The book explains Jerônimo's change through his environment, the new land, the food, the music and his desire for Rita Baiana, but the scenes also show his own decisions. The narrator never says outright which of the two weighs more.
Jerônimo arrives serious, thrifty and respected, with "his exile's soul" turned toward the villages of his childhood. At the Sunday pagode, the chorado of Firmo and Porfiro silences the fado the Portuguese used to sing, and it is in Rita, who dances in the middle of the circle, that he concentrates "the synthesis of the impressions he received on arriving here". The next day, sick, he is nursed by her with strong coffee and parati, and "as soon as her flesh touched his, a burning desire took hold of him".
The transformation comes in everyday details: "cane brandy replaced wine; manioc flour succeeded corn bread", black beans took the place of salt cod, coffee filled the house. The narrator sums it up: "little by little, all his simple habits of a Portuguese villager were remade: and Jerônimo became Brazilianized". Piedade, by contrast, changes only on the outside.
After that, what he does is visible choice: he fights with Firmo, plans revenge, pays the two companions, keeps the razor and proposes that he and Rita leave together. Later, he promises to pay for his daughter's school and does not pay, and the text shows him "with the sad air of a shamed addict who lacks the will to give up the vice". What the book takes from Jerônimo in money, savings and position, it also takes from his family, and the first to pay is Piedade.