A look at the city in “The fife and the trees” by Ricardo Ramos

Abstract

In “O pífano e as árvores”, Ricardo Ramos, through the confrontation between the country and the city, the present and the past, establishes a comparison between urban transformation and rural utopia, in a parallel that the character sets between his present and real condition, marked by the dissatisfaction caused by his negative perception of the surrounding environment, the modern city, and the souvenir already deformed by the time and space of a world which was experienced by his ancestors. The character sets a comparative degree between theconfrontation of his urban world view – represented by rhythm of the life in the modern city, environment of indefinite collectivities, marked by transitory and fugacious relationships that generate unconcerning relationships among its inhabitants, resulting in the standardizing of patterns and the lack of identity for individuals and also in the degradation and social sphacelation –, and the recollection of souvenirs in their internal monologue. In this duality between what is physical and emotional, present and past, urban and rural, the character go beyond a mere nostalgic position when he searches for the possibilities of the past experience in the present as a way of rescuing a already broken continuity or in via of rupture, in the attempt of re-establish his own identity. Keywords: City. Memory. Tradition. Rescue