The Theme in the Work
Work in The Slum appears from two sides: what one does and what one earns from what one does. Bertoleza works from four in the morning as clerk, maid, and lover, with no Sunday or holy day (ch. I, ch. VI). Jerônimo makes a career of quarry work, from stone breaker to foreman, and in the quarry of João Romão he reforms the work and brings a profit within two months (ch. V). Firmo is a skilled lathe turner and an idler, who earns in a week to spend in a day (ch. VII). The washerwomen, the shop's workers, and Pombinha, who writes the neighbors' letters, complete the tenement's day (ch. III, ch. VI).
The working day begins before everyone: the tenement wakes at five, the washerwomen take the tubs, and the laborers fill the shop (ch. III); after the pagode, Jerônimo does not even sleep, because it is almost time to go to work (ch. VII). Work also marks the fall: back at a quarry, the São Diogo one, he owes the baker and is overdrawn on his pay (ch. XIX).
The text measures work by what it yields and to whom. Jerônimo came looking for a place where effort pays for himself (ch. V), and the first to profit is Romão, who yields to the salary only after working out that the money will come back to him through the shop (ch. IV). Then the heat and Rita Baiana lead him astray (ch. IX), and the trade becomes just a job that does not pay the bills (ch. XIX). Firmo and Rita show the other measure, that of earning in order to spend it in a day and of owing obedience to no one (ch. VII, ch. VI). Bertoleza works in both senses without the yield being hers. The text does not say whether Jerônimo's vocation was the trade or the place where it paid.
Where It Appears
- Chapter I: Bertoleza serves as clerk, maid, and lover from four in the morning; Romão and she raise the first little houses with stone stolen from the neighboring quarry.
- Chapter III: The tenement wakes at five, the washerwomen take the tubs, the laborers fill the shop, and Romão makes the future employee wait.
- Chapter IV: Jerônimo defends the salary of seventy milreis with the week's disaster at the quarry (a good worker costs less than the accident) and points out the wrong angle of attack on the rock; Romão gives in because the money comes back to him.
- Chapter V: Jerônimo, an immigrant farmhand who left the plantation empty-handed, rises to foreman in the Court and takes charge of the work at Romão's quarry.
- Chapter VI: Bertoleza stays at the stove on Sunday; Pombinha writes the letters the neighbors dictate; Rita says she would rather be mistress and owner of what is hers than marry.
- Chapter VII: Firmo is a skilled journeyman and an idler; Jerônimo, after the pagode, decides not to sleep because it is almost time to go to work.
- Chapter VIII: Jerônimo, unwell, leaves his work at the quarry at lunchtime and goes home to lie down.
- Chapter IX: Jerônimo loses his energy, becomes contemplative, and forgets his dreams of ambition; the text lists what the change gives and what it takes away.
- Chapter XIX: Jerônimo goes back to work at a quarry, the São Diogo one, but owes the baker and is overdrawn on his pay; Piedade starts to drink.
Passages
Bertoleza is the counter, the house, and the bed.
Bertoleza representava agora ao lado de João Romão o papel tríplice de caixeiro, de criada e de amante, Bertoleza now played alongside João Romão the triple role of clerk, of maid, and of lover
Romão accepts the salary because the money comes back to him.
Os meus setenta mil-réis voltar-me-ão à gaveta. Tudo me fica em casa, My seventy milreis will come back to my drawer. It all stays at home with me
Jerônimo leaves the plantation empty-handed.
mourejou durante dois anos, sem nunca levantar a cabeça, e de onde afinal se retirou de mãos vazias e uma grande birra pela lavoura brasileira, toiled for two years without ever lifting his head, and from which he finally withdrew empty-handed and with a great aversion to Brazilian farming
The employer counts his profit from the acquisition.
No fim de dois meses já o vendeiro esfregava as mãos de contente e via, radiante, quanto lucrara com a aquisição de Jerônimo, At the end of two months the shopkeeper was already rubbing his hands with glee and saw, beaming, how much he had gained from acquiring Jerônimo
Bertoleza stays at the stove on Sunday.
a Bertoleza, sempre suja e tisnada, sempre sem domingo nem dia santo, lá estava ao fogão, mexendo as panelas e enchendo os pratos, Bertoleza, always dirty and soot-blackened, always without Sunday or holy day, was there at the stove, stirring the pots and filling the plates
Rita does not want to owe obedience to anyone.
Não há como viver cada um senhor e dono do que é seu!, There is nothing like each of us living as master and owner of what is ours!
Firmo earns a week to spend in a day.
Era oficial de torneiro, oficial perito e vadio; ganhava uma semana para gastar num dia, He was a journeyman turner, a skilled journeyman and an idler; he earned a week to spend in a day
Jerônimo is reformed outside and inside.
pouco a pouco, se foram reformando todos os seus hábitos singelos de aldeão português: e Jerônimo abrasileirou-se, little by little, all his simple habits as a Portuguese villager were reformed: and Jerônimo became Brazilian