Themes

Ambition the desperate urge to accumulate of João Romão (chapter I), the title Miranda dreams of (chapter II) and receives (chapter X), the shopkeeper's transformation (chapter XIII), the taller townhouse (chapter XIX) and the viscount he wants to be before his... Social Class the townhouse looking down on the tenement (chapter II, chapter VII), Dona Isabel waiting to return to her former circle (chapter III), the shopkeeper who learns to be another man (chapter XIII), the avenue that admits only people with a letter of surety... Corruption and Decay the stolen stone (chapter I), the dowry refused to Florinda (chapter X), Libório's bottles (chapter XVIII), Piedade's fall (chapter XX, chapter XXII) and Pombinha's fate (chapter XXII). Slavery the forged letter of freedom (chapter I), Bertoleza without Sunday or holy day (chapter VI), the work slave who stops being a lover (chapter XIX), the plan to return her legally to her master (chapter XXI) and the final scene (chapter XXIII). Sexuality Estela and Henrique (chapter II), Rita's chorado (chapter VII), Jerônimo's desire (chapter VIII), Pombinha's puberty (chapter XI, chapter XII) and her life with Léonie (chapter XXII). Nature and Civilization the tenement born from the mud (chapter I), the animal joy of existing (chapter III), the exile and the land that takes him in (chapter V, chapter VII), Jerônimo made Brazilian (chapter IX) and the procuring nature Piedade complains of (chapter XVI). Work and Vocation Bertoleza from dawn to night (chapter I), the washtubs and the quarry (chapter III, chapter IV), the foreman who puts the work in order (chapter V) and Agostinho dead in the quarry (chapter XXI).