Essay The hour of the star PDF

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It was the essay on the Hour of the star book. The whole review and considerations from me. ...

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Kim 1 Alexandra Kim Professor Andrew Stoughton English 1012 26 March 2018 The Hour of the Star The Hour of the Star is a novel written by Clarice Lispector about a 19 years old girl named Macabea, who lived in the poverty of Brazil`s ghetto. It should be noted that Macabea's life is hopeless and pitiful enough, however, she has formed such a perception of her own worldview that the significant part of this story was occupied by the concepts of faith and divine. The author begins by considering the awareness and acceptance of a person who just came in this world, from a “faith” point of view. She claims: “How do I know everything that`s about to come since I never lived it?”(Lispector 4). This question puts the reader at a dead end because it does not have a clear answer. Therefore, Lispector clarifies her question with the words: “One way of getting is not looking, one way of having is not asking and only believing that the silence I believe to be inside me is the answer to my mystery.” (Lispector 6). Thus, she implies that in fact at the beginning of each life a person has no idea or any concepts about what is happening or can happen to him. However, by somewhere inside we possess the ability to trust ourselves and do what we think is right. This is what the book narrates faith is. However, in the case of Macabea, this concept of is perceived as very exaggerated, as it is literally presented as she is “not of this world”. There is an author`s opinion about Macabea: “There was something slightly idiotic about her, but she wasn`t an idiot. She didn`t know she was

Kim 2 unhappy. That`s because she believed. She had never lost faith.” (Lispector 17, 18). Through this quote, the author does not mean that Macabea is a religious person since she does not even have an idea of who is God and what religion is because no one ever taught her. She was brought up by her sadistic aunt as she lost her parent at the age of two. Macabea shares with us stories from childhood about how unintentionally she was beaten on the head, just because it amused her aunt. Undoubtedly, such education left a strong imprint on the child's mind, which led to the wrong formation of her personality and perception of the world. As the author claims: “She lives in an impersonal limbo, without reaching the worst or the best. She just lives.” (Lispector 15). Therefore, living her life, the girl does not follow the "God's way", seeking to find the truth and meaning of life. She simply looks at it as a reality by accepting circumstances the way people around her laid it. Relying on the author's words, Macabea does not even think about or tries to change something, even if it is possible in her power. Deeply subconsciously, she has a formed faith that putting up with everything that life brings is the right way to live. So, she just lives. By the time Macabea reaches puberty, she is finding life already without a tyrannical aunt and begins an independent life outside her father's house. The girl settles in 1 bedroom apartment with 4 other girls. Despite the life of the big city and at the time of prosperous prostitution, Maca does not go into isolation and unlike many others does not earn this way. Nevertheless, in fact, her stay in this world cannot be called easy. A girl lives her own years in poverty and hunger. As the book narrates:” Sometimes when she was hungry the only thing to do was to chew paper into a pulp and swallow.” (Lispector 23). The girl dreamed of a piece of meat, but she never had the opportunity to try it so she

Kim 3 had to replace it with scrap paper and imagine this taste. Also, her boss warns her that he is going to fire a poor girl because she elementary cannot type correctly and continues making the mess. The thing is, this she has no idea how to figure things out. That is why she is good at collecting problems and not solving it. Moreover, people compare her to a hair in the soup, cold coffee and the representation of something totally asexual. Definitely, we see that the life of her is complex and rolls down, since no one in her family laid the foundations in it, and now she is slowly but surely absorbed by it. However, as it was mentioned before, she is happy with the role of being, because she is satisfied with the realization that being a typist, virgin and drinking Coca-Cola is the top of her achievements. For Macabea, her own faith plays a vital role. As the author claims: “ She believed in angels, and because she believed in them, they existed.” (Lispector 31). Also, it is narrated that: “ She concluded that everything that happened was because that is how things are and there was no struggle possible, struggle for what?” (Lispector 32). Through such meaningful quotes, we understand that she lives in her own world, where she feels safe and believes in what she has come up herself. Distinctively clear that Maca has a very limited perception of herself. Accordingly, having set a “life framework”, she sees no opportunity to develop or to try in any way to combat injustice. Generally, in simple words, it can be called as blind faith. This story has a certain dramaturgical meaning, despite the positive figure of the character in the author's eyes. As Lispector says:” I`m in love with Macabea, in love with her ugliness and total anonymity.” (Lispector 59). The author`s claim may sound very tricky because she positions Maca`s ugliness as beauty, which you should fall in love with. According to the plot of the book, Macabea meets a person who, as she thinks, is

Kim 4 the personification of the ideal guy, whose name is Olimpico. However, the young man does not share the author's opinion, and in the literal sense of the word considers the girl disgusting both inside and outside. As Olimpico says to Macabea: “ You didn`t cost me much, just a coffee. I won`t spend another cent on you, okay?” (Lispector 47). He absolutely does not appreciate the girl and her feelings, referring to her as a dummy. Furthermore, he leaves her for her attractive co-worker Gloria. Macabea does not try to analyze the situation, in other ways as always, but only feels despair and falls into sadness. Then, the book narrates: “Gloria, perhaps, remorseful, said to her: “Olimpico is mine because that`s what my fortune-teller told me. Why don`t you pay for a session and ask her to read your cards?”(Lispector 61). Definitely, her co-worker feels a little regret for the inconvenience and advice Maca to visit a Sybil. And again, knowing the nature of Macabea, to take all the blows of life and believe that this should be so, one can guess that she decides to follow the advice and visits a fortune-teller. The main drama of this story is that after a destiny session, the girl re-acquires hope and sincerely believes in everything good. “And now, leave and go after your marvelous destiny”, as Madame Charlotte said. (Lispector 69). So when Macabea, full of faith and divine blessings steps off the pavement to cross the street, Mercedes hits her. Further, after such an unexpected end, the author does not give us an exact answer about how the story ends. Will Macabea survive? This time is given to the reader as a lesson, in order to think about the meaning of this girl's faith. Was it worth living for her to believe in all the good things in order to die so insignificantly? In his book, Clarice Lispector talks about Macabea as an example of holiness and correctness. Despite the fact that the girl was not accepted by the society since people

Kim 5 consider her to be a dirty spot, Macabea, because of her limited mind, believed that she was happy and did not feel mutual hatred towards these people. She did not think why events in her life were built in this way and why people treated her like a pacifier. She simply believed in the beautiful and enjoyed simple things. Perhaps, this is the lesson that Clarice Lispector taught all of us....