
For this essay, I chose to write about a paragraph that really stood out to me in the beginning of Chapter Three. This paragraph has tons of description of Pereira’s surroundings as he is astonished by the looks of the city he lives in. The very first sentence of this paragraph is the one that stands out to me the most. It states, “In Praca da Alegria, there was no sense of being in a besieged city. …” (Ch. 3, para. 3). This sentence gives the initial reaction that Pereira has towards his city when he goes out and sees what is happening. I also believe that this first sentence really shows a side of Pereira as a character. This sentence tells us that something is going on within or outside of his city lines. Later in the paragraph I realized that the country of Praca da Alegria is in a war with Spain. Overall, I get the feeling while reading this paragraph that Pereira is kind of spooked out how quiet his city is despite the war going on in Spain.

The initial thing that I noticed about this paragraph was all of the descriptive vocabulary. The author chooses to use sentences such as “The whole place was decorated with paper festoons and coloured light bulbs, green and yellow, hanging on wires strung from window to window. There were a number of tables out in the open and several couples dancing. …” (Ch. 3, para 3). These two sentences really paint a picture in your head of what the town of Praca da Alegria looks like through the eyes of our main character, Pereira. In my opinion, if America was at a major war with another country, I would think that everyone would be in a state of emergency and distress. There would be no decorations hung, colored light bulbs or especially couples dancing. It is almost like the people were happy about the war going on which almost gives a sense of foreshadowing. It makes you think…what are they so happy about? Is Praca da Alegria the victor of the war? I highly doubt it with an opponent like Spain. But the artistry of the words in this paragraph is excellent and really paint a picture in my mind of what the town Pereira lives in, looks like. 

This paragraph also shows who Pereira is as a character and puts the spot light on his feelings about his country. He is like me, he is amazed that people in his country are celebrating or having some sort of celebration when their Portuguese troops are in Spain. There are people dying, and all they are doing is sitting around having a party! There is also some mystery in the first part of this paragraph; Pereira is confused about why the people in his country are partying. But, “then he noticed a banner stretched between two trees, and written on it in enormous letters: LONG LIVE FRANCISCO FRANCO. And beneath this, in smaller letters: LONG LIVE OUR PORTUGUESE TROOPS IN SPAIN.” (Ch. 3, para. 3). At this point, Pereira figures out why the people in his town are celebrating. It is for the troops deployed in Spain. 

In this chapter the police aren’t like ones one might see in our country, “…because he saw no police at all, only a night watchman who appeared to be drunk, dozing on a bench.” (Ch. 3, para. 3). The second sentence of the paragraph, the one above, is very surprising and also funny to me! The reason it comes across funny to me is because someone usually would see a police officer keeping the party under control or at least looking over the situation. Instead, this police officer, or night watchman, decided he wanted to party with the townspeople. If I saw this in the middle of my town, I would be surprised to see a police officer at a public function that had drank a few too many drinks. 

The last thing that I noticed about this paragraph were the last few sentences, “Then he noticed a banner stretched between two trees, and written on it in enormous letters: LONG LIVE FRANCISCO FRANCO. And beneath this, in smaller letters: LONG LIVE OUR PORTUGUESE TROOPS IN SPAIN.” (Ch. 3, para. 3). The questions that came to my head were “Who is Francisco Franco?”, and “Why is he important?” My guess is that Francisco Franco might be the army general or the leader of Praca da Alegria. He is definitely someone who is liked by the people in the town or at least by just the people throwing the party. The partygoers obviously also care about their troops in the other country because they made it to the sign too!

Finally, Pereira is so used to seeing so many police officers all over his town, mainly on every street corner, except this time. There were hardly none in sight. The country that he lives in is currently in a war with Spain and a lot of the country’s male population is overseas defending Praca da Alegria from Spains grasp. I believe that Pereira was so used to being in the scared, and defenseless city that he didn’t know what to think whenever he stepped outside and saw everyone throwing a party and the fact that they seemed happy about the country’s current situation. Lastly, I like how he explained everything he saw in great detail. That is one of the reasons why I chose this paragraph because it has so much to go on.
