The sertão’s dog at the Arraial do Ão

Abstract

This paper has two levels. The first, a thematic one, deals with the jagunçofi gure, represented in the novel by Soropita, like a means that, initially, local politicalbosses and big land owners make to strengthen their private power and, later, the Stateitself uses to attack this power. The second level deals with the relation between mythand history, showing how they combine to each other in a tense manner, like the relationbetween universality and particularity, in such a way that one tends to replace theother.