The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
Themes
Death
the dead man who begins with his death (ch. I), the delirium before Nature (ch. VII), his mother's agony (ch. XXIII), his father's death (ch. XLIV), Nhã-loló's epitaph (ch. CXXV), the philosophy of epitaphs (ch. CLI), and the negations (ch. CLX).
Language and Narration
the prologue to the reader, the book as a thinking erratum (chapter XXVII), the dialogue made only of dots (chapter LV), the style that lurches like drunkards (chapter LXXI), the chapter to be inserted into another (chapter CXXX), and the useless chapter...
Ambition
the plaster (chapter II), the candidacy (chapter XXVIII), the marquise promised by Lobo Neves (chapter XLIII), the minister in a chaise (chapter LIX), the wish to be a minister (chapter CXXIX), and the newspaper (chapter CXLVII).
Appearance and Reality
the invented genealogy (chapter III), Marcela who sold appearances (chapter XV), Lobo Neves's confidence (chapter LVIII), the social lie of Jacó Tavares (chapter LXXXVII), opinion (chapter CXII), and the Turkish veil (chapter CXXVII).
Desire
Marcela (chapter XV), Eugênia's kiss (chapter XXXIII), the waltz with Virgília (chapter L), the little house (chapter LXVII), the mountaintop (chapter LXXXV), and the low wall (chapter CXI).
Slavery
the newly arrived enslaved Africans from Luanda at the 1814 dinner (chapter XII), Prudêncio mounted (chapter XI), the division of the enslaved people (chapter XLVI), The Whip (chapter LXVIII), and the portrait of Cotrim (chapter CXXIII).
The Meaning of Life
the chimera of happiness in the delirium (chapter VII), the voluptuousness of boredom (chapter XXV), the tight boots (chapter XXXVI), Humanitism (chapter CXVII), fatigue without work (chapter CLVII), and the balance of denials (chapter CLX).