1. Graciliano Ramos merges the narration of events with psychological analysis of the characters, exposing their mental universe.
2. The novel's construction, which uses the technique of various 'scenes', allows for independent reading of chapters. Several episodes from the novel were published as short stories and later gathered into a single work.
3. The loneliness to which the characters are exposed, unable to communicate. 4. The pessimism expressed in the author's worldview.
5. The economical style, with short sentences, precise punctuation, absence of dialogue, parsimony in the use of adjectives, and short periods characterize the dryness of the language adopted by the author.
6. The process of animalization that the sertanejo undergoes, identified with animals, is contrasted with the process of humanization of the bitch Baleia, who is solicitous and shares the hunt with the family.
There are 13 chapters, as follows:
1ST MOVE
On a long journey through the sertão ravaged by drought, Fabiano, Sinhá Vitória, the bitch Baleia, and the couple's two sons, the younger and the older, endure various hardships. At one point, the elder boy lies down, tired, and refuses to continue walking: 'the idea of abandoning his son crosses Fabiano's troubled spirit', but he decides to carry him.
'Still the day before, there were six living beings', but as hunger tightened its grip, Sinhá Vitória decided to sacrifice the parrot to feed the family.
Arriving at the courtyard of an abandoned farm, Fabiano looks for signs of life without success, and decides to house the family there, while Baleia hunts a preá (cavy) which she brings to Sinhá Vitória, who prepares it and divides it among her family.
2ND FABIANO
Chasing a heifer, the sertanejo, accompanied by his sons and Baleia, thinks about how he has managed. He had arrived at the farm in a miserable situation and now saw things improving; the boys were getting fatter, they would have an education. 'You are a man, Fabiano,' exclaims the cowherd, talking to himself.
But after a moment, he reflects further and concludes that he is merely a 'fellow busy guarding other people's things'. Despite being expelled from the farm by the boss, he played dumb and managed to stay. 'You are an animal, Fabiano'.
He had become accustomed to life among animals. Mounted, he and the horse seemed like a single being.
His language, full of guttural interjections, was understood by the animals, but distanced him from men. Very different from his Tomás da Bolandeira, a cultured, gentle man. But what good had so much culture done him? He had suffered more than from all the hardships of the drought. It was necessary that the boys also toughen up, that they become brutes to face bad men like the white boss, who mistreated him so much.
3RD JAIL
At the town market, where he had gone to get provisions, Fabiano drinks a few shots of cachaça and, 'resolved to talk', is approached by a yellow soldier who invites him to a game of cards. As this was the authority, Fabiano follows him and loses, leaving the table indignant. The soldier follows him and provokes him, until the sertanejo loses his patience and curses the soldier's mother. Arrested, he spends the night in the lock-up, where he is beaten.
4TH SINHÁ VITÓRIA
Preparing the fire inside the dark little room of the farm, Fabiano's wife kicks Baleia, who moves away. She woke up in a bad mood. She complained again about the bed of branches they slept on. They needed a leather bed, like Tomás da Bolandeira's, then they would sleep like people. But no matter how much they tried to cut expenses, the bed seemed a distant dream.
5TH THE YOUNGER BOY
Seeing his father putting the tack on the mare, the younger boy thinks of doing something remarkable. Noticing the old goat in the pen, he tries to mount it but is thrown off. Humiliated, he thinks he will grow up, carry a machete in his sheath, and smoke straw cigarettes like his father.
6TH THE OLDER BOY
Not knowing the meaning of the word hell, the older boy asks his mother, who answers evasively, until, annoyed, she hits the boy.
Going out, he finds Baleia and tries to tell her a story, but lacks the words. The bitch tries to cheer him up, but the boy thinks that all the places he knows are good. How to know what hell is?
But it wasn't always like this. When they moved, the world was bad.
7TH WINTER
Gathered around the fire, the parents try to talk, but the dialogue is disconnected, with loose, spaced-out sentences, repetitions, and incongruities.
The boys try to discern their father's figure to try to understand him by his gestures, but the light is not sufficient.
Winter brought the rains, and for now, Fabiano was not worried about the drought. However, he could not forget the humiliating episode with the yellow soldier. Baleia, annoyed by the noise Fabiano made trying to express himself, cannot sleep.
8TH PARTY
On a very hot afternoon, Fabiano and his family, accompanied by Baleia, go to town for the Christmas mass. The clothes bother the sertanejos, and upon arrival, the city frightens the boys.
In church, Fabiano remembers the jail and feels the same sensation, besides feeling inferior to other men.
9TH BALEIA
Thin, with hydrophobia, her fur falling out, Baleia was dying, and Fabiano decides to kill her. The boys, suspicious, are taken by Sinhá Vitória to the farm's house, screaming and kicking. Baleia still tries to hide behind a trunk, but Fabiano manages to hit her. Shot, running on three legs, the bitch runs away, and as she agonizes, she walks on two legs like a human.
She could not bite Fabiano. She had consumed her entire existence in submission. In her agony, Baleia dreams of a world full of prey.
10TH ACCOUNTS
When settling accounts with the boss, Fabiano finds himself in debt. He 'loses his stirrups' and is sent away. But after apologizing, the boss changes his mind. He no longer had the right to complain. He consumed himself in hatred. Hatred for the dry camp, for the boss, for the yellow soldier, for the government. It was his fate. He couldn't change his fate. His family's destiny was this. It was in his blood. He was like a dog: he only received bones. Why did rich men insist on stealing their bones?
11TH THE YELLOW SOLDIER
Hunting a mare in the caatinga, Fabiano encounters the yellow soldier who had humiliated him a year earlier. He raises his machete and sees the soldier tremble before the blow, but he is unable to get revenge. The soldier's cowardice humiliates him further, because it reminds him of his past. So this was the government? A dismounted yellow soldier?
He puts away his machete, takes off his leather hat, and, submissive, shows the soldier the way.
12TH THE WORLD COVERED IN FEATHERS
The arribação [migration of birds] is a sign of impending drought. Fabiano kills all the birds he can, trying to ward off the drought and save provisions, but there are too many birds.
He remembers Baleia. Would he have done well by killing the bitch? But he couldn't expose the boys to hydrophobia.
Apprehensive, he sighs, thinking about the upcoming journey. He will have to flee. From debts, from the farm, from the memories of Baleia and the yellow soldier. Could he react? No, he couldn't. He was a 'cabra'. He had slept in jail, endured zinc on his back. He would never sleep in a bed, like a human.
13TH ESCAPE
Like a runaway slave, Fabiano leads the new march of the migrant family. Still disbelieving, he looks at the farm, which, abandoned, resembles a cemetery.
Despite the drought, the sertanejo has hope. Sinhá Vitória is strong, she can walk a lot. In the future, the children will learn to be cowherds, will live in another world, will have school, will be different. 'They walked south, lost in that dream.
1. Graciliano Ramos merges the narration of events with psychological analysis of the characters, exposing their mental universe.
2. The novel's construction, which uses the technique of various 'scenes', allows for independent reading of chapters. Several episodes from the novel were published as short stories and later gathered into a single work.
3. The loneliness to which the characters are exposed, unable to communicate. 4. The pessimism expressed in the author's worldview.
5. The economical style, with short sentences, precise punctuation, absence of dialogue, parsimony in the use of adjectives, and short periods characterize the dryness of the language adopted by the author.
6. The process of animalization that the sertanejo undergoes, identified with animals, is contrasted with the process of humanization of the bitch Baleia, who is solicitous and shares the hunt with the family.
There are 13 chapters, as follows:
1ST MOVE
On a long journey through the sertão ravaged by drought, Fabiano, Sinhá Vitória, the bitch Baleia, and the couple's two sons, the younger and the older, endure various hardships. At one point, the elder boy lies down, tired, and refuses to continue walking: 'the idea of abandoning his son crosses Fabiano's troubled spirit', but he decides to carry him.
'Still the day before, there were six living beings', but as hunger tightened its grip, Sinhá Vitória decided to sacrifice the parrot to feed the family.
Arriving at the courtyard of an abandoned farm, Fabiano looks for signs of life without success, and decides to house the family there, while Baleia hunts a preá (cavy) which she brings to Sinhá Vitória, who prepares it and divides it among her family.
2ND FABIANO
Chasing a heifer, the sertanejo, accompanied by his sons and Baleia, thinks about how he has managed. He had arrived at the farm in a miserable situation and now saw things improving; the boys were getting fatter, they would have an education. 'You are a man, Fabiano,' exclaims the cowherd, talking to himself.
But after a moment, he reflects further and concludes that he is merely a 'fellow busy guarding other people's things'. Despite being expelled from the farm by the boss, he played dumb and managed to stay. 'You are an animal, Fabiano'.
He had become accustomed to life among animals. Mounted, he and the horse seemed like a single being.
His language, full of guttural interjections, was understood by the animals, but distanced him from men. Very different from his Tomás da Bolandeira, a cultured, gentle man. But what good had so much culture done him? He had suffered more than from all the hardships of the drought. It was necessary that the boys also toughen up, that they become brutes to face bad men like the white boss, who mistreated him so much.
3RD JAIL
At the town market, where he had gone to get provisions, Fabiano drinks a few shots of cachaça and, 'resolved to talk', is approached by a yellow soldier who invites him to a game of cards. As this was the authority, Fabiano follows him and loses, leaving the table indignant. The soldier follows him and provokes him, until the sertanejo loses his patience and curses the soldier's mother. Arrested, he spends the night in the lock-up, where he is beaten.
4TH SINHÁ VITÓRIA
Preparing the fire inside the dark little room of the farm, Fabiano's wife kicks Baleia, who moves away. She woke up in a bad mood. She complained again about the bed of branches they slept on. They needed a leather bed, like Tomás da Bolandeira's, then they would sleep like people. But no matter how much they tried to cut expenses, the bed seemed a distant dream.
5TH THE YOUNGER BOY
Seeing his father putting the tack on the mare, the younger boy thinks of doing something remarkable. Noticing the old goat in the pen, he tries to mount it but is thrown off. Humiliated, he thinks he will grow up, carry a machete in his sheath, and smoke straw cigarettes like his father.
6TH THE OLDER BOY
Not knowing the meaning of the word hell, the older boy asks his mother, who answers evasively, until, annoyed, she hits the boy.
Going out, he finds Baleia and tries to tell her a story, but lacks the words. The bitch tries to cheer him up, but the boy thinks that all the places he knows are good. How to know what hell is?
But it wasn't always like this. When they moved, the world was bad.
7TH WINTER
Gathered around the fire, the parents try to talk, but the dialogue is disconnected, with loose, spaced-out sentences, repetitions, and incongruities.
The boys try to discern their father's figure to try to understand him by his gestures, but the light is not sufficient.
Winter brought the rains, and for now, Fabiano was not worried about the drought. However, he could not forget the humiliating episode with the yellow soldier. Baleia, annoyed by the noise Fabiano made trying to express himself, cannot sleep.
8TH PARTY
On a very hot afternoon, Fabiano and his family, accompanied by Baleia, go to town for the Christmas mass. The clothes bother the sertanejos, and upon arrival, the city frightens the boys.
In church, Fabiano remembers the jail and feels the same sensation, besides feeling inferior to other men.
9TH BALEIA
Thin, with hydrophobia, her fur falling out, Baleia was dying, and Fabiano decides to kill her. The boys, suspicious, are taken by Sinhá Vitória to the farm's house, screaming and kicking. Baleia still tries to hide behind a trunk, but Fabiano manages to hit her. Shot, running on three legs, the bitch runs away, and as she agonizes, she walks on two legs like a human.
She could not bite Fabiano. She had consumed her entire existence in submission. In her agony, Baleia dreams of a world full of prey.
10TH ACCOUNTS
When settling accounts with the boss, Fabiano finds himself in debt. He 'loses his stirrups' and is sent away. But after apologizing, the boss changes his mind. He no longer had the right to complain. He consumed himself in hatred. Hatred for the dry camp, for the boss, for the yellow soldier, for the government. It was his fate. He couldn't change his fate. His family's destiny was this. It was in his blood. He was like a dog: he only received bones. Why did rich men insist on stealing their bones?
11TH THE YELLOW SOLDIER
Hunting a mare in the caatinga, Fabiano encounters the yellow soldier who had humiliated him a year earlier. He raises his machete and sees the soldier tremble before the blow, but he is unable to get revenge. The soldier's cowardice humiliates him further, because it reminds him of his past. So this was the government? A dismounted yellow soldier?
He puts away his machete, takes off his leather hat, and, submissive, shows the soldier the way.
12TH THE WORLD COVERED IN FEATHERS
The arribação [migration of birds] is a sign of impending drought. Fabiano kills all the birds he can, trying to ward off the drought and save provisions, but there are too many birds.
He remembers Baleia. Would he have done well by killing the bitch? But he couldn't expose the boys to hydrophobia.
Apprehensive, he sighs, thinking about the upcoming journey. He will have to flee. From debts, from the farm, from the memories of Baleia and the yellow soldier. Could he react? No, he couldn't. He was a 'cabra'. He had slept in jail, endured zinc on his back. He would never sleep in a bed, like a human.
13TH ESCAPE
Like a runaway slave, Fabiano leads the new march of the migrant family. Still disbelieving, he looks at the farm, which, abandoned, resembles a cemetery.
Despite the drought, the sertanejo has hope. Sinhá Vitória is strong, she can walk a lot. In the future, the children will learn to be cowherds, will live in another world, will have school, will be different. 'They walked south, lost in that dream.
