Chapter X: That Day
Section summary
Brás Cubas is born, and the family greets him with guesses: his uncle João sees a Bonaparte look in him, his uncle Ildefonso, then a simple priest, sees a future canon or bishop, and his father, whom the priest uncle calls "Brother Bento," replies that the boy will be what God wishes, but lifts him up to show him to the city. Baptized in 1806, he learns early to recite the names of his godparents before visitors, and begins to walk before his time.
Analysis
Brás recounts his own birth from hearsay, and what he keeps is the use the others made of the baby: each relative projects onto him the career they prefer, and the father shows him off because he wants to see the household confirmed, not the son. The dead narrator enjoys the scene and notes, in passing, the first lesson he received: to memorize titles of nobility and be applauded for it.
That day, the Cubas family tree sprouted a graceful flower.
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Chapter XI: The Child Is Father of the Man
Section summary
Brás Cubas says he grew up without the family interfering, and he paints the boy he was: a "little devil" from the age of five; at six he broke the head of an enslaved woman who had refused him coconut sweets and accused him to his mother; he made Prudêncio, a houseboy, his horse. His father admired him and only scolded him for form's sake. His mother, weak and pious, and his father, who thought himself in a superior system, gave him an education that Brás judges vicious and incomplete; his uncle João told him obscene anecdotes, and the canon uncle watched over the ceremonies without the strength to impose virtues.
Analysis
Chapter XII: An Episode from 1814
Section summary
At nine years old, Brás Cubas attends the dinner the family holds to celebrate Napoleon's fall. Only a certain compote interests him, but Dr. Vilaça's improvised glosses delay the dessert, his father does not see the son ask, and when Brás finally bawls and stamps his feet, Aunt Emerenciana takes him from the table. To take revenge, Brás spies on Vilaça with Dona Eusébia at the country house, sees the kiss, and shouts the news. His father secretly pulls his ears and the next day laughs and calls the son a "mischief-maker."
Analysis
Chapter XIII: A Leap
Section summary
Brás Cubas skips over school, apostrophizes the ferule, and recalls the teacher Ludgero Barata, who taught for twenty-three years and died without anyone mourning him, except an old Black man. In class, Quincas Borba, son of a widow with some means, left dead cockroaches for the teacher and played emperor at the feasts. Brás breaks off before advancing what comes next and leaps to 1822.
Analysis
Chapter XIV: The First Kiss
Section summary
At seventeen, Brás Cubas considers himself a handsome and bold young man and is enchanted by Marcela, a Spanish woman whom the young men called the "lovely Marcela" and who, that year, "was dying of love" for the wealthy and consumptive Xavier. He sees her on the night of the independence illuminations and follows her; three days later, his uncle João takes him to a supper at her house. On leaving, he returns to the stairway with the excuse of a handkerchief, pulls her to him, and kisses her. He does it, he says, carried away by enthusiasm, by a few sips of wine, and by his imperious and reckless temper.
Analysis
Chapter XV: Marcela
Section summary
Brás Cubas takes thirty days to reach the heart of Marcela, and the affair goes through two phases: in the first he rules with Xavier, who does not believe him; in the second, Xavier lays down his insignia and Brás reigns alone, but the reign costs money. He exploits his father, induces his mother to divert some, then signs bonds against the inheritance. Marcela protests against the gifts, denies the story of the gold cross, promises "never, never" ("Nunca, nunca") and, when he brings her the necklace she had said she did not want, tries to throw it into the street and keeps it.
Analysis
Chapter XVI: An Immoral Reflection
Section summary
Brás Cubas corrects what he said in chapter XIV: Marcela was not "dying" of love for Xavier, she "lived," and the jewelers, with their jewels and their credit, are part of the commerce of hearts. Hence the reflection he calls immoral and obscure: a beautiful brow loses nothing by wearing a diadem. The phrase "Marcela loved me..." is left in suspense and is completed in the next chapter, in Chapters XVII to XXIV: Coimbra and His Mother's Death.
Analysis