Clarice Benchmark Research

Author’s Craft Research Benchmark Clarice Lispector has written many pieces of literature throughout her years of writing. The short story that is being focused on is “The Hen”. In “The Hen”, by Clarice Lispector, the author uses personification to create a mood of unease and apathy while conveying the central theme that there is no meaning to people’s lives. Clarice Lispector was born in the Ukraine on December 10,1920. However she left as a one year old because of the Russian Civil War and her family took refuge in Recife, Brazil but later relocated to Rio de Janeiro when she was in her teens. While in Recife and a child, she began to tell stories to her paralysed mother since she believed that the stories could perform a miracle. Despite her efforts, her mother passed away with her being only nine years old. After graduating high school, she attended law school in Brazil. While in law school she published her first novel, Near to the Wild Heart, at the age of twenty three and it was called the best book written by a woman in the Portuguese language. …show more content…
She was greatly affected by the Russian Civil War. Clarice Lispector’s mother was raped during the war, and contracted syphilis. During this time, people thought that the only way to cure the disease was by getting pregnant. So Clarice Lispector was born in order to save her mother’s life, which did not work. Along with this, Brazilian culture also influenced her writing. Aspects such as music, and authors of the time had a major part in shaping her stories. She is also widely known for being a woman who questioned and answered fundamental parts of judaism. All of this morphed Clarice Lispector into being an icon for Brazilian national literature and being a figure who was and still is greatly