Topaz´s various colors

Abstract

An excursion through the Great Sertão´s paths constitutes a labrynthine narrative through wchich Riobaldo Tatarana´s life passes. From being a teacher to becoming Urutú-Branco, his adventures as a jagunço, his misadventure with women, his dialogues with God and the Devil, are all multifaceted expressions of the same experience. Memory becomes the recovery of the several meanings of that experience and the understanding of them all - always mediated by the transitory world of the jagunço and by women - he loved, eternal beares of the secrets of his paths. Norinhá, Otacília, and, finally, Diadorim are all diverse possibilities - the various colors of topaz.