Jose Saramago

The authors that I have read about are Eca de Queiros and Jose Saramago.

Eca de Queiros is the author of the book named "The Crime of Father Amaro". In

this novel the author discusses the sexual relationship that a priest has with the

young lady by the name of Amelia. Eca de Queiros's novel, The Crime of Father

Amaro takes place in Mexico but is portrayed as the life and economic system of

Portugal is a lurid satire of clerical corruption in a town in Portugal (Leira) At the

start, a priest physically explodes after a fish supper while guests at a birthday

celebrations are wildly dancing a polka. Young Father Amaro arrives in Leira and

soon lusts after and is lusted after by budding Amelia, dewy lipped, devout

daughter of Sao Joaneira who has taken in Father Amaro as a lodger. What ensues

is a secret love affair amidst a host of compelling minor characters: Canon Dias,

glutton and Sao Joaneira's lover; Dona Maria da Assuncao, a wealthy widow with a

roomful of religious images, agog at any hint of sex; Joao Eduardo, repressed

atheist, free-thinker and suitor to Amelia; Father Brito, the strongest and most

stupid priest in the district; EÐ"§a's sharp critique flies like a shattering mirror,

jabbing everything from the hypocrisy of a rich and powerful Church, to the men

and women in Portuguese society of the time, to the uselessness of politics or

science as antidotes to the town's ills.

The Crime of Father Amaro is probably a wrong title, since the priest is

guilty of "crimes," not just one "crime". He is essentially a good man who has lost

his way in a valley of compromises. Occasionally, we see flashes of the man who

entered the career (such as when Padre Amaro offers money to a man who has been

robbed), but there's a lot of bad to go with the good. The director goes to great

lengths not to represent the characters as evil despite their numerous flaws, they

remain largely sympathetic. No one in this movie is inherently evil; they are

products of a system that is rotten to the core.

Amelia is the true innocent in all of this, and, along with Amaro, the

character with which we develop the deepest emotional attachment. At first, one

might assume that she is the temptress and Padre Amaro is the potential victim,

but that turns out not to be the case. Amelia is deeply devout, but does not see

entering into a sexual relationship with a priest as being wrong. Her solution to

the matter is simple Padre Amaro should leave the priesthood to be with her. His

cold, calculated response is that he cannot and will not give up his career. This

moment represents a turning point in not only how Amelia views Padre Amaro, but

how we, the audience, see him. The Crime of Father Amaro reflect what is going on

in religions and political organizations worldwide.

The next author that I read was Jose Saramago he is a winner of a Nobel

Prize for his work in literatures. The issue he mainly touches is something to do

with separation. In Baltasar and Blimunda he talked about separation between

them, and in the movie "Stone Raft" you see a separation of five people that our on

a land and how it breaks off from rest of the continent

In "Stone Raft", the Iberian Peninsula, home of Spain and Portugal, becomes

the site of casual miracles. A young teacher named Joanna , hiking in the

forest, uses a long stick to draw a line in the dirt. The line becomes indelible. It

cannot be filled in or rubbed out. Another young teacher, Jose is

overwhelmed by a flock of starlings, which surround him in the street and continue

to follow him wherever he goes. A night porter, Joaquim , picks up a rock

that weighs as much as he does and casually tosses it into the sea. To his

astonishment, and that of several eyewitnesses, it skips like a pebble for more than

50 yards.

A rift opens up across the Pyrenees, separating the entire peninsula from

the rest of the European mainland. Though Americans show up to try to stitch the

two land masses together before Spain and Portugal can drift too far, their efforts

are to naught: Before long the new island is underway at the equivalent of 11 miles a

day, and accelerating as it heads for what promises to be a catastrophic collision

with the Azores.

Shadowed by the flock of starlings, Jose and Joaquim hook up with Pedro

...