Child Of The Dark Sparknotes

Child of the Dark is a book by Carolina Maria de Jesus, and it follows Carolina living in the favelas of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The story is told from the first-person point of view by Carolina Maria de Jesus tracking her life in a series of journal entries across 5 years (1955-1960). The “insiders” perspective provided by Carolina immerses readers into the favela life-giving first-hand accounts and deep descriptions of her surroundings. Her Personal memoirs are effective but an immense issue exists with this form of storytelling and the story itself. Since the book is being told, exclusively with the eyes, words, and thoughts of Carolina a bias in her words is an element that cannot be ignored; the opinions stated and actions carried out are …show more content…
Bias is something that will occur as a human being, and with a story from, by, and following Carolina bias is unavoidable. In one aspect it can be judged that Maria isn’t even from Sao Paulo, she moved there in hopes of a new life but became stuck in the favelas. This gives her an outsider perspective because Maria did not grow up there she will more than likely have a different opinion on certain things compared to those who have lived there their entire life. Another issue of bias is that Carolina is very judgmental; claiming she hates people who drink, the marriages are horrible, and of course blaming others for the actions of her children. These claims bring questions; Are the other women in the favela truly that nasty? are the kids really that much of trouble makers? And are her kids really as innocent as she makes them out to be? She even judges the churches volunteers by questioning their service “if the Brother saw his children eating rotten food already attacked by vultures and rats, he would stop talking about resignation and rebel, because rebellion comes from bitterness.”(de Jesus 77) All words in the book are from her own personal account, she is giving her own opinion, and view on the world around her. This leaves little to no room for another perspective to be considered in the narrative. With her statement on the Brother, Carolina is assuming if he knew the truth he would behave more radically for change, but that might not be true. That Brother might be the most passive person in existence and no matter what he will continue to help in a peaceful fashion. One of the biggest contradictions come when she claims to hate people who drink but later states that she has had a drink before. She states she has had just “one drink” but after claiming her “hate” it leaves one to ask “was it really