A lâmpada de Deus e o aberto perigo: Riobaldo entre a afirmação, a negação e a dúvida

Abstract

Riobaldo, former "jagunço" and protagonist-narrator of Grande sertão: veredas, is an anguished man disturbed by memories of a past that he cannot understand. Riobaldo would like to find in religion an explanatory system which could make sese of his life experiences. It is to cope with them that he seeks ultimate senses, absolute truths, or, in his own words: "God's light bulb, the smooth and actual truth". However, reflecting upon this matter, he takes his inquiries so far as to end up doubting the very religious principles he was hoping to assert. His affirmative statements are always followed by their problematization, or even their negation, only to be brought back reaffirmed later on. So, everything ends up in ambiguity, in impasse, briefly, in the impossibility of establishing any soothing ultimate sense.