The (younger) boy and the world (covered in feathers)

Human-nature relationship and the metaphor of birds in Vidas secas (1938) and o Menino e o mundo (2013)

Abstract

Published in 1938, Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos, denounces the inequalities of his time, both in the relations between humans and nature and in the relations of humans among themselves. The work catalyses the realities of a Brazil undergoing profound political and social changes. More than seventy years later, the award-winning animated feature film O menino e o mundo (2013), by Alê Abreu, reproduces reflections proposed by Ramos and presents some intersemiotic translations (Plaza, 2003) of the verbal narrative of Vidas Secas into sound and visual signs. Such process shows that the dialogue between the two works goes beyond the explicit thematic similarity and can be perceived in several elements of the animation, from the composition of the characters and the relationship between them to the aesthetic choices, both sound and visual, that allow the animation to expand some of the social criticisms presented by Ramos. As a sign of this dialogue, we will highlight the metaphor of the birds in both works, which has an important symbolic charge for both narratives.