José de Alencar
(January 2021)
“Settle down, green seas, and sweetly smooth the impetuous wave,
so the adventurous boat gently slides over the water surface.”
(Free translation from: “Serenai verdes mares, e alisai docemente a vaga impetuosa,
para que o barco aventureiro manso resvale à flor das águas.”)
Published in 1865 by José de Alencar, today’s book is very familiar to me, since it was a compulsory reading for the entrance exam back in the university. Although the popularity and appreciation was low among most students, Iracema is only one of the most important representative of Romanticism in Brazilian literature and a masterpiece of delicate poetry and complexity: every name, object and event has a meaning beyond the surface, and every rereading adds more details and enhances the experience.
The book tells the story of Iracema, a beautiful indigenous Brazilian woman, and her tragic interaction with the Portuguese colonizer Martin. Martin is cordially welcomed in her tribe after she accidentally hurts him, and they quickly develop romantic feelings for each other. However, Iracema is a priestess and has to remain a maiden, so they could never be together. Despite this prohibition, Iracema leaves her family and people behind and moves together with Martin to a paradisiacal beach, but the lovers are unhappy: Iracema is frequently left alone when Martin is battling, and Martin is longing for his friends and acquaintances in Europe. In one of his absences, Iracema bears Moacir, their child, all alone, and she will be found afterwards on the verge of death by her lover. Iracema is buried on the beach and Martin goes back to Europe with his son.
According to João Adalberto Campato Jr. (2018), the Romantic movement in Brazil, in the XIX Century, was engaged in developing its own literature and emancipating from the influence of Portuguese literature. In this sense, many authors were inspired by the extension, richness, and abundance of Brazilian nature in opposition to Portugal’s nature. Authors such as Alencar celebrated the tropical nature, as well as the native indigenous people and their culture as elements of national identity.
Valdeci Rezende Borges (2006) refers that Iracema is also part of this tendency of “edification of the Brazilian novel and invention of an identity for a new nation” and, for this purpose, questions related to culture, society and nature, as well as history and literature were addressed by the plot and its symbols. Let's take the meaning of the names as an example. Iracema means “lips of honey” in Tupi Guarani language, it is also an anagram for the word “America”. Martin, on the other hand, means warrior and Moacir, “the one that comes out of pain” also in Tupi language. In other words, the encounter of the native people and the European colonizers was a painful event, and Moacir, a half-cast child, is the representative of the blended Brazilian people.
According to Claudio Cesar de Jesus (2002), the nationalism in Alencar’s book is shown in the personality of his indigenous characters. Iracema, for example, is strong, virtuous, and beautiful. She is the ancestor and foundation of Brazilian people. She is the tragic romantic heroine who is harmed by the ambitious colonizer who is thirsty for natural resources. Nature is not only a scenario, but a dynamic element that moves along with Iracema. She is as exotic, secret, and opulent as the nature around her, and she was living in perfect harmony with this environment before Martin’s arrival.
Frequently, nationalism also shows in the description of the characters according to their similar features in nature. Iracema, who has the deepest connection with nature, is “the virgin of the lips of honey, who had the hair darker than the grauna’s wing, and longer than the torso of a palm tree. The jati’s honeycomb was not sweet as her smile; nor vanilla would exhale in the woods like her perfumed breath.” (Free translation. Original: “Iracema, a virgem dos lábios de mel, que tinha os cabelos mais negros que a asa da graúna [1], e mais longos que seu talhe de palmeira. O favo da jati [2] não era doce como seu sorriso; nem a baunilha recendia no bosque como seu hálito perfumado.”).
Nature is present in the characters’ lives. “The caju tree bloomed four times since Martin left from the Ceara beaches, taking in the frail boat his son and the loyal dog. The jandaia [3] did not want to leave the land where her friend and mistress was lying.” (Free translation. Original: “O cajueiro floresceu quatro vezes depois que Martim partiu das praias do Ceará, levando no frágil barco o filho e o cão fiel. A jandaia não quis deixar a terra onde repousava sua amiga e senhora.”).
João Adalberto Campato Jr. (2018) criticizes the uncritical exacerbated patriotism that took over the official speech about our nature from the XIX Century until nowadays and its disastrous outcomes. Common expressions like “everything that is sown in Brazil will sprout” or “God is Brazilian” refer to a mindset that our country is as wide as endless, and our nature is as rich as eternal. In terms of environmental conservation, needless to say how dangerous these thoughts can be. Intense exploitation will exhaust the land’s richness, as nature has its limit and cannot absorb all the impacts of human activities endlessly. Personally, I look at Iracema and Martin as two opposite types of relationship between nature and mankind: while Iracema is the healthy, balanced, and sustainable connection with nature, Martin has an ambitious and relentless behavior in a finite world. The widespread environmental damage makes us wonder if we shouldn't try to be more like Iracema and less like Martin.
Notes: [1] grauna’s wings, a shining black bird [2] jati, a type of small bee [3] jandaia, a talking bird |
References:
[1] João Adalberto Campato Jr. (2018). Natureza e Identidade da Literatura Brasileira: Um Ensaio de Ecocrítica. Retrieved from: http://www.amigosdanatureza.org.br/publicacoes/index.php/anap_brasil/article/view/1856/1768
[2] Valdeci Rezende Borges (2006). Cultura, natureza e história na invenção alencariana de uma identidade da nação brasileira. Retrieved from: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-01882006000100006
[3] Claudio Cesar de Jesus (2002). Alencar e a Identidade cultural dos brasileiros – Iracema como primeira heroína nacional. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/37740776/Alencar_e_a_Identidade_cultural_dos_brasileiros_Iracema_como_primeira_hero%C3%ADna_nacional