a little quitter. It was mother, not father, who ruled the house. She scolded us daily – my sister, my brother, and me.” 

Almost all other events along the story are related to the family or one of the members. For example, the father’s departure, to a large extend, involves three family members – mother, father and the narrator. It began with the father ordering for a boat and taking the leave. He failed to give explanations about his ‘journey’ and never spoke to anyone about it. The mother warned him about it, availed the food the author would ‘steal’, invited rescuers, and stopped the family from feasting for fearing to evoke the remembrance of her husband.

The narrator walked along with the father to the river shore, took food to him, monitored his stay in the boat, and stayed back to wait for the father when the family dispersed. He did not even marry in order to wait for the old man.  The other members of the family (brother, sister and relatives) also played certain role in the ‘phenomenon.’ For example, they were present at the meeting to discuss the father’s departure.

When the sister gave birth to a son, he asked the family and his husband to take her down the river in efforts to show the kid to the father.  The entire family cried when their attempts failed. At this event, there was a union of two families – the author’s family and his sister’s.

Comparison

Similarities

Drummond de Andrade Carlos’ Aurora and Rosa Guimaraes’ A Terceira Margem do Rio are two of the greatest literary works in the Brazilian history. Despite their differences in format (genres) these works have certain similarities. Foremost, both Aurora and A Terceira Margem do Rio are written by poets, implying that they have use similar language structures in their works. For example, Rosa has repeatedly used poetic language in his story, with rhymes, short sentences, phrases, rhetoric questions, among others apparent to both texts.

 Both works have a similar setting. Just as Drummond ironically highlights the problems affecting the Brazilian government in Aurora, Rosa does the same by basing his story on a river in Rio de Janeiro in A Terceira Margem do Rio. Just by the virtue of being Brazilians, these writers could easily to relate to the same experiences in their respective works. For example, both A Terceira Margem do Rio and Aurora seem to be pointing out the shortfalls in the Brazilian government in terms of the shaky structures of economic, socialization and politics. 

Another similarity borders on the use of same thematic concerns. For example, both writers extensively used irony in their works. For example, the other characters had to take orders from a drunkard (the poet) in Aurora. There is also some elements of irony in most happenings of A Terceira Margem do Rio.  Despite being the head of the family, the mother failed to stop her husband to refrain going to the river. 

Another common theme in these works is love. Drummond admitted that love is a wonderful feeling (‘how wonderful love’) and even one character (Helena) who was a lover of men. In A Terceira Margem do Rio, the marriage of Rosa’s sister eclipsed the theme of love. 

Differences

Besides the aforementioned similarities, there are several differences between A Terceira Margem do Rio and Aurora. The first difference relies on the genre. Aurora is a poem while A Terceira Margem do Rio is a short story. In effect, they have different formats. 

Another difference is the style with which each author drives the theme of his work. Drummond has used a drunkard to communicate his theme to the readers, whereas Rosa uses his father (“a dutiful, orderly, straightforward man”). In normal, the judgments of a sober person are better than those of a drunkard. As such, readers get the feeling that the actions of the author’s father (A Terceira Margem do Rio) are done in line with integrity, while those of the poet (Aurora) are done under influence.

Conclusion

This paper used Drummond de Andrade Carlos’ Aurora and Rosa Guimaraes’ A Terceira Margem do Rio to investigate the roles of spatial and chronological representation of happenings (cronotops) in determining the historical narration of any literary work. As such, it aimed at examining their structures and thematic concerns. Evidently, the differences and similarities in literary works of different genres can be used to study another.

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