Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar, Modernity, and the
Transcription
Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar, Modernity, and the
Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar, Modernity, and the Metropolis in Brazilian Literature Author(s): Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta Source: Chasqui, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Nov., 2003), pp. 35-52 Published by: Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29741802 . Accessed: 28/02/2014 07:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Chasqui. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GLANCES: THE STREET? CAR, MODERNITY, AND THE METROPO? LIS IN BRAZILIAN LITERATURE EXCHANGING Antonio Brown "E os bondes de A. Tosta Luciano University/Harvard urn como passam artificio" de fogo University de An (Mario drade) streetcar The tation streets" tions. is only one of Its importance tion in the experience tion much This how Bandeira, Rachel de Queiroz Clarice the outside, metropolitan specifically, the Lygia Fagundes Telles, de Alcantara Machado give its problems, city at the modern that person for more "Cronologia"; in real social cities individual and interac? its participa? to it a given have Brazilian Mario de Andrade, Drummond us access to some and, It analyzes Portuguese. de Andrade, Carlos in Brazil de Andrade, of the historical, advent of modernity in Brazil. From part of the complex allow us to look more at the emerging characters critically at the contemporary it has produced, and, more society the streetcar, 1859 transporta? that were and of modern of its dictionary offers. definition a symbol streetcar has become of modernity Lispector, issues or within In January the so-called transpor? public means and in literature of metropolitan geography life of that provides as a simple than and Antonio and economic cultural has played urban the everyday its role for everyday in contemporary language of the streetcar in the works of Oswald the representations Manuel that the streetcar dimension a source consequently, how of or car on rails However, 1325). in the multifaceted discusses essay (Webster's the many semantic broader as "a large coach defined has been certain along on inhabits streetcar the first the history it, who company of streetcars is at once and its product.1 its creator its operations in Brazil (Navenh, see Allen Morrison in Brazil, and Emidio started Garde's websites). The Cia. Carris de Ferro linked the Praca Tiradentes to Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro. Around twelve the first months. The thousand passengers streetcar first appeared rode on on the this new means streets of public of Recife in June transportation of 1867 and in in Salvador and Belem in 1870. The city of Sao Paulo acquired its first streetcar only in 1872 and the Cia Carris 1881. The da Carioca and ]I would Montague, was already transporting streetcars in South America de Ferro first electric the Largo do Machado to Enr?e like for their thank invaluable in the city Bou, suggestions around three thousand in 1892. appeared of Rio de Janeiro. They Coelho and, Joaquim-Francisco and comments. They passengers connected arrived especially, 35 This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions per day by the Largo in Salvador Alexandra in 36 March of in August tion in Brazilian Literature Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis 1897. Manaus, the capital of nine months was service On Funda. both Vila the 27th the state of Amazonas, of before Sao first the electric streetcars streetcar transporta? electric and Power the thirteenth their received and Higienopolis Buarque welcomed whose Paulo, on May Company the service of the same month the Light by inaugurated to Barra downtown and on about 1899, 7, 1900, to Bom connecting streetcars. electric started Retiro On June 17 one could ride them on theAvenida Paulista. The linha Avenida opened on June 24 and on December 31 electric streetcars two more for a childhood recounting Andrade confesso, bolso" and over tomar grande, that streetcars reveal words largava an integral already com andar and de of adult achava da meninice, two Mario as characteristic fumar, bonde, were a Medicina, com 1901 While in Brazil. million seventeen he perceived em que momentos poucos time that to Namoros "Advertencia" ser homem desejava (7). Andrade's Augusta At twenty-five day of there were the first On Paulo. Penha. ride as one of the activities nos e apenas life: "Era menino, desejava, in his memory and there were 1900 of in Sao tramway in Sao Paulo inhabitants the streetcar mentions Rua inaugurated: thousand and forty of kilometers the end At in Bras. appeared twenty-four were services hundred streetcars electric bonito, no dinheiro of part important the everyday life of the inhabitants of Sao Paulo when he was a child. Moreover, by putting the on a streetcar act of riding in different ways with together with associated and carrying those of smoking homem Andrade's power, more implies grande been have which money, than merely in Brazil were being an adult; it is also to be independent and successful (cigarette companies for commercials famous ous featuring very beautiful people Extensions of Man, luxuri? and driving clothes fancy wearing cars). relations" has its invention, since wheel, He (181). The Media: In Understanding explains, as "expediter functioned for that instance, that was and architect of tasks, no how the human bus and shop or factory" sight of the electric streetcar, which was of longer within towns developed American housing the appearance like Brazil, countries In Latin American (180). of of its one very changes brought modernity, sign important new creates also as McLuhan "every technology explains, since, streetcar, shown of ever-new the horse-drawn of the coming tlwith has McLuhan Marshal all sorts. stresses This is not and needs surprising in the human the for instance, in the case of Sao Paulo, it" (183). Moreover, engendered events a consequence of-a series of other important was a part-and certainly context and political but also the social, economic alter not only the urban geography, that would electric the fact that the comes from in Portuguese bonde of the word of the city. The origin and Power, which in Brazil was constructed streetcar company Light by the Canadian system versions other for see website Garde's "bonds" the project by issuing financed (Light, "Institute"; immersion Brazil's and their bondes marked of the term). The arrival of the Light of the origin but they also promoted to Brazil, streetcars Not into modernity. bring only did the company a variety of other Brazilian it bought other areas, since and in several in Sao Paulo progress and the economic the time. The energy distributed at the same impelled Light by companies the of a the in and marked Sao Paulo of city. industrial history turning point growth on Sao of the bonde eletrico on the impact of the appearance comments de Andrade Oswald have beings who arrival of Paulo society: the bonde Anunciou-se a burros, sempre. que que N&o mais do condutor. Sao Paulo cortavam ia ter bondes a morna veriamos E o par de burros da [...] o bonde seguindo eletricos. Os veiculos puxados iam desaparecer para timidos cidade provinciana, sozinho descer depois. Uma pelo equilibrado de curiosidade febre This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions breque tomou Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta as 37 as familias, os casas, os seriam Como grupos. novos bondes andavam que magicamente, sem impulso exterior? (O. Andrade, Urn homem sem profissao 46) to Andrade, According of the "timid" cars meant trolley dering rio esse to the past and awe-inspiring ruas da pequena and fear was the arrival an represented 1900 of related of the advent sabia e de postes" de fios (O. Andrade, the bondes the curiosity surrounding in to the numerous the appearance changes odd-looking their physical For many machines. Brazilians Para sometimes and as isso sem turned of the city brought streetcars the electric as their mode as well space, "Urn miste Urn homem why of a bewil? of electricity, of fear and apprehension: feelings e que funcionava. como era. Caso evoked enchiam-se these invasion a result were bondes Ninguem de of the reason Part 46-47). by novelty Sao Paulo into suspicion about The that also de eletricidade. negocio profissao and and progress. science, technology, the entire city. The replacement of the streetcar excited as Andrade by the late electric explains, pulled by donkeys, of a provincial modern life with a more existence, extravagant the welcoming the arrival of of a new era. Streetcars signaled the replacement is, a farewell that the appearance that were old vehicles of pace living. Ex? changing the donkeys' strength for electric power implied the imposition of a new and faster rhythm, which would modify not only some of their simplest daily habits but also the nature of about In his early cronica the Bonde de Santa interactions. that the "bonds" were the pace of daily life in recognized changing urn bond sobe, outro desce; nao ha tempo em caminho Rio de Janeiro. "Quando para uma pitada de rape; quando muito, dois sujeitos fazer uma barretada" criticizes the podem (363). Machado social, professional, Teresa, and personal de Assis Machado of time for casual scarcity same cronica Machado afeitos a subida interactions personal the e descida effected a satirical creates do outeiro, ontem "esse reason, past: "a diligencia interessante quadrupede the introduction two lastimando este dialogue estavam (364). The steam-running streetcarsMachado of an old-fashioned by between of the streetcars. In burros, donkeys: "Alguns novo passo do progresso" is referring to transform the donkeys into figures e um meio-termo olhava a tartaruga entre o bonde para com um e o boi" olhar cheio (364). For de saudade that e humilhacao" (364). Here Machado implies, not only that the animals have lost their usefulness, but also that the population as awhole (of which the donkeys are representative) is not altogether pleased with these Machado knew changes. "modern" is a temporary since there is always to condition, going to at a given whatever is up-to-date time. In light of this, he something replace that in the same way were the donkeys suggests replaced by the steam, "o vapor ha de ser pelo e o bateo pela eletricidade, a eletricidade baiao, of por uma forca nova" (364). The substitution more be the steam would streetcars undergo creates specific of multiplicity mental of by life [. that being modern by towards the electric ones becoming a metropolis. conditions: psychological economic, . . a ] deep by Simmel, "with town and to Sao add instance, of crossing creates in the more habitual, rural existence" Paulo such as the "imponderability of personal sensory smoothly The new (325). and metropolitan the urban that the city that the metropolis the street, with the tempo and suggested life-it more the shift signaled has Simmel every social the slower, small for Georg and occupational contrast with the sensory-mental phase of the electric streetcars would discussed in Sao Paulo, relationships" (327) foundations flowing of rhythm rhythm brought characteristics and the "blase outlook" (329); in other words, the "atrophy of individual culture through the hypertrophy of objective authors culture" like Oswald phor for modernity source of a variety (338). and it should Therefore, de Andrade often its consequences. of popular linguistic times come used It is also expressions as no surprise that some modern the streetcar in their literary works easy to understand in Brazilian why the bonde Portuguese. This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Brazilian as a meta? became the Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis 38 tells us how de Andrade Oswald the appearance of the first in Brazilian Literature streetcar electric was in Brazil tomou um aspecto de revolucao. Todos of anxiety and dread: "A cidade by feelings accompanied ver. os se locomoviam, E ir ate a temeridade de entrar no mais afoitos procuravam queriam sem profissao to andar de bonde Um homem eletrico" 48). According bonde, (0. Andrade, Andrade, source of 48-49). the new with associate to come: times E matar trilhos! todo o mundo" together with as an untamed and power, the bonde of led to the characterization (O. a natural animal: Um homem sem profis? (O. Andrade, that many would the danger an image of danger, esse era muito tinha noticia perigoso [...] de que [...]. La vem o bonde! Toma the streetcar acquired Consequently, o bicho! "La vinha dos of speed the novelty, that was another of the streetcar of the speed trails, saltar 48). This mixture also the unknown, de to be part wanted people and "E capaz sem profissao homem fear of human but many wires the population: for Um hesitant, the many slightly Besides modern. fear Andrade, sao was everyone is, to become "Eu cuidado!" ficava ali grudado e seria negocio de eletricidade. Quern pusesse os pes nos trilhos [do bonde] esmagado insertion fatalmente is mine). Precisava bonde. pelo Metaphorically sem profissao Um homem 46; (0. Andrade, streetcar means the run over and crushed by pular" being speaking, to be incapable of keeping up with modernity. are rare bondes Nowadays seen one. Due never memories they to what evoke, they in most cities. Brazilian now might are occasionally be their considered in touristic used and teenagers Many even have adults the nostalgic and design quaint areas. This occurred in in Santos de Engenharia de January of 2002, when the Bonde Camarao was restored by the Companhia Trafego for use on Caetano Veloso's the touristic (Navenh, tramway In many "Cronologia"). cases, streetcars have become a symbol of the same idea of the past it once repudiated. This is evident in the lyrics of Urbanos" "Trilhos song o "O melhor (1979): esconde tempo / Longe muito a Bonde da Trilhos Urbanos longe /Mas bem dentro aqui / Quando o bonde dava volta ali [...] / Vao passando author's words, os anos In the e te traduzir" te perdi / Meu trabalho 13-16). (1-4; the poet feels; that is to say, the the streetcar nostalgia symbolizes / E eu nao of the absence a longing for the kind of social and professional interactions, lifestyle, and values of a bygone era. In essence, bonde to miss is to translate the streetcar the past, its memories, it "present." Thus, implicit as such, must be preserved. make In "Nao Pago o Bonde," Leonel an entire is to miss in Veloso's Azevedo culture, lyrics and cultural and values, is the J. Cascata's idea to translate period. And a in certain way, which is, that the streetcar well-known is history 1938 Carnaval the to and, song, the streetcar's "inaccessibility" is portrayed as the result of economic limitations. The bonde is out of the reach of the narrator, who nonetheless gets on the streetcar and theoretically expensive e muito / O meu nao o / bonde "Nao ride: the for pagar to posso and refuses Porque pago pay lado de la / Tern uma porta casas rua / na das Moro / / E nSo Daquele chega pra gastar pouco stance defiant The passenger's a Light me cobrar" / Mande "Cultura"). (Light, janela he in that an of act civil to disobedience, is tantamount challenges the Light Company towards he seems of transportation. to monopolize this means Moreover, the right of this rich corporation a de Bonde," In to the of the streetcars' to insist on the injustice poor. "Viagem inaccessibility fare. The to pay the streetcar one of the passengers also refuses de Rachel cronica Queiroz, by as a strong black man whose as a figure since he is described of power is portrayed character do Trabalho of theMinisterio one the leaders like of who and looks Stalin's resembles moustache e uma in order not to pay for the ride. the conductors (54). This man avoids to financial "Sei que nao pagou his act cannot be attributed hardship: The narrator a passagem This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions suggests a nenhum that dos 39 Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta e devia dois centavos" fazer por aquilo The man's (54). nao esporte; se cara tinha de quem precisa as an amusing way is explained dishonesty por sujar to retaliate cinquenta the against Light: "pois quem e que nao gosta de ver se tirar um pouco de sangue a Light?" (54). The with dissatisfaction popular after a quarrel breaks have them: out, conductor "motorneiro, later in the text when, explicit manner should and the other Light employees in a more is shown that the conductor argues rather the people, em vez de e fiscal, with themselves aligned the Light a man than that the company com se aliarem and exploits nao passavam o povo, enslaves de uns lacaios da Light" (54). This comment upsets the conductor, who challenges theman to a physical on out fight The man street. the (54), which refuses, the people's demonstrates out pointing se metia "nao that he as an invader, of the company view com estrangeiros" an imperial exploiter that is only seeking profit. The "Bras, Alcantara is after death: nao Gaetaninho de um caixao more "As ou ia na boleia de nenhum com fechado flores pobres the character's em dia de enterro. his dream dos opportunity saiu um enterro seguinte carros do acompanhamento. por cima" triumph the manipulates "-Sabe o Gaetaninho?/ in an automobile for an automobile la no da frente in such e que -Que tern?/ because especially so as to give a way e dentro to read Gaetanin? (58). One may be inclined over his social determinism, language ride do Oriente da Rua dia do a rale quando enterro ou de De of riding he has the only in the bonde song, "Ali na Rua Oriente classes: fulfill de Alcantara in Antonio reality and J. Cascata's s6 mesmo cannot Machado his death: after carro In fact, horas economic Azevedo the lower Gaetaninho dezesseis that Alcantara agency automovel limitations. and Unlike with De as symbolizing death to a social Funda." is associated character socioeconomic his it seems story The (55). to his ho's Bexiga e Barra de bonde. casamento" due connected Machado's andava muito is also streetcar Machado's the boy o bonde!" -Amassou (58). could be read as his destruction of his socio-economic restraints. the streetcar" How? "Smashing to be read as liberating in this story, why wasn't the boy run over by an ever, if death were a chance? e ele nao viu o Ford" o derrubou automobile when there was "O Ford quase (54). that runs over it is the streetcar Instead pegou. e matou" Pegou him the streetcar Since (58). in the end: "Antes is used as a symbol de alcancar a bola for all that which um bonde o demarcates the boundaries of his existence; that is, the poverty and oppression that finally kill him, the message ismore Even pessimistic. during the funeral the author reminds of the charac? the reader ter's lower class status by making mention of theflores pobres on top of his coffin (58). It is also to read possible the story as a commentary on modernity, represented here by the automobile. The first automobile appeared in Sao Paulo in 1893, imported by Henrique Santos Dumont and "Cronologia"). whether Naturally, one may Therefore, Azevedo the first Brazilian and represented of the automobile link the economic J. Cascata's by song. Both the streetcar Iseta, was the Romi automobile, the arrival to the modern texts show produced diminished both that or the automobile, in Alcantara the advantages for many only in 1955 the importance years Machado's (Navenh, of the streetcar. story and in of modernity in Brazil, were accessible only to the elite. dred to the Light Company website, According and twenty Brazilian songs. The electric (Light, "Cultura"). are cited the Light and their services in one hun? streetcar itself appears in over seventy-eight songs been turned into an and, consequently, disappeared Despite having practically so profound the bondes* was the past, and cultural social in historical, importance Brazil that the phrase o bonde in multiple is still used metaphorically For popular expressions. o bonde a good profes someone misses the well-known is used when example, expression perder emblem of This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 40 Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis or fails to do something to Mario the expression Prata, opportunity important. According as the result of a historical event: In Rio de Janeiro in 1921, Jose Severino Sanseveri sional came no, in Brazilian Literature about do bonde "motorneiro e nunca mais 35 (Lapa-Castelo), soube ninguem dois" dos perdeu um bonde. Prata (135). Saiu para explains com o veiculo trabalhar that there was an article about the incident on page 8 of the newspaper 0 globo on April 30th, 1921. After that, people started joking with their friends before they would engage in a professional deal by saying something like: "Nao errado. tive, is used when of a business a wrong common ask. Another they as a joke when is also used expression the outcome one makes when simply The o bonde?" "Voce perdeu This or o bonde\" vd perder to a meeting. expression of many favorite arrives is tomar or an experience deal A decision. someone late o bonde is surprisingly nega? is tomar (or Brazilians pegar) o bonde andando. Older Brazilians usually explain that in cities like Rio de Janeiro the were streetcars as big not as those and were in Sao Paulo on open It was the side. common for a passenger who had justmissed the streetcar to run alongside it and hop onto itwhile already so that he would in motion someone when a discussion joins someone used when It is also for without late to a movie, of Brazil states one. Nowadays the next in progress already arrives In some the program. part of to wait not have misses consequently, as slang for a bad business and, is used bonde the word of conversation. the topic knowing or meeting play is used the expression is also slang for "drug an ugly woman. In the city of Rio de Janeiro bonde - um numero de and the bonde do mat "e o arrastao que, correndo delinquents grande sera a origem do "Bonde valor" tudo o que signifique leva a sua frente Qual (Garde, or to describe deal dealer" a par, This termo?"). or people, use of the word contemporary is certainly in Brazil, were the bondes because with associated of things aspects negative unattractive considered generally which machines, de Andrade frequently broke down. In a poem entitled "0 Combate" (Pau Brasil 121), Oswald them calls cdgados Furthermore, modernization plete In Oswald de Andrade's sees from narrator fox and their to both their ugly appearance eletricos" (14), referring on the slow or incom? a commentary also be making the author might as a whole. or to its late arrival in all of Latin America in Brazil, "Grandes inefficiency. trot, a telephone, Alimaria," 115). His the movie In this poem, a horse and view panoramic theatre, between the confrontation the bondes "Bengalo," poem his window. and the Fords the modern the wagon it pulls and get as part of the modern a piano playing the newly Brasil 123). are cited includes (Pau the "archaic" stuck on city imported "Pobre In Andrade's a theme is also (Pau Brasil rail. The the streetcar the conductor gets impatient because he is in the midst of taking lawyers to their offices. They release the vehicle, cited but the horse in the title of gets whipped the poem. The as a punishment, streetcar, which partly of course, explains represents because The horse deserves horse-car. the old-fashioned sympathy of the electric with the introduction form of transportation useless and the old cannot is inevitable here is that progress stop or get Schwarz sign points out that another reading of this poem, Roberto the pity it has become streetcar. One in the way for the animal as opposed to an outdated and modernization, of of the messages the new. In his are the lawyers, of modernity a rather simple tramful of legal men it is only a relative modernity-a society, suggests though small. We shouldn't whose forget that progress comically idyllically, gamut remains professional is of solicitors is true even today?the and that in this sense?as phalanx really needs engineers, of 'the posh side, the erudite in the direction the wrong side, the one that way, pointing going The progress but its limited nature, which is undeniable, the right authorities' quotes [...]. allows defined in the same context it to be placed as progress, is no less undeniable. as the backwardness in relation (112) This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions to which it can be Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta 41 Drummond Carlos discussion another de Andrade, the emerging of modern Brazilian also uses poet, e a Nausea," In "A Flor modernity. a flower the streetcar in his in the middle blooms of the street (Drummond, Antologia 24-26). The flower is the anticity, antimodernity symbol. Its in an improbable "birth" unexpected like place the modern the attention catches city the poet. of The flower defies the asphalt, the police, the tediousness, and the hatred of the city full of crimes. The "Passem writes, poet The desbota" (35-36). and as such, it must environments and a modern present. itself away Cordeiro e resultado historica, da also represents flower. como "a cidade e do The trabalho como construido, city, natural an archaic between do homem "iron" between opposition ainda flor the artificial ambiente coletivo / uma trafego. to an opposition corresponds Gomes, imaginac&o do the antinature, the "natural" from aco de rio onibus, the bus, in the poem to Renato According bondes, longe, like keep and artificial dade de streetcar, past necessi a nature que desafia za" (23). Citing Beatriz Jaguaribe, Gomes points out that o ato da primeira fundador Vem simbolicamente como Indica, tos primordiais: com esta ordem neste de comeco, contexto Com referenda perfeita. o resultado de duas disjuncao que se acopla it is not Therefore, recurrent mond' motif Everyone was the world was The modernist sleeping: to end going writing. "As the pensoes and nobody This image about a separacao antinomicas: nomade. e o fato de uma a e natureza cidade (80) the metropolis occurs again, topos of a drunken dormiam alegres knew a cidade, forcas between struggle starts with poem still 'sedentario/ that this surprising in Brazilian s "Aurora." a dicotomia Paraiso o antagonismo entre dois elemen a ordenacao e o rompimento de Deus do Genesis, functional, e produto de uma maldicao. e articula e cidade. culpa exilio, a perda do a separacao, confirmar um mito no criada cidade, poet and nature for on tristissimas" a streetcar (3). We a child, who it?except kept a is such in Drum? instance, at dawn. then learn that quiet. The tone of the beginning of the poem is tragic and hopeless: "Tudo era irreparavel. / Ninguem sabia que o mundo ia acabar" This is associated with which is what (5-6). "drunkenness," catastrophe to "see" and, consequently, the inability annuls everyone's to The "know." generates capacity poet cannot literally see the "end of theworld" from the streetcar because he is drunk. The people see cannot it from their houses because they are and sleeping thus "drunk": equally casas "As tambem iam bebedas" (4). hears an "apelo na aurora: \amos todos dancar / entre Despite being drunk, the poet suddenly o bonde e a arvore?" This "call from the dawn," a kind of divine (16-18). intervention, proposes a solution: the appropriate for the city dweller is "between" the "streetcar" and the "tree." position It is here that the poem reveals its message: the commitment to modernity leads to and requires loss of innocence; which blurs our "vision" us from of the world and prevents fully understanding the dangers of uncontrolled and heedless The "end of the world" the ultimate progress. represents level of danger for mankind, which, too deeply involved in it and are, on one hand modernity, dialectically, and salvation. innocence, repentance, naturally, therefore, only also an innocent to blame. child As we can can "see." see, All others the poem are places, and punishment; and on the other, nature, danger, cannot be erased and is inevitable, the poetic voice calls for the reconciliation of the opposites, the rampant progress neither here alone, repre? nor the "tree," a symbol sented by the "streetcar," of the uncivilized rural setting. The way out is a "movement" between them. One cannot miss the religious subtext in the poem. (a dance) After all, synthesis Jose, Helena, presented as Sebastiao the revelation sin, guilt, Since progress and Artur brought "embarcam by para the aurora's a eternidade" call "saves" and the (10-14), the drunk and blind This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 42 Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis in Brazilian Literature an opportunity for all modern and is individuals for contrition o bonde e a ?rvore / dan?ai, meus The tone of irm?os!" (19-20). is one of hope. in "brotherhood" is now united and the message the poem has changed. Everyone as are will Drum? if "Death" still to dance invited come, writes communally, celebrating. They in fact, which, poet, symbolizes to "salvation": the path "Entre mond, but if the modern person finds this position of reconciliation with nature (and God), "como um sacramento" is possible: (29). one might voice the poetic attribute of the beginning, streetcar the is the and who city. One watching o?fl?neur "salvation" to that of an outside Because a kind could observer, it that suggest certainly is the ubiquitous eye of God observing the community. But it is also possible to designate the drunken as the source poet of a window "sees" the poet and street of to the "interp?n?tration attention From of enunciation. which from the streetcar that perspective, creates the city. Walter our called has o? ihe fl?neur in the experience and residence" a kind becomes Benjamin (423). on the streetcar, Fittingly, in this poem the gaze is directed not only at the drunken poet himself but on to interior also "Jos?, (3-4): colocava que Helena, pronomes/ is an observer on a streetcar afl?neur Moreover, (10-11). what also witnesses he since in the community, spaces casas and the pens?es inside homens" and exterior que is going os amava since by modernity, guided is associated with walking, a more "natural" activity. It is also the original idea of thefl?neur is "drunk." that thefl?neur interesting particularly over the man who walks long and aimlessly the through streets" comes "an intoxication to Benjamin, According For (417). this Benjamin, intoxication is anamnestic (417) and characterized by doubt and indecision (425), which in the poem is represented view the drunkenness should what it is precisely between the not be associated with the "dance" by the tree. But as in my blindness, this point from of Rather, reading. previous to "see." the fl?neur empowers and streetcar In "Brinquedo" Oswald de Andrade plays with S?o Paulo andwith itsmodernity (O. Andra? caderno de, Primeiro child's of folkloric itself, rotating the "bondes da Light" phones, automobiles, and movement, also repetitious other among are skyscrapers, a metaphor form signs spinning for urban of a "cantiga and dance, tiro tiro like the children in circles (11), a ring /Manda roda S?o Paulo and moving character, the children in which song is "Roda the refrain Here the tone uses author The modernist 23-24). do l?" (1-3). de repeating city becomes in the Brazilian game. like of modernity symbols in the roda. This around the poetic voice a sort of Like and life, allows a refrain. usually The a kind roda," the verse the to suggest tele? and fast-paced a kind of tour of the city through critical eyes. The poem tells the story of modernization from its slow like before modern? the city was what It starts by mentioning to its rapid acceleration. ruas. / Nas / Pouca / Uma cidade peque?a "Da minha ization: gente passava janela eu avistava little there a is in which small views the window From very his Era urna pena" (3-6). city, poet the roda, as in its pre-modernization era, when the "old" S?o Paulo This is probably movement. stanza indicates that the poet is not would Andrade put it, had not yet begun. The last line of the will be hints to us that modernization (6), which very happy with what he sees: "era urna pena" in the poem. later in a positive viewed way beginning our ciranda / Os streetcar from modernization that had fast-paced initial autom?veis Andrade judgment. correram the outside. does announces the poem when However, reevaluate He about all "Os of modernization bondes da Light we are soon bateram impelled / Telefones to na the observes The author redor da varanda" (11-14). his eyes, at the city as a whole. at it as he glances Through the poetic voice one would as perhaps expect from unproblematic, / Em glances not appear just complained dance, where the arrival writes, the old S?o Paulo. the symbols It is depicted of modernity occupy as a kind of chaotic, the same physical This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions frenetic, space, and the city, Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta 43 or rather, the roda. lack of order and first is shown Chaos sequence, the streetcars because were streetcars since supposed is a symbol crash, which a time to follow for the and a route. schedule If they crash, the content of both the city's time and space are disrupted. also Andrade a "menino introduces grand?o" entrou no brinquedo/ in the city: "Depois are c?u" (23-26). We rodou no meu Que ha-c?u/ a metaphor for the first arran Foi o primeiro as the the menino grand?o in the poem (24), Urn menino grand?o/ skyscraper to read tempted metropolis of today; as opposed to the "little boy" the city was in the past. Here the "big kid" and are both metaphors the skyscraper sion. taller get Buildings However, rhythm. generating for each other and and of modernity symbols and the city taller, the "boy" grows, the image of a "big kid" also helps and rodando keeps to suggest its expan? in its self the idea an of incomplete modernity, for he has grown in size but not yet matured. Considering the Brazilian modernist project, of which Oswald de Andrade was one of the leading figures, one could also read on this commentary the as a criticism modernization incomplete the underdevel? regarding oped state of the country's intellectual community at the time. Later the poet looks at the city as his from his backyard, below: city sprawling now interior window "Do eu avistei quintal seems too small to encapsulate the vastness of the e pontes como gigantes / Rodaram / torres / Casas At? que enfim parei" (27-30). The small city from the beginning of the poem is gone. From his scene The next: "Hoje that are towers and enormous that seem to encircle him. only houses bridges is so overwhelming that he can no longer look at it, yet he tells us what happens a roda cresceu / At? que bateu no c?u / ? gente grande que roda / Mando tiro tiro sees he backyard l?" (24). The "big kid" is gone and the city is now inhabited by gente grande, which is both a definition of the inhabitant of themodern city and of the capitalist ruling power and its leaders. The does poem not in "Aurora," world" say the roda Andrade's similar to Drummond's implies that modernity but exploded, poem certainly motif of reached the "end of a dangerous the limit. Not only does the roda approach the sky, but "hits" it,meaning that it reaches the limit and at the same time forces itself upon it. The poet cannot look any longer, afraid of what aggressively see next or perhaps he knows the modern and as such just because city itself is sublime he might it escapes representation, we must remember Again of "blind" and, of functions artists an modernity, Like therefore, (Drummond, also present the poet in Drummond's Drummond also "Jos?," what cannot is not only one may the presence relates not be represented. drunk, but also sort infer that even the interference of to the "Aurora." the streetcar it does Rather, 20-22). to represent where the city. Consequently, are subject the modern world, and city, life. In his famous Antolog?a it is useless "Aurora," to "write" in the modern de Andrade, of city progression unable implication Oswald that suggesting Drummond's does appear of the streetcar not crash at all. like In one to the natural in Andrade's stanza, poem Drummond characterizes chaos in Brazil by listing things that did not happen that day: "o dia nao veio, / o n?o veio, bonde / o riso nao veio / nao veio a utopia" Some might read (20-23; emphasis added). it as the expression own frustrations of the author's as the average Jos? may or also be interpreted Brazilian, a means is lost without of transportation, that is, he is without as an autobiographical poem or failures. the character However, "Jos?" rather, between him: Brazilian, every direction, destiny, self and "voce or who and see one identity. Either way, the streetcar the world. Since of the themes did not show of up, the poem Jos? walks, is the but relationship the poet asks Jos?! / Jos?, para onde?" Jos? keeps moving on, but he lacks the (62-63). the that streetcar the would him. The not is guidance speed poem provide entirely negative, since Jos? is not stuck in time and space. He does want to get somewhere but all the circumstanc? es seem to be against him: "Com a chave na m?o/ quer abrir a porta/ n?o existe quer porta/ marcha, and This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 44 Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis in Brazilian Literature no mar/ morrer the choice of Another a certain implies the military. with read collective n?o Minas h? mais" discipline in his manner as part and not of of a group, is problematic. project, is the common of the verb association dimension one to the poem, According Moreover, (38-44). and organization alone is "marching" a as collective "jos?" Jos? if we that, of the poem's in Portuguese ir para Minas/ quer the character hand, indication "marchar" secou/ "marchar" a lack of unity indicates which o mar the other On walking. mas the verb cannot get anywhere by "marching." If the poem had been written during the two decades of military dictatorship in Brazil, and not in 1942, thisword choice would be an aptmetaphor for both theway inwhich is still the verb rule in Brazil. Nevertheless, and for the tone of its dictatorial operates a fascist that the country was if one remembers through going appropriate the army under dictatorship Get?lio Vargas's rule, which promoted censorship and ideological control. Even before the military were citizens in 1945, Brazilian Vargas deposed already as soldiers, to "march" supposed that is,move in the direction dictated by the authorities and passively obey their orders. There? voice the poetic fore, the ruling and blames criticizes subtly lack of the nation's for machine direction, since it implies that the path it provided would take Brazil nowhere. An reason additional it was because we cannot dismiss totally to North due that Brazil, in 1942 the notion American is, after criticism of military war declared pressure, all, on Germany, was sent to participate in Italy and Japan. In 1944 the FEB (For?a Expedicionaria Brasileira) World II. If Drummond War disagreed with the way line of last this the country, ruled Vargas Jos? could just as well have been his response to the dictator's decision to send Brazilian troops to the war the poem equal that Drummond I am in no way arguing (naturally, and asks a strong social and political criticism makes on intensity says. After to get on allowed their is the only of the streetcar option effective the Brazilian left for Jos??and progress. case, reflect with Drummond are not people?who the streetcar Therefore, In any society the agora, the present, to think about It is important reality. all, "marchar" Nazism). supported that Brazilian here functions not as a symbol of the ideal only as a kind of metaphor for the continuity of everyday life, but also "direction" the nation should Rachel de Queiroz also Unlike Bonde Drummond's the "Jos?," de Dentro Engenho take uses arrives in the social her cr?nica target here as crowded and political spheres. de Bonde" "Viagem is not the army, but as usual, says a political to make the Federal the narrator criticism. Government. (53). Nevertheless, The other But for those arriving. seems to be room on the streetcar on. There always keep getting ensues: tinha "o bonde out a and chaos breaks to start some people when get off, quarrel trying no meio da luz verde aberta para os carros em dire?ao contraria; parec?a o dia do ju?zo parado os bracos" e o sacudindo os o autom?veis bonde (55). buzinando, final, guarda apitando parado, "isso tudo for this confusion: is to blame comments that the government One of the passengers constitucional acontec?a [...] da mudan porque o Governo promete mas n?o cumpre o dispositivo faced by the city of Rio of the problems that many (53). He argues ?a da capital da Rep?blica" are due to the bureaucratic de Janeiro, which was at that time still the capital of Brazil, machinery people such as transportation, If the capital were moved, problems municipal o Rio com um milh?o de vagas overcome: maravilha be "que supplies housing, a menos um milh?o de bocas um milh?o ?as residencias, de vagas nos transportes, [...]. As Bonde a Like the o cruzeiros!" arroz baixa se acabam favelas (55). autom?ticamente, quatro of the Federal Government. and Engenho de Dentro, for Rio, metaphor deixar este Rio, agua" (55), could food but the city both is crowded and and the Government chaotic: overpopulated assim mesmo superlotado, apertado, of for the people it is also a symbol is to blame. The streetcar is a de tern coragem sem luz e sem sem transporte, sem comida, as opposed to the automo the lower classes, "e s? um corac?o de ferro This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta 45 as in Alc?ntara bile which, Machado's e Barra "Bras, Bexiga Funda," the elitist represents luxury and power of the Government officials: "Imagine que delicia o Rio ficar livre de toda a laia dos bur?cratas, dos autom?veis dos politicos e dos politicos propriamente ditos" (55). In the poem da perdida "Soneto Drummond esperan?a," o bonde "Perdi writes, e a esperan?a. / \folto p?lido para casa" (1-2). This time the poet seems to be using the streetcar in both a literal and a figurative the streetcar other poems, world. For means narrator The way. time symbolizes here Drummond as one time of and now lost his way dilemma. As the complex explores he uses this reason, that he has an individual the of motifs This hopeless. as in a number between connection the principle he feels as well in "Jos?," individual this poem: "Vbu of his and the a subir ladeira lenta" (5); "Entretanto h? muito tempo nos gritamos: sim! Ao eterno" (13-14). Another idea central is the of importance the choices one makes: "Todos world in Drummond's ao conduzem [os caminhos] principio do drama e da flora" (7-8). self The is also confronted with a challenging "Poema de Sete Faces" (Drummond, Antolog?a 13-14). Once again the streetcar is the instrument that brings the two "O bonde together: meu Deus, pergunta to have appears meu legs of de pernas: cheio passa brancas pernas amarelas. pr?tas Para que tanta perna, corac?o" is the streetcar crowded with but it (8-11). Not only people and to "run" madly the modern individual. time, as does against its own To look at the streetcar is to look at amirror, but the poetic voice finds his reflection disquieting: "Para meu tanta perna, que Deus" is at once (10). Drummond the fast-paced addressing rhythm of everyday life in a metropolis and the difficulty the individual faces in coping with it. also uses de Andrade Oswald to make the streetcar a statement personal in "Poema ? Patri? cia," dedicated to his new wife "Pagu" (Patricia Galv?o): "Sair?s pelo meu braco gr?vida, de bonde / Teremos seis filhos / E tr?s filhas / E nosso bonde social / Ter? a compensa??o dos / E dos cinemas aniversarios dos beb?s / Seremos felizes como os / E os motorneiros tico-ticos / E teremos o cinismo / De ser ba??is / Como os demais /Mortais / Loc?is" (qtd. in Boaventura 157). Here Oswald seems to be planning the kind of life he would have after his marriage to to Maria a more to embrace Oswald Boaventura, Eugenia Pagu encouraged to be as happy as "os motorneiros" says (Boaventura (8), as the poem 157). on the streetcar a change in this poem connotes in social class, which is also suggested Getting the poetic voice enumerates, such as having many children. Oswald by some of the actions plans Pagu. According proletarian to be lifestyle, like common "banal" lifestyle that one may ful experiences es more than of like going the author's the bourgeoisie people achieve as the motorneiros. such the compensation But of happiness, to the movies hand-in-hand. personal the same as meaningless and walking desire since, by and criticizes it is only found solely The a more in small but meaning? poem, therefore, it characterizes token, its abandonment through of important the values banal express? lifestyle such as friendship and family. Oswald de Andrade's how modernity affected general people's project lives has in public a collective and scope. in private, The as well shows "Brinquedo" as in interior and exterior poem even that the difference between these spaces was perhaps suggesting irrelevant since they appear intersected in the text (O. Andrade, Primeiro caderno 23-24). We see a ciranda, tools at the time, playing which is a game telephones, "private" generally played outside. And the automobiles, associated exterior with private machines?but usually space?run spaces in Sao Paulo, the porch, which is at once a private and exterior space. One should note that by making the automobile man is making and machine on which is a comment "run," Andrade analogous, how modernity on human its rhythm to such an extent that one becomes the imposes beings around other. Moreover, modernity also dehumanizes us, as Andrade seems to suggest. This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 46 in Brazilian Literature Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis Mario de Andrade, another leader of theModernist movement the status of art in the modern with of his preoccupation their in Paulic?ia also His book native of poems one The architecture, history, of the depiction such as Charles of importance is a good modernist the first Brazilian of its inhabitants, city, desvairada Paulic?ia is unquestionable. desvairada in Brazil, like Oswald de the modern its images, S?o Paulo, in general. with concerned Considered modernity. of modernity experience experience world. de Andrade's is about Mario book was and the other modernistas, Andrade Critics works, the people, and urban the modern A. and example Perrone have rightly pointed out that it "comprises a launching pad of an urban imperative in the modern of verse initiat? us that "this multifaceted collection of Brazil" (18). Perrone has reminded poetry . . . other that passes thread in Brazilian ed a city/artist-in-the-city ] [ principal through poetry . . . and finds the in both modernistas o?poesia mid-century neovanguard ] expression pointed [ of later twentieth-century texts in the domain discursive concreta and in numerous lyric" (18). to his book, In the preface means to represent modern Andrade that "in explains its externals: life through [his] to write opinion, movies, automobiles, these is modern, [his] book their reason have things If these words asphalt. 'modern' with them; but frequent [his] book; it is not because [he] think[s] that [he] write[s] since art never modern Halluci? in it" (M. Andrade, for being nated City 16). As he clarifies, it is inevitable tomention and discuss the signs of modernity in a text be that is "modern." would what However, but a modern of modernity, the theme way his writing make of writing, one not necessarily would modern was which of the primary concerns within Brazilian Modernismo. "O Domador", In the poem both de Andrade, Mario author and character, sees 3 the Bonde writes Mario de Andra? (M. Andrade, Hallucinated City 46-47). "Na frente o tram da irriga?ao," tram de. The which is both a symbol will it creates in its wake. of dust of progress take root. Mario modernization These itself, as well are the "sujidades that prepares as the vehicle of the movement observes do urbanismo" implexas The the streetcar and in the soil the cloud is a (4), which urban streetcar?and of modernization. on one of the negative expansion aspects in the poem, he also the narrator does celebrate modernity the city. Although in general?"dirty" dos saudosos olhos oh meus looks upon the metropolitan eyes: "Mas...olhai, city with nostalgic the "O title the is evidenced of Domador," criticism This meaning ontens" by modernity (17). the to the task facing It is a reference in the very last line of the poem. is only revealed of which to "tame" modernity. in this case the son of an immigrant: modern individual, comment Mario Brazilian gets onto people: the "S?o streetcar, cinco no pays banco: for his ticket, urn branco, a metaphor and there urn noite, for the city he urn oiro, a composite joins urn cinzento de or perhaps also seems even for Brazil, of the t?sica e since The streetcar becomes (13-15). as to use the streetcar de Andrade the country's pot." Oswald "melting Poes?as Reunidas in his short poem "Bonde" for the city or the country (O. Andrade, e esguicha luz" (2) mesclado" "o transatl?ntico (1) that "Dlendlena 106). The streetcar becomes To use movement. of its the rhythm e famias" bouncing there are "postretutas where along with means are of both since a streetcar is understandable of the metaphor transportation ship for the of a transatlantic the choice in motion. that rock and quiver while ship, an enormous However, It might attention. the ocean deserves more very well be a that transports vessel people through is even of for the S?o Paulo, which or a vast country full of immigrants, for Brazil, city symbol Mario" it represents a metaphor to countless the rest of Brazil but is also home from foreigners. by migrants In either case, the bonde of Brazil. whole Paulo the and the of S?o like city ship be would e famias," in standard which or the transatl?ntico carries Portuguese "postretutas a group representa e familias," and the best of society. By placing that is, the worst "prostitutas not only inhabited The is mesclado, This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 47 Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta tive of the diverse society inside the streetcar,Andrade also shows how thisfl?neur is able to position himself both within and at a distance from society. From the streetcar,Mario, the narra? tive voice inMario de Andrade's "ODomador," is able to see the city, the "espet?culo encantado da Avenida!" e He (18). / loiramente the city: observes the diversity of and the future, more modern (21-22), tangerina!" um domando autom?vel" da China! "laranja Brazil: "passa cambuc? Abacate, urn filho galhardo de imigrante, (25-26). This poem offers an example of what both Oswald andMario de Andrade would consider to their modernist important in some levels of society, of Another example an onomatopoeic gers. The cha luz also what verb that the headlights be obscured. invention when life. The this level, "Brazilian" of spoken language. the verb dlendenar, to call it stops the passen? that the streetcar fact a way in such the darkness a symbolic On is the makes in everyday illuminate de Andrade Mario life in a modern illumination the use that we esgui can a better implies in the on the multiplicity Hallucinated (M. Andrade, a series linking the streetcar of a commentary makes like S?o Paulo city as a vehicle streetcar resembles language the streetcar the real call as it was written Portuguese, would see under? society. characterize the with the idea of repetition insinuates In "Nocturno," uses of nonstandard de Andrade the sound resembling otherwise of standing Mario this experimentation word implies would the use project: which of photographic 1995 Brazilian of images the that Andrade at night. city Terra Estrangeira movie events of 54-57). City It Land) (Foreign by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, which takes place both in Portugal and Brazil. Whenever the scene turns to Portugal a pairing the of streetcar images setting, film Orfeu negro (Black Orpheus) the streetcar functions in a similar the author they simply f?go de artificio, de's / Apenas um bonde "Estavam The the night even to these 2In the 2000 of dormindo in "Nocturno." Each then, "gingam," um fast "como is always of images the stressful, suggests repetition in Mario the use of the streetcar de Andra? In this poem, "Profundamente." da noite um times the bondes First, their movement / N?o despertei / Silenciosamente / Como the most remote the streetcar flight," / Apenas t?nel" (7-15). / Estavam todos rural Of de vez course deitados em quando in Bandeira's / Dormindo Bandeira nem vozes ouvi mais risos / o ruido poem de the city / Profundamente" "is theorists, Deleuze remake of environment and Mario and F?lix de Andrade's Guattari's could poems concept. this movie as other (Orfeu), forms "there is always the however, of transportation something streetcar have is no replaced rary Brazil. This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions be line of flight, the center of the like a tangent to the circles of significance and It is a line that penetrates a system which cannot system: also A 116). it is also part ofthat the urban communities. in Bandeira to use Gilles & Guattari signifier" (Deleuze date it. Nevertheless, feature Bandeira's "No meio errantes This In a way, of Manuel todos of appearance as a "line of according (5-6). areas. three its movement: is predominantly to Mario de Andrade's rural, as opposed city in sleepless the streetcar is the only connection to modernity. But the streetcar does not rest like the people in town, which that modernity stops for no one and will implies The read appears in 1958 Oscar-winning the protagonist is a motorneiro, setting reach inevitably in which the change In the and "Nocturno," for trilhos" if announcing Brazilians. streetcar but as screen, Camus, they "riscam" Jo?o": o silencio I Cortava is "sleeping": (21-24). de S?o / Passavam bal?es way.2 to describe in urban is reminiscent the "noite The the for many verb nos sapateando nature of life 'T^octurno" by Marcel at last and "passam" schizophrenic describes a different uses time "crosses" of the past evocative that flows accommo? or flees, longer a central it in contempo? 48 Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis in Brazilian Literature the resonance and the overcoding machine: apparatus, organizations, things to a 'change etc." (Deleuze the mad, the youth, woman, & Guattari in values,' are offered crosses the city, its passengers its way and weaves the streetcar through In other words, the idea of the line the very public from space they are traversing. that escapes the binary that are attributed 216). While an "escape" of flight suggests that the public space and the duration of the streetcar ride allow the passenger a private a moment experience, and collective therefore, of individual of modernity. experience "public" as Georg freedom, Simmel would Although the it, within put the way in "Nocturno" in which the "line" belongs in the system ismore explicit, in Bandeira's poem it should also be noted that the presence of the bonde, though totally disconnected from the rest of the scene, is not out in Bandeira's In fact, of place. even poem itself may the night a line of flight, suggest since the idea of "sleep" seems incongruent with modern city life and thus could be viewed in as an "escape" part same it (the from It would "Aurora." invalidate my be cannot the "sleeping" about said in Drummond's city interpretation). previous In Lygia Fagundes Telles's short story "Dolly" and in Clarice Lispector's "Amor," the is a means streetcar of from "escape" Adelaide, gets protagonist, to share an apartment, going on on a rather "Dolly," finding of her home. Adelaide the floor In Telles's of flight. a woman line after the streetcar dead or reality, story, scene the crime leaves the she was whom with full of fear and guilt and gets on the Bonde Ang?lica to go back home. Although Ade does not tell her story to tell the for reflection, space in a way scene de que (12). the role plays of an a Christian that resembles An of invisivel subiu confessional imaginary a priest. As the streetcar pressa moves faster invisible which than her words, passenger who allows The name is set up on on, we moves of her ao meu "sin": e sacolejando her omission "descubro sobre os s? nos lado, invisible the gradual follow que ? bom trilhos" of some details the eu tive a sensa?ao bonde and her the streetcar to arrange the narrator subi neste "quando e se sentou aqui indicates of allows passenger confession: comigo of her guilt through her confession corre apressado o bonde enquanto release and change. imaginary her need a her with provides some the streetcar connotes streetcar The level. and mental to fulfill are enough on the streetcar her moments a spiritual absolution, confession, um passageiro banco" else, on if only and her creation connection divine or anyone to the police truth, even (12). of neste dois passenger and therapeutic sem falar assim the streetcar But the story. to tell everything: "Mas, e esse sangue que pingou as m?os sobre as luvas fundo do meu ouvido. Cruzo her It is the ai na luva, e agrade?o o passageiro soprando pergunta e eu ser tinha feita tinha que a Deus que responder. que j? estava esperando, por essa pergunta themselves reveal and themes sei que vou falar at? o fim" (14). Other Christian symbols Agora as an act of on in her Ade called is actually knees, the story. "Dolly" "Maria," gets throughout a wear clothes ticket-taker and the streetcar conductor and both the resembling (15), repentance tam?m com seu imperme?vel de chuva. O cobrador costas o de motorneiro cassock: "vejo priest's will lead her to that her confession believes the character a capa pr?ta" (30). Moreover, vestiu does come after the invisible falando" salvar "sei que vou me salvation: (13), and forgiveness the confession hops off and, naturally, libertei!" n?o sei de onde, me (31). is not only the whole However, experience passenger que vem concludes: "Falei tudo e agora sinto essa aragem since it portrays but also developmental religious, van Gennep that believes Arnold that is, a rite of passage. one to from and another a from of series is in "the age passages any society there are that "for every one of these events to another" one occupation (2-3). He proposes to pass from one defined position the individual is to enable essential whose ceremonies purpose a kind of age of coming life of an individual to another which for Adelaide; is equally well defined" (3). According to Gennep, "a complete This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions scheme of rites Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta 49 of passage theoretically includes preliminal rites (rites of separation), liminal rites (rites of transition), and postliminal rites (rites of incorporation)" (11), which are the very experiences lived by the protagonist of "Dolly" during her streetcar ride. Her desire to move out of the her represents pension ter um tanto Quer?a on riding the streetcar nome "meu dreams: ? Maria de verdade [...] e meu Dalton from her community: sair da pens?o symbolic "separation" "queria so meu, sem entrar na melanc?lica fila do banheiro" (13-14). to enter Dolly's, she leaves her world which is one of imagination [...]. quarto sonho o Dolly on inventei Auxiliadora, ser estrela, ? s? esse, estrela!" Back (29). e meu o inventou agente the streetcar, By and when she is confused, afraid, and feeling guilty over Dolly's death, she goes through a period of limbo, the second phase of a rite of passage, of the streetcar: by the fast movement symbolized "Aqui estou no bonde Ang?lica que corre contra a noite e contra a tempestade que tomou outro rumo com suas botas de nuvens" state she the streetcar ride she can "escape" the tormented (30). During the traumatic finds herself in and, as a result, overcome of finding Dolly's corpse. The experience matures character into her group, para [...]. e me faz bem ouvir tartaruga mas \fou virei and period, the rite of passage: completing o bonde que se afasta is reincorporated "estou manso quase voltando os sobre la trilhos que me o som deslizante agora role, e ouvindo andando after her "limbo" self-confident a different with though a pens?o sou more and becomes sem medo na rua deserta, Estou acompanha. j? sei, cair as luvas, ByeT indo firme at? o bueiro onde deixo (31 lebre 32). The line of flight emerges as a kind of "daydreaming" in Clarice Lispector's short story As "Amor." not a housewife, the protagonist's and mother, stop, Ana, approaches on out on the streets, but rather within The physical herself. space the streetcar at what is going to "withdraw" streetcar allows at home, and her past. "O bonde her her daily The movements nos vacilava from trilhos, the streetcar of em entrava and routine ruas think her The (21). "wide her family, the uncertainties mirror largas" about of her streets" looks of the duties thoughts: the represent breadth of ways inwhich she could have led her life if she had made different choices, and the "vacillation" is why reveals the validity convince of are no sempre fora This once and for all, she sees herself but, as in the beginning, with hostility: "Ana she olhava-o. a olh?-lo, cada estacava" she could glance outside to accept a visse e escolhera" a Ana in him. Ana is reluctant for as taken, suceder? a sudden by reflected E quern have "O que option; realizes For teria a impress?o inclinada" Ana (22). She repeating, de ter o the streetcar. lar estava sees She the blind man's this reason these Furthermore, (20; 21). antes This to reject as if to struggles she keeps she shares this fact. a housewife. becoming (21). Nevertheless, ela o quisera "assim vez mais to her final regard seguida paths is intensified self-reflection continuava em to her: longer available seu alcance" (20). de or rather, man, the alternative herself options with her reservations se arrastava, "o bonde she stares de urna mulher is simultaneously com para a blind darkness, at the man odio. attracted Mas to and repelled by what the blind man allows her to "see." Her indecision is symbolized by his chewing gum: deixar "o movimento de sorrir" one At da mastigac?o fazia-o parecer sorrir e de repente deixar de sorrir, sorrir e (21). the streetcar her backwards and thus making her lose her lurches, throwing of the streetcar her thoughts: "o bonde (22). Once again the movement parallels estacou" of restricted the streetcar, also stands for her personal (22). As a representation space, and symbolizes are led to the patriarchal world which confines her. After limitations; that, we believe that everything to back "Poucos a normal: instantes n?o olhavam goes quickly j? depois point concentration mais. O bonde sacudia nos trilhos e o ceg? mascando goma ficara atr?s para This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions sempre" (22). 50 Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar,Modernity, and theMetropolis the protagonist's feito," writes However, o mal of Ana's intensification feel to her The (22). Lispector her self-questioning, "A rede de tric? now: differently to conform ability estava era in Brazilian Literature limitations is immediately the narrator refers "damage" "Mas challenged. to can only need for self-awareness. increasing os dedos, entre n?o ?ntima ?spera the be look and Things como a quando tricotara" (22). The string bag, a symbol of imprisonmentmuch like the streetcar, does not fit as her between comfortably o sentido "A rede perder? fingers: e estar num era um fio parti? bonde do" (22), which represents her inability to repress her unwanted thoughts and feelings. Something in her changes tries cia de se as coisas de chamava crise se agarrou que Ana t?o s?bito no longer makes her self-image an existential it is inevitable: crisis, sense. constituted and avoid the situation lei foi como that which and to manage pudessem viera afinal" ao banco com ser revertidas a result, (23). As como da frente, a mesma calma she rediscovers she Although urna ausen? "Perceber se pudesse com que long forgotten cair do bonde, n?o o eram. O places, spaces, que and feelings. relationships In the introduction to his English translation o? Lagos de Familia, Giovanni Pontiero rightly that proposes may in "Amor" long been has that Lispector of and purpose the value with associated nature that "the mechanical suggests Lispector to question them lead their existence" authors. existentialist of many (16). us reminds such as Bene critics Brazilian lives people's Pontiero dito Nunes have linked her toKierkegaard andHeidegger and Pontiero himself connects her to and Jean-Paul Camus Albert Sartre suffering, happiness, and gets off the streetcar confusion, em olhou deb?is, to change her existence, and da noite" which (23). is determined her with mixed stop, um momento Por Getting a sign off and constrained of feelings her mental com do bonde "desceu confused: suja de ovo. a rede leaves her fear. She misses weak feeling de si, segurando ter saltado no meio Parec?a orientar-se. attempt torno and pity crisis existential Ana's (15-16). as extreme such pernas n?o the streetcar consegu?a her represents by her roles of mother and housewife. But she holds on to the string bag, which indicates that she is still linked to her condition. previous indicating means of the night" one Nevertheless, that some should has of change a world entering level note occurred of darkness, that the string after bag all. Moreover, is now stained that is, the blind man's world. with egg, into the middle "plunging Let us not forget that in this story it is the blind man who plays the role of guide. Ana is then led into an equally Garden: Botanical symbolic "dark" garden?"as como mel" (25)? sombras a guiara at? ele" (25). Her experiences no ch?o (24)"; "?as ?rvores as frutas "o ceg? vacilavam reemphasize the limbo state in which she finds in the eram idyllic pr?tas, but doces herself. that are haunted de Familia in La?os out that the characters by a dilemma points aware of comes when man becomes to him, "anguish an emotional crisis. According between choose He must and his possibilities. them, and himself between inevitably or of her children, him what he is" (15). In "Amor" Ana's memory he chooses makes Pontiero provokes the gulf whatever rather home: her "love" her feel (26). in other words, Her for them, makes casa nova "que Bot?nico?" era essa?" and rush home, but this time it is a different guilty are laid out before her eyes: "o cego ou o choices that had opened life or the new world her old "blind" to go back to chooses and lucidity, Ana finally blindness between struggles urna se como se a de Antes de deitar, her old life: "acabara-se apagasse bondade.[...] vertigem as a rite to read Ana's also dia" It is a do flama experience possible vela, soprou (29). peque?a of any role change and the lack of indication final choice the protagonist's of passage. However, Jardim up for her? As (26), she of of a postliminal the existence the story lead us to question stage, and therefore, to more It is of the rite of that, although the completion ultimately recognize passage. important and domestic Ana does not free herself from her confined existence, Lispector's psychological, at the end of This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Antonio Luciano de A. Tosta intimist narrative 51 comes that freedom suggests an awareness from of and not from alternatives the nature of the choice itself. a constant artistic culture. By studying its appear? image in Brazilian one has access to a vivid picture and art in general, of the cultural and of Brazil. First as a symbol of the future and now as an emblem of the past, numerous on the unmerciful, critical commentaries but necessary inspired streetcar The ance has been in literature, economic history streetcar the has of Brazil. modernization of Brazilian it has and to make used structure. social cities, expressions, popular Works It has been of the Brazilian criticisms streets music a symbol become in the collective on class observations the streetcar While of and gender, as well as disappeared from the has virtually of modernity the project in literature, imaginary. cited Alc?ntara 1994. Gamier, "Br?s, e Barra Bexiga Novelas Funda." Rio paulistanas. de 47-106. de. Hallucinated Mario Andrade, de. Antonio Machado, Janeiro: City (Pauliceia Trans. desvairada). Jack E. Tomlins. Kingsport: \fcnderbilt UP, 1968. ?. a medicina. com Namoros Oswald Andrade, de. Um tas de Oswald ?. Pau ?. Poes?as Brasil de Andrade. 4a S?o Manuel. Harvard de Oswald de poes?a Globo: J. Aderaldo de Andrade. 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Andrade: da perdida and Candido A Thousand Bondes antolog?a esperan?a." J. Aderaldo Plateaus: Castello. no el?tricos S?o P, po?tica. da Presen?a Paulo: Brasil. and Schizophrenia. Capitalism of Minnesota 30 (1980) 1987. Rio literatura de Janeiro: DIFEL, 1983. June 2003. 1995. Record, brasileira: Ed. modernismo. 156-58. <http://usuarios.ly cos.es/EmidioGarde/eletricos/eletbr.htm>. Gennep, van. Arnold The Rites of Passage. Trans. Monika B. Vizedom & Gabrielle L. Caffee. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1960. Gomes, Renato Janeiro: Jaguaribe, Light. Cordeiro. Rocco, Beatriz. Homepage. Todas as cidades, a cidade: literatura e experiencia urbana. Rio de 1994. Os passos 18 perdidos: Jan. cidade 2003. e mito. Rio de Janeiro: CIEL/ECO/UFRJ, <http://www.light.com.br/institucional/cultu ra/seculolight/mpb/tempb.shtml>. This content downloaded from 194.27.149.45 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 07:17:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1989. 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