Symbols

The São Romão tenement João Romão's tenement, the one that gives the novel its name and the place where almost everything happens. It begins in chapter I as three little houses built with the profit from the shop and stone taken from the neighboring quarry, on a plot bought with... Miranda's townhouse The house of the Portuguese merchant Miranda, next to João Romão's tenement and separated from it by a wall (chapter I). It is the family house of name, with windows open over the courtyard, from which one sees, hears, and gives orders. In The Slum it forms... The quarry The quarry that closes off the back of João Romão's lot, beyond the grassy patch: a granite rock from which he takes stone, from which the shop's customers come, and where Jerônimo is hired. In The Slum it is the source of material, labor, and risk: there... The baron's title The title of Baron of Freixal, which the Portuguese government grants to Miranda in chapter X of The Slum. From chapter II it is the object of Miranda's desire, in chapter X it is the cause of João Romão's envy, and in chapter XXI it becomes the yardstick... The fado and the chorado The two kinds of music in The Slum: the fado, which Jerônimo plays on the Portuguese guitar at his door, with his wife, out of longing for Portugal (chapter V); and the Bahian chorado, which Firmo and Porfiro play on the violão and the cavaquinho and to which...