Intrusive narrator

The narrator interrupts the story to comment, judge, give an opinion, or speak directly to the reader.

In The Slum

Aquilo já não era ambição, era uma moléstia nervosa, uma loucura, um desespero de acumular; de reduzir tudo a moeda, That was no longer ambition, it was a nervous ailment, a madness, a despair of accumulating; of reducing everything to coin

The narrator stops the scene of the egg sold to give his diagnosis, and the correction "it was no longer ambition, it was an ailment" shows the voice that judges the character without leaving the novel.

Chapters I to II: João Romão's Tenement and Miranda's House, the narrator

cedendo às imposições mesológicas, enfarava a esposa, sua congênere, e queria a mulata, yielding to mesological impositions, he grew weary of his wife, his own kind, and wanted the mulatta

Chapters XV to XVII: Firmo's Death, Piedade's Fight, and the Fire, the narrator