What struck me most about Bras' character is how passionate he is. Each scene of his life ends with a passionate endeavor on Bras' part. As the story continues Bras' passion seems to grow. At the end of 28, Bras meets the girl at the coffee shop and runs in front of a truck on his way back to the coffee shop to profess his undying love. Ba and Moon end section 28 by summing up Bras in just a few sentences:
Bras de Oliva Domingas...was always there when his friends needed him, was close to his family, and he, like everyone else, was trying to find his way in the desert looking for that oasis we like to call...love.
Chapters 6 and 7, ages 33 and 39, both end in Bras' pursuit to find his best friend, Jorge. Chapter 7 ends with:
Tere are a lot of things in this life that are difficult to understand, and even greater is the challenge of putting them into words. Friendship is one of them...He traveled halfway across the country, only to be brutally murdered at the hands of his best friend, who took his own life next. Bras de Oliva Dominagos only did what he felt was right. He was 38 and died because he believed in friendship.
Ba and Moon make a point in chapter 6 to say that, "...success was not in Bras de Oliva Domingos' destiny...[he was] widely unknown as a writer." The most remarkable trait of the character of Bras is that he tried to so hard to become a writer, but what he was more passionate about was Jorge and his family, even though those who were closest to him wound up killing him in each stage of his life. Bras was passionate about life, which is what Ba and Moon were trying to convey in this novel:
We wanted the feeling that life was happening right there, in front of every one of us, and we were living it. And we did live it. And sometimes we die to prove that we lived.
No comments:
Post a Comment