Tent of Miracles by Jorge Amado

First published:Tenda dos milagres, 1969 (English translation, 1971)

Type of plot: Magical Realism

Time of work: From 1968 to 1969, with flashbacks to the years from 1868 to 1943

Locale: Salvador, in the state of Bahia, Brazil

Principal Characters:

• Pedro Archanjo, or
• Ojuobá, Eyes, or
• Xangô, the mulatto, bon vivant protagonist, a self-taught anthropologist, champion of miscegenation, and jack-of-all-trades, including writer, cult priest and runner/messenger at Bahia’s School of Medicine, a bastion of tradition
• Fausto Pena, the dramatized narrator, poet, and journalist, Pedro Archanjo’s 1968 biographer
• Nilo d’Ávila Argolo de Araújo, the antagonist, a professor of forensic medicine and a racist defender of white supremacy
• Lídio Corró, Archanjo’s intimate friend and cohort, a canvas miracle painter and printer/owner of the shop the Tent of Miracles
• Ana Mercedes, a brazen mulatta, poetess, reporter, and Fausto Pena’s unfaithful girlfriend
• Rosa de Oxalá, Lídio Corró’s mistress and Archanjo’s secret and unrequited love

The Novel

Most of the story takes place during different time periods in the old neighborhood of Pelourinho, where a type of a free university of Afro-Brazilian culture holds sway, owing to the practices of popular mestizo poets, artists, storytellers, musicians, craftsmen, singers, capoeiristas (dancers of a self-defense sport), black magicians, cult priests, and folk healers. This natural campus, actually situated near the state’s official school of medicine, has as its main building a shop called the Tent of Miracles where Master Lídio Corró runs his printing press and paints miracle pictures for those who wish to acknowledge their gratitude for having had their prayers answered.

The chancellor of this unofficial university is the protagonist, Pedro Archanjo, a mestizo whose knowledge, books (published by Corró), camaraderie, honor, generosity, and sexual feats command the respect of this community. Pedro Archanjo’s story is told in 1968, one hundred years after his birth, by Fausto Pena, an unappreciated poet, hired by the handsome and blond American scholar, winner of the Nobel Prize, and professor at Columbia University, Dr. James D. Levenson, to do research on Pedro Archanjo for an introduction to the professor’s English translation of the mulatto’s works. Unknown to the rest of Brazil’s literati until Levenson’s discovery, Pedro Archanjo’s works are praised and consecrated by the famous American’s recognition of their overall ethnological merit. Considered to be indispensable reading for understanding the racial problem in Brazil, these acclaimed works spark a local and national campaign for institutionalizing Pedro Archanjo as a Brazilian hero. In counterpoint to the fanfare and ultimate fictionalization of Archanjo as a national hero in 1968, a factual historical account, narrated by an omniscient voice, traces the hero’s humble beginnings from 1868, when his father was killed in Brazil’s devastating war with Paraguay, up to his position as messenger in the school of medicine in 1900, and during the time of his main publications (1904-1928) which cause a reactionary debate by the racist professor Nilo d’Ávila Argolo de Araújo with his theories of Aryan superiority.

Eventually discredited when Archanjo’s research reveals Argolo to be his distant relative, the pedant epitomizes the prejudice and hatred engendered by a black/white dichotomy inciting racial, economic, social, and political divisiveness. Archanjo’s defense of miscegenation leads to his imprisonment and to the destruction of the Tent of Miracles by the vigilante police chief, Pedrito Gordo. While Fausto Pena’s narrative closes with the protagonist in prison, the omniscient narrator resumes the rest of the story, paralleling the indigent mulatto’s death in 1943 with allusions to Nazism and the impact on the world of its belief of Aryan supremacy. Before dying, Archanjo, always the crusader, reminisces over his lifelong battle against the evil forces of bigotry and exhorts those who are to come after him to close the “gates” of division between the races by making the mixture of blood complete.

As the narrative draws to a close with the hypocritical pomp surrounding the centennial celebration of Archanjo’s birth, promoted by Bahia’s politicians, businessmen, and pseudointellectuals, the novel ends with the carnival of 1969, where Archanjo’s glory is celebrated. More festive and authentic, this popular tribute, in the form of a samba school’s musical theme, symbolizes Archanjo’s humane, real-life mulatto existence in the colorful streets of Bahia.

The Characters

Pedro Archanjo, the quintessential self-made man, who, despite all racial and socioeconomic odds, fights for the rights of blacks and mestizos via his actions and publications, is one of Jorge Amado’s most vibrant, sympathetic, and humane male protagonists. In true Amado fashion, Archanjo personifies the mobilizing force of good and truthfulness over evil and falsity, an antinomy in concert with Brazil’s popular oral poetics as well as with the Marxist dialectic of the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressors. As a staunch advocate of miscegenation, individual freedom, popular culture, a natural code of honor, spontaneity, carnivalesque customs and habits, as well as the fantasy and magic inherent in African ritual and legend, Archanjo practices what he preaches. Thus, he contrasts markedly with the authoritarian and chauvinist figures of Professor Argolo and Police Chief Gordo, who represent self-aggrandizement and, respectively, bigotry and violence.

An authentic folk hero, Archanjo is portrayed as fallible at times, but in most instances he is larger than life, given his relentless commitment to racial equality and the expressed need for individual freedom, love, humanity, and truth. For these reasons, other characters serve to highlight Archanjo’s qualities and beliefs. Tadeu Canhoto, for example, Archanjo’s light-skinned illegitimate son, reflects the struggle for upward social mobility, while Rosa de Oxalá, Archanjo’s undying but never-realized love (because of his respect for his brotherly friend Lídio Corró, Rosa’s lover) attests his sense of honor. In another example, Major Damião de Souza, a mulatto self-made lawyer, represents the crusading force on behalf of the poor and the downtrodden blacks. While several characters are developed more than others in order to mirror Archanjo’s struggle, it is clear that Jorge Amado wants the reader to sympathize mostly with the protagonist since he champions the author’s thesis for racial democracy in Brazil.

Critical Context

Tent of Miracles, Jorge Amado’s sixteenth novel and twenty-sixth book, has been printed in more than twenty editions and translated into every major language, including English and Russian. This novel, considered to be one of Amado’s most technically sophisticated creations, is representative of his second literary phase, which is commonly recognized as beginning with the critically acclaimed Gabriela, cravo e canela (1958; Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, 1962), a novel which announces Amado’s closer attention to character development, narrative techniques, and lyric prose, while de-emphasizing the overt thesis formula of his earlier social realist works. This phase is also marked by Amado’s allegiance to Brazil’s rich literary oral tradition, the literatura de cordel, poetry composed and sung by popular balladeers of the Northeast, stressing the time-honored values of the common folk. Tent of Miracles illustrates many of these themes and techniques in Amado’s development as a novelist, including a panoramic depiction of numerous Afro-Brazilian rituals and practices in which spiritual events magically play upon the destinies of his characters.

Known primarily as a popular, best-selling novelist, Amado proves himself to be a skillful craftsman in Tent of Miracles, frequently referred to as one of his masterpieces. In 1977, a feature-length Brazilian film based on this novel was made by the famous Brazilian director Nelson Pereira dos Santos.

Always a first-rate storyteller, Amado infuses his social criticism with humor, irony, and sex. Praised as well as criticized for his portraits of “sensual mulattas” and for alluding to Brazil as a racial democracy, Amado in Tent of Miracles provides through symbol and characterization an implicit explanation of his stand on these issues. Moreover, Tent of Miracles also constitutes one of the first examples of Amado’s allegorical documentation of violence, bigotry, and repression in Brazil, in the past and the late 1960’s. Ultimately, this novel accentuates Amado’s overriding theme of individual freedom while proving the author to be one of Brazil’s masterful novelists of the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Chamberlain, Bobby J. Jorge Amado. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Useful, informative, and readable, this critical analysis of Amado’s work covers all periods of the novelist’s output while focusing on a few of the author’s most important works. A biographical chapter is included, as well as an extensive bibliography.

Hinchberger, Bill. “Jorge Amado Writes from Heart, Home.” Variety 366 (March 31, 1997): 56. Hinchberger explores the inspirations that shape Amado’s work, the filming of Amado’s novels, and Amado’s reaction to the critical acclaim he has received. Offers interesting insight into the influences that shaped Amado’s work.

Pontiero, Giovanni. “Brazilian Backwater: Jorge Amado’s Bahia.” Third World Quarterly 12 (January, 1990): 208-214. Reviews several books by Amado, including Tent of Miracles. Praises Tent of Miracles, noting that it is “loquacious and pensive, in turn, irrepressibly driven on by life and its enigmas, at once whimsical and wise, biting and compassionate.”

Robitaille, L. B. “These Men of Letters Speak for the Powerless.” World Press Review 38 (December, 1991): 26-27. An intriguing profile of Amado, covering his political activity, his life in Paris, and his feelings for his native Brazil. Presents background that sheds considerable light on his writings.