Human Suffering in Clarice Lispector's Short Stories
"The wound is the place where the Light enters you" (Rumi). As the 13th-century Persian poet pens suffering; Lispector faced the harsh reality of the prejudiced world from her early childhood, which helped her to develop the core of human suffering as an inevitable fate and unfair characterization through the use of symbolism, anthropomorphism, and dark humor.
Lispector uses anthropomorphism to convey human suffering as an inevitable outcome and unfair characterization. In her short stories "A Remarkable Love Story," and "The chicken," Lispector gives human qualities to both the rooster and the hen to express her distressed feelings as well as opinions about human life. In the story
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“A Remarkable Love Story”, Lispector portrays her views by starting the story with "The hen is anxious unlike the cockerel who suffers from an almost human anguish" ("A Remarkable Love Story" 40). The usage of words and phrases like "anxious" and "almost human anguish" display the use of anthropomorphism in the story and hint a negativity in Lispector's life. Since the rooster and the hen represent men and women, respectively, it is unquestionably understood that feelings of poor quality and suffering occur in all humans. It also shows that people are too engaged to have any time for themselves, hence they are busy providing for others and limiting themselves from the joy of life. Knowledge about Lispector's life also helps to understand such sentiment in the stories. Lispector was married to a diplomat, who would be occupied with his work, leaving Lispector in near isolation. In her, other story “The Chicken”, Lispector continues to express the inevitable fate of a human being by giving the chicken-human qualities. "No one would have ever have guessed that the chicken felt anxious" ("The Chicken" 49), the quotation provides a concrete evidence of internal and external suffering felt by humans in day to day life, specifically the pain felt by mothers. When a mother gives birth to a child, the child is more important to her than anything else in the world. In the child's early days the mother is everything, as the child grows and matures its memory will be void and meaningless while the mother still has the same compassionate nature towards the child. This mother and child relationship helps to serve as a tangible support that human suffering is unjust in characterization. Anthropomorphism contributes to unfair characterization and inevitable destiny because it displays that when suffering from calamities and failures in life, human being ignore the problems and try to avoid it rather than to face it due to the societal stigma of not being perfect or "suffering." Further, substantiating her claims, Lispector uses dark humor in her short story, “Smallest Woman in the World” to present the harsh reality of life, "we could make her our toy, eh" ("Smallest Woman in the World" 91).
The phrase is significant because it shows what people think of suffering, especially the children. Lispector portrays suffering in something more than a metaphysical pain and hurt. She explains human anguish and suffering as a dangerous journey people feel throughout their life, making it endless and irrepressible. Understanding the severity of the issue of self-suffering, Lispector was obligated to address her response to human suffering via the “Smallest Woman in the World”. The fact she includes the woman's feeling as she remembers her childhood, "They played with the dead girl, bathing her and feeding her little tidbits, and they punished her only to be able to kiss and comfort her afterward" ("Smallest Woman in the World" 91). The mother’s reminiscent of her dark past affects the reader because the reader could connect to such suffering and relate to her as well as helps to reason why Lispector chose to address the issue of human suffering. In the anecdote by the mother, the dead girl and those who played with her suffered from the same unconditional pain felt by her. Although she was already dead and did not believe anything, the fact "they" played with her shows the dark humor in that sense it was an unfair characterization. The dead girl was suffering even more after her death while those around her were playing with her. In the context of Lispector, the reader could relate to such a story at least once in their lifetime where the victim was suffering, and the perpetrators were set free. Similar to a play or an act, the audience roll their dice to predict the character’s demise. The use of dark humor contributes to the inevitable outcome and unfair characterization because it helps to understand and relate to the story while feeling similar
hardships faced by the characters in Lispector's stories. Additionally, Lispector uses symbolism in “A Remarkable Love Story”, to convey the inescapable fate of human suffering. When ending the story, she addresses the love of the little girl as "the love of someone who had already suffered for love" ("A Remarkable Love Story" 41). It symbolizes a vital role in expressing Lispector's view on human suffering because at this time in her life she had realized that life moves on while tragedies are just a part of day to day life. Furthermore, the love for one who has already suffered from love shows the absurdity of life and the word "love" symbolizes something unappealing in the context of the phrase. It serves as evidence to support the suffering as an inevitable fate because the "someone" had already felt the pain in their life and were aware of the human conditions leading to love and after love. It also symbolizes Lispector's life as she fell in love with someone who could not reciprocate the same feelings for her. The fact that she had an affair symbolizes her as the one who had suffered for love, making the whole story about her experiences and sufferings. The phrase is purposely at the end of the story, to show and symbolize that human suffering is merely an inevitable fate and unfair characterization. Through the Lispector's stories, the reader can always be aware of the internal and external pain felt by each and every individual in the course of their lifetime. Lispector expresses the structural characterization of human suffering as unfair because people are blinded by the reiterating social stigma of suffering. Furthermore, Lispector claims that human nature will and forever be indebted to their suffering because of their faiths and beliefs. In the story “The Chicken”, Lispector states, "The chicken became the queen of the household. Everybody, except her, knew it" ("The Chicken" 52). The quote is significant because Lispector addresses the nature of human as one filled with suffering and one vying for suffering even in times of joy and celebration. The incompetence of the chicken to know that she became the "Queen" of the house mocks the incompetency of human ideal of happiness and ability to understand the difference in suffering. Lispector forces the reader to question what they think of suffering and what can be classified as suffering, in contrary, to the prevailing opinion as well as argues that suffering is incorrectly characterized into genders and different authority figures. Claiming what society views as suffering is what can be seen from the outside, and society ultimately discredits the one that can't be seen: internal pain and purposely characterizes her story to the issue of women to explain human suffering as an inevitable fate and an unfair characterization. Works Citied Lispector, Clarice. Family Ties. Trans. Giovanni Pontiero and Richard A. Mazzara. Austin: University of Texas, 1984. Print. Texas-Pan American Ser. Lispector, Clarice. Selected Cronicas. Trans. Giovanni Pontiero. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp. 1992. Print. "Today's Quotes: The Wound Is the Place Where the Light Enters You." Daily Love with Mastin Kipp. N.P., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.
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