Gender 7/14/13

In “The Rod of Justice,” Brazillian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, better known as just Machado, writes about a boy who is meant to be enrolled in a seminary. The boy had left the seminary, determined to follow a different path with his life. He was scared to return home, as his father would send him back to the seminary to return to his studies immediately. He finally settled on seeking refuge with the sweetheart of his godfather, Sinha Rita. She was a seamstress and not only oversaw her own slaves but the slaves of others in the neighborhood. The boy, Damiao, arrived at her home and she took pity on him, contacting his godfather, Joao. Sinha Rita stood her ground against Joao, threatening her own relationship with him as a bargaining chip.

In this work, the gender and power are constantly conflicting. At first, it seems as though Sinha Rita maintains much of the power in the story. She is able to control the slaves with an iron fist and although she takes pity on Damaio, she does so on her own ground. When she wrote to Joao, the line “either you rescue the boy, or we never see each other again” clearly expresses the power lines between the couple (de Assis 916). She was able to hold her relationship over him in order to achieve the goal she needed. However, there is a twist at the end of the story as Sinha Rita asked Damaio to pass a rod in order to beat one of the slave girls. For a moment, Damaio realized that he held the power to hand over the rod and that he could protect the girl if he did not hand it over. His internal struggle causes the reader to question Sinha Rita's power in regards to gender. This young boy is given the opportunity to stop her abuse, yet after the brief moment, he gives in to her request and hands over the rod, reaffirming her power over the men in the story.

Works Cited

De Assis, Joaquim Maria Machado. "The Rod of Justice." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2013. 911-16. Print.