Analysis of Child Of The Dark

The story told in the diary of Carolina María de Jesus is not new. But it was, perhaps, unheard until its initial publication in 1960. Carolina struggled with life in the favelas- or slums- of São Paulo. With three young children, no husband, and few opportunities for work, every day was a fight against poverty and inequality. In a community wracked with disease, crime, alcoholism, and hopelessness, de Jesus found stories that were not being told and injustices that were allowed to fester. Her diary, written on scraps of paper she found while scavenging for sellable waste, gave voice to her struggles and those around her while challenging a social and political system that held her and her neighbors in utter contempt.

In the midst of profound hardship, de Jesus was determined to care for her children on her own. To feed her family she collected scraps of paper and metal to sell- while far from lucrative, it just about kept everyone fed while avoiding work of a more criminal or unsavory variety. Yet equally as important to keeping her children fed was keeping them safe- from violence, from corrupt authorities, and from bad influences. This was perhaps most apparent during her sons’ run-ins with the law, where she was called on to advocate for her children against false accusations and a child welfare bureaucracy that appeared to do more harm than good. Carolina was also determined to put her children ahead of her own romantic interests, refusing marriage proposals for two suitors even as one seemingly promised a more stable life for her children. The potential sacrifices and drawbacks of marrying outweighed the possible benefits, and the children always had to come first.

Carolina’s struggle to survive, provide for her family, and maintain her independence were tested relentlessly in an environment mired in crushing poverty and abject human misery. Life in the favela revolved around the home- usually constructed from cardboard or scrap timber, lacking electricity or adequate sanitation. Jobs are scarce and subsistence farming is nearly impossible. Many turned to drug trafficking, leading to a sharp rise in violent crime and other criminal activities. The realities of life in these slums forced people into a frenzied mindset where people resorted to truly desperate measures to survive. Favelados, like Carolina and her family, were unwilling participants in an ongoing, slow-rolling humanitarian crisis.

Framed within the trials of life in the favela are Carolina’s personal struggles. Her two biggest concerns centered on providing for her family and keeping them safe while also maintaining her sense of self. The difficulties with each concern were overwhelming by themselves, but together often created deep sources of conflict in her life. Scavenged paper that could’ve been sold for food was sometimes saved to add to her diary- the repository through which she maintained her sense of self, railed against a system seemingly designed to push her down, and ultimately carve a tunnel through which her and her family could escape. Moreover, her decision to decline marriage proposals from her suitors, while likely the most sensible decision considering the catastrophes that befell other women in the favela who rushed into marriage, was also due to her own sense of pride, her conviction that she wasn’t the “marrying type” and didn’t need a man to complete her or her family. She also struggles at times to keep her own combative nature in check, particularly when neighbors antagonize her children in an attempt to hurt her. Yet it is precisely this obstinacy- and her dedication to maintaining her diary- that allow her to not only maintain her sanity and psychological fortitude, but to explicitly challenge a culture and social structure she sees as quintessentially unjust.

As her diary became more and more political, Carolina started to wonder how much longer the favelados would endure such brutality and misery. Her initial gestures to participate in the political process left her enraged and sickened with a dawning realization of a system that seemed to actively conspire against the poor. Politicians were largely unmoved by their plight- and in some cases, like Dr. Adhemar, seemed to want them to suffer more. Meanwhile, institutions that were charged with alleviating the suffering of the poor- such as the Church- offered short-term, largely ineffective help that arguably did more harm than good. Her frustration with the socio-political-factors at work was perhaps best embodied in one particular incident, where she witnessed a factory owner dumping spoiled food near the favela, an act she described as brazen cruelty. In her diary, Carolina observed that people can only be pushed so far, forced to endure so much, before they would be compelled to strike back at a system designed to reinforce and prolong their suffering. The question she wrestled with in her writings was when and where that breaking point was.

The questions around whether, and how, her neighbors would organize and rebel against a cruel and unjust socio-economic system was made all the more complex by the lack of fellowship and community within the favela. The interpersonal ties between favelados mirrored the environment they were in- brutal and merciless. This was a dog-eat-dog world where people did whatever they had to in order to survive- often at the expense of their neighbors. The constant struggle to secure basic necessities made people aggressive and unwilling to cooperate- which arguably made life more difficult, as there was no real will or desire to work together in order, for example, build an adequate sanitation system or start a community garden. The nature of life in the favela, and the realities of a political system that ignored their struggles at best and actively perpetuated them at worst, made people unwilling (and perhaps unable) to reach out to each other to share resources or stand in solidarity. While this reinforced her decision to lead as independent a life as possible- at one-point writing about her admiration of a feral cat for its self-reliance- it also muddied her questions of how, and whether, her fellow favelados would be able to organize for a better life.

Life in Brazil’s favelas was nasty, brutish, and short. But in the diary of Carolina María de Jesus, we see a glimmer of humanity in the midst of profound suffering. Her efforts to provide for her children, maintain her independence, and challenge a cruel and unjust system shed some needed light on Brazil’s poor. While she later became a somewhat controversial figure for refusing to conform to social expectations laid on her after she moved out of the favela, her words gave voice to a suffering and heretofore unheard community. In a country with a social and political system replete with deliberate blind spots, her diary beckoned people not to look away.

Work Cited

Jesus, Carolina Maria De., and David St. Clair. Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria De Jesus. New York: New American Library, 2003.