SILVA, Tairam Carlos Soares da.
Résumé:
This paper presents a literature review about the reification and alienation process that
comes from the first-person narrator Paulo Honório in the novel São Bernardo by the
Brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos, and proposes further consideration on this topic.
Reification means how a person considers others as objects, in an exploitative way or
as in a trade. The relationship between the protagonist and the other dwellers on the
farm including his wife Madalena is an example of that. The review showed that several
works have this approach as a major subject; however, we decided to revisit it and
reopen this discussion, regarding the ideas and conclusions of some researchers. We
here stress the importance of Madalena's attitude in resisting Paulo Honório's attempts
towards submitting her to the process of reification. Finally, we noted that researchers
had different opinions when it comes to how reification affects the characters in São
Bernardo, a novel that addresses the contradiction between modernization and the
cultural archaic practices in the rural areas of Brazilian Northeast. The methodology
used was a literature review with qualitative research. Candido (2006), Coutinho
(1965), Lafetá (1985), Zawaski (2015), Silva (2008) and others provide the basis for
this work.