Book Making and Candido

"The meeting occurred at a dance: it was--to recall the young man's former trade--the first page of that book, which was to leave the press badly printed and with a worse binding. " (Machado de Assis, "Father vs. Mother") 

       At it's outset, "Father vs. Mother" is a story of desperation feeding on itself. Candido Neves and his wife Clara are forced to leave their baby at a convent. When Candido captures a slave who is pregnant, and terrified of being hurt, he is put to the test. Will Candido place the needs of her unborn baby before his own family's? In a few sarcastic lines, we realize the story's dark conclusion. Because of the above quote, however, I believe that this was not intended to be a tale of desperation, but a tale of poor judgement, planning and work ethic, based on my experience with book binding.

          According to the metaphor highlighted in the above quote, Clara and Candido's relationship is a book.  Each encounter between the two makes up the pages-- every experience adds to the story. The "binding" is what keeps them together--couples are bound by love and commitment, books are bound by thread and/or glue. Bad binding indicates poor technique, that the job was rushed.  Based on Candido's lack of self discipline and commitment in learning the printing industry earlier, ("He began by deciding to learn printing but he soon saw that it would take some time to become a good compositor, and, even so, most likely he would not earn enough. That is what be told himself..." [Machado de Assis, "Father vs. Mother']) it comes as no surprise that his attempt at marriage would be equally weak, and assumptions beforehand just as rushed and unfounded. As far as being "badly printed," clearly Machado is referring to the lack of foresight and judgement that went into this relationship. If the printing is bad, it means that the printer did not take into account details as he plowed ahead. Such is the case with Candido and Clara.

            To some extent, "Father vs. Mother" is a story of the dreadful ends of desperation. But because Machado compared Candido's marriage to both a poorly made book and his weak attempt at bookbinding, it is clear that Machado intended to show that Candido's situation was not an unfortunate inevitability. He created his reality, and as a result of poor planning, commitment, and foresight, things ended tragically. Innocent parties outside his immediate circle of influence were affected. Tragedy seemed unavoidable, but rather than taking responsibility for his own poor book making, he forced the consequences upon a woman and her unborn child. No, a poorly made book is not a tragedy or even a crime, but it is a waste. Candido rushed into creating a family without having the self discipline, wisdom, or work ethic to properly support them, and as a result he lost his opportunity to have created a book of value, a book that did not have to rely on unethical justifications for its weak resolution.