"The Point of Despair" (Father Versus Mother, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, 91)

   What is despair?  According to diccionary.com, despair is the loss of hope, hopelessness.  In the Story of Father Versus Mother, by machado de Assis, I would link the word despair with desperation.  Candido Neves, the main character in this short story, experiences both of those things.  While in poverty with no source of income, a baby boy is born to his wife (Clara) and him.  Their Aunt Monica, with whom they live, gives them two choices; take their new born child to the “turn box” (an orphan hospital) or keep him in their home where he would die of starvation.  Of Candinho’s situation, the author states,

   “In such crises he never reached the point of desperation.  He counted on a loan.  He did not know how he would get it or from whom, but he counted on it . . . he spent several hours to no purpose and went back home.  The situation was acute.” (Father Verus Mother, 94)

   Although the author says contrary, I think Candinho really does despair and become desperate to keep his son.  In fact, he is willing to kill the life of another child (though unborn) in order to save his own.  When parents are in such difficult situations, sometimes there is no telling what they will do, especially when it comes to their children.  Exhibit A:  The movie “John Q.”

   In this movie, Denzel says, “It’s my job to protect him.”  For Candhino, after a stroke of good luck, he felt it was his job to turn in the slave girl and kill her child to “protect” his son; but was he really protecting himself?

                                                                      
   This story is set in  Brazil; giving babies up to orphanages, as Aunt Monica suggests these parents do, is not uncommon in Central and South America. Exhibit B:  
     <--- I was born in El Salvador.  My birth mother, Emma Guzman, already had several children, no husband to support her family, and no job for income when she became pregnant.  Her father told her that she had to give the baby up, and so she did.  What she didn't know is that she was carrying twins.  Was my biological Grandfather trying to save himself from more poverty?  Was he speaking realistically or selfishly?  Perhaps I will never know, but it doesn’t bother me because now I am here in the US, with my twin brother, part of a family and living a life I never could or would have had down there in that 3^rd world country.  A possible act of desperation on my birth family’s part turned out to be the biggest blessing for me and my twin.  But is it always like that for everyone else?