THE (DIS)CONSTRUCTION OF CHILDHOOD AND RACISM IN THE TALE “NEGRINHA” BY MONTEIRO LOBATO

Abstract

The main theme of this paper is racism and child abuse, as evidenced in the short story Negrinha, by Monteiro Lobato, published in 1920. The intention is to bring up the discussion about the construction of childhood over time and how it has always been neglected this right to blacks, evident in Lobato’s short story. Negrinha’s childhood i salso the childhood of many Brazilian children of yesterday and today who feel in their flesh the racial prejudice and discrimination that affect them and do it day by day in the favelas and streets of the great Brazilian centers and in the furthest corner of this great country. The slave elite mentality of the Brazilian elite is represented by the character Dona Inácia, who refuses to accept the condition of former slave owner. She is the portrait of the cruelty of a hypocritical society, which even after 30 years of the Lei Áurea, still had slave like habits because it considered itself superior due to the color of its skin or its social conditions. It is discussed in this text, then, that the situation witnessed in the story is revealed at present, sometimes in a masked way. Brazilian society, despite considering itself modern, remains discriminatory, prejudiced and racist, especially when it comes to dealing with black children. To strengthen this debate, then, we used research on the construction of childhood over time and the theoretical scholars of Lobato who dialogue whit modern writers in order to discuss the issues of racism that are in the window today.