IDENTITY AND IDENTITY CRISIS IN "THE MAN WITH THE HOLE IN THE HAND", BY IGNÁCIO DE LOYOLA BRANDÃO

Abstract

This article develops the analysis of the short story "The man with the hole in the hand" by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, aiming to understand the role that society has as an influence in the construction of an autonomous human being, having as a theoretical basis Ramiro Giroldo (2012), bringing some concerns about our daily life, and evidencing the causes of living in a completely dictating and exclusive society and about identity with Carolina Laurenti and Mari Nilza Ferrari de Barros (2000),  Carlos R. Brandão (1990), Ana M. B. Bock et al (2008), Olegária Matos (1999), Samuel Ponsoni and Karl Marx (1978) and others. The method is descriptive, since we seek to understand some issues present in our society such as prejudice, search for identity, exclusion and related issues. The tale shows the life of a man completely stuck to work and a marriage completely of appearances, thus living a monotonous life. Exclusion from the environment in which he is inserted generates some complications of his experience in society. When the character goes through an identity crisis, because he recognizes himself with the hole even in the face of all the repression, we evidence a search for the self that until then was unknown to him, having as a relational then an acceptance of authenticity and his own uniqueness, contrasting with the need to conform to the norms established by the environment in which he was inserted. In view of the above, the hole in the hand becomes a symbol of the search for identity, of resistance to social impositions, also feeding the desire to break the ties of everyday alienation.