Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis Essays

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis Many historians consider Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis to be one of the greatest writers in history. He used only a shortened version of his own name (Machado de Assis) as his pen name. Similar to most authors his popularity only began steadily rising after he passed away about 100 years ago. The peak of popularity during his life was when he reached the status of the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Literature. Assis was greatly influenced by his early

must have sought other means to oppose the institution and gain some autonomy. Hence, primary sources become excellent texts to extract and define the form of resistances slaves utilized to oppose their masters. In Plautus’s play, Pseudolus, and Machado de Assis’s short story, The Cane, slaves used the manipulation of language, the master’s power in persuasion, and the reliance on others to wager on gaining autonomy. The author’s status and context of each literary work help validify the accuracy

tools to recount their stories. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis uses these implements in his story, “A Canary’s Ideas”. During the course of this short story, Machado uses Psychological Realism to make the reader question one’s private thoughts. Machado’s imagery in this story makes the reader question whether or not birds actually talk. “A Canary’s Ideas” encompasses subtle irony, varying between verbal, situational, and theatrical. The final means that Machado implements in his writing is the

the moral principles and actually following them can cause one to have an internal battle between what is ethically acceptable and how that person’s decision can place them in a pleasant or unpleasant situation. “The Rod of Justice” by Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis and “Kabuliwala” by Jorge both portray stories involving individuals who confront the ethical dilemmas of their time and situations. Damiao in “The Rode of Justice” is faced with the social issues of slavery and an authoritarian society