The struggles for Abolition and the Republic brought hopes of substantive change in the end of the 19th century in Brazil. That change never materialized: the Republic congealed into an oligarchic political system and an aggressive and cosmetic modernization. Machado de Assis' "The Nurse" (1896), Monteiro Lobato's "The Funny Man Who Repented" (1918), and Lima Barreto's "The Man Who Knew Javanese" (1920) all published under the impact of the disappointment of those who wished for true social and political democracy, bear remarkable similarities in their portrayal of the problem of social mobility and race relations.
Brazilian Literature; race relations; Machado de Assis; Lima Barreto; Monteiro Lobato