The Third Bank of the River
Confusion, embarrassment, and guilt can all be found throughout João Guimarães Rosa's short story "The Third Bank of the River." Rosa forces the reader to analyze his words and delve deeply into the hidden meanings behind them. Upon first glance, a story unfolds of a father who seemingly abandons his family and chooses to live out the remainder of his life rowing a small boat back and forth along a river. There are circumstances leading up to this behavior, which new insight to the author's psychological meaning.
The story develops through the narration of one of the children in the family. His recollection of the days which lead to his father's absence brings a clear image of the family structure he knew when he was a child. The narrator describes his father as "dutiful, orderly," and "straightforward"(200). He is quick to point out, however, who has the final say in the household: "It was mother, not father, who ruled the house" (200). When the father decides to order a boat, made specifically for him, the mother "carriedon plenty about it" (200). When the boat arrives, the father says goodbye to all, and the children expect their mother to carry on about this, but her reaction is mixed. The effectiveness of her orders to her husband, "If you go away, stay away. Don't ever come back," is weakened as she bites her lip and turns very pale. Her authority is reduced further when her son follows his father to the river, feeling "bold and exhilarated" because he risks the wrath of his mother and wins (200). The child feels so vindicated by his rebellious actions that he asks to accompany his father in the boat. However, his father gestures to him to return, and r...
... middle of paper ...
...the son, the father is nothing, and without the father, the son is nothing.
A riverbank can be found where two worlds, earth and water, connect. Any river will have two banks, one on either side of the water. Rosa has created a character who has found a "third bank on the river," a third way to separate land from the sea. This bank belongs to an entirely different world. Rosa has found a way for the father to exist, yet not exist, within the family. He is connected to his family and weighs heavily upon their minds even though he is a part of an entirely different world. He has discovered this link by establishing a "third bank of the river."
Work Cited
Rosa, João Gumarães. "The Third Bank of the River." Trans. William Grossman. Angles of Vision. Ed. Arthur W. Biddle and Toby Fulwiler. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992. 200-203.
"The Third Bank of the River" is a short story written by João Guimarães Rosa, published in his book Primeiras Estórias (First Stories), in 1962.
It is narrated in first person by the son of a man who decides to leave the family and the whole society to live within a small [canoe] in a huge river.
Guimarães Rosa uses several expressions and culture facts of specific regions of Brazil (which is known as regionalism in the literature), but the tale is however universal, dealing with great dilemmas of human existence. It is written in poetic prose and has sentences that play with specific orality of Brazilian Portuguese.
Criticism and interpretations[edit]
Alienation[edit]
In a article from February 1966 about the short stories of the book "First Stories" and the general work of Guimarães Rosa, Paulo Rónai concludes that "The third bank of the river" deals with the alienation that is "accepted as a painful part of life's routine when it is gradually declared."[1] The narrator of the tale starts to infect himself with the dementia of his father.[2]
Orality[edit]
About orality, Rónai observes that the tales of "First Stories" use idioms that we are accustomed to hear in the mouths of people and that, in their fruity vigor, give delicious flavor and energy to the popular speech. He uses as examples the following sentences extracted from this short story: "Nosso pai nada não dizia.", "Do que eu mesmo me alembro", "Nossa casa, no tempo, ainda era mais próxima do rio, obra de nem quarto de légua", "perto e longe de sua família dele", "avisado que nem Noé".[3]
Rosa, therefore, would not be a writer who merely reproduces popular language, as he uses neologisms and idioms in a way that, for Rónai, is "so provocatively original".[4]
Neologisms[edit]
As stated earlier, Rosa not only portrays a popular and peasant speech, but also invents new words and terms in his texts. On "The third bank of the river", the neologism "diluso" is a possible variant of "diluto" or "diluído" (diluted, dissolved).[5]
Influence[edit]
Popular music[edit]
The song "The third bank of the river", with music by Milton Nascimento and lyrics by Caetano Veloso, was composed in 1991,[6] explicitly from the eponymous tale of Guimarães Rosa. The song is ninth track of the album Circuladô (1991), by Caetano Veloso.
Adaptations[edit]
Cinema[edit]
- This tale was adapted to the cinema in a French-Brazilian film of 1994 named The Third Bank of the River and directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos.[7]
Radio[edit]
- An adaptation was also made for radio with an episode titled The Third Bank of the River airing in 1985 as part of the Vanishing Point series.
Bibliography[edit]
- RONAI, Paulo. "Os vastos espaços" (escrito em 1966). in: Primeiras Estórias. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 2001.
- ROSA, Vilma Guimarães Rosa. Relembramentos. Nova Fronteira, 2014 [1983].
- SANTANA, Ana Glécia Ramos de. "O estudo da literatura na contemporaneidade: como a poética é realizada nas canções". Camaçari: Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 2013. Available online here.
References[edit]
- ^ Rónai, 1966, p.22
- ^ Rónai, 1966, p.26.
- ^ Rónai, 1966, p.31-32.
- ^ Rónai, 1966, p.32.
- ^ A terceira margem do rio (Conto de Primeiras estórias), de Guimarães Rosa. Passeiweb. Acesso: 8 de julho de 2018.
- ^ Santana, 2013, p.18.
- ^ IMDb. "A Terceira Margem do Rio". IMDb. Retrieved 20 February 2019.