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Dagama, Cary Grant, And The Election Of 1934

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In Charles Reis Felix’s novel DaGama, Cary Grant, and the Election of 1934, Felix describes various characters in the fictional town of Gaw. The characters introduced in this novel are varied in a myriad of ways, ranging from their ethnicity to their personality. The focus of the novel is on a young boy named Seraphin, who comes from an immigrant Portuguese family, and his interactions with the people of Gaw. The story is set against the backdrop of the election of 1934, which, when viewed through the eyes of Seraphin, provides an interesting perspective on how the Portuguese in Gaw act and what kind of image they project in relation to the arguments of modern day sociologists and anthropologists. The first argument, made by Maria Gloria de …show more content…

This view is echoed in Felix’s novel from the very beginning, when Seraphin sees Johnny the chicken plucker. Johnny is only 14 years old, but is forced to drop out of school to work. Seraphin relates “Ernest had told him that Johnny had been smart in school, but his father wanted him to go to work. So he had quit school and this was the only job he could get (Felix 2).” This quote illustrates that Johnny’s father forced him to quit school so he could help bring bread to the table. The setting of this novel is vital for understanding the context of this statement, particularly since this novel is set in the 1930’s, at a time when education was not valued as highly as it is today, especially since this novel takes place after the greatest economic depression in the history of the country, a time when money was scarce. The Portuguese in Gaw were not preventing their children from going to school due to cultural beliefs that higher schooling was useless, rather they had no choice because of the need …show more content…

Moniz defines the Shadow Minority as “they have been subjected to the same kinds of social exclusion faced by legally codified minority groups, yet they lack the concomitant legal framework and political vocabulary that “minority” classification confers (Moniz 428).” While this may hold true for the Portuguese of today, this cannot be applied to the Portuguese of Gaw. The Portuguese of Gaw in Felix’s novel lived in the 1930’s, at a time when the civil rights movement had yet to occur, and racism ran rampant and unchecked. Therefore, while the Portuguese did not have any type of minority rights, neither did any other minority group at that point in time. In actuality, the community of Gaw is described as fairly multi-ethnic, and from Seraphin’s description of various people in Gaw, it does not seem as if any ethnicity has a leg up on another, particularly since Gaw is a community of immigrants. The best evidence for this is during the election, when several different groups have someone representing their ethnicity during the mayoral election. Even though none of the candidates are able to unseat the incumbent, they put up a fight, and even work together, with the Portuguese Secundo B. Alves backing the French Armand Langevin during the final election. At

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