Reason and Insanity in Caio Fernando Abreu's short history Gravata

Abstract

In this paper, we present an analysisof the short story‘Gravata”, written by Caio Fernando Abreu, fromsome aspectsof modern capitalist society. "Gravata" belongs to the book of "O Ovo apunhalado", published in 1975, accumulating a series of readings about itself that deal with the aspects of different fields of knowledge such as history, philosophy and sociology. We emphasize theopposition betweenobjectivity and subjectivityinthis short story considering the EconomicFactorandEconomic Structure perspective according the philosophical studiesof Karel Kosik(1979). For this, we have to consider the context in which the short history was wrote: the dictatorial brazilian period, empathizing the historic moment of economic arising and cultural censor experienced for the country. In the moment that Brazil launches itself on the global scene, taking the form of economic growth adopted by the United States as a model to be followed, a large number of people was attracted to urban centers. The doctrinaire government forced with great power the conduct which should have been assumed by the big cities, resulting on a lost feeling and even rejection by the ones who migrated to the metropolis, making fragmented individuals like the protagonist from the short story in question, which is in need of balancing out between reasoning and craziness.