Brazil, Russia, India and China, are expected to overtake the traditionally powerful G7 countries by 2027 (Foroohar). Brazil also has a relatively low unemployment rate, at only 6.4% (“Too Hot”) relative to 8.1 percent in the already developed United States. An article in The Economist predicted a GDP growth of 3.9 percent in 2011 as compared to only a 1.8 percent increase in the United States and only 1.3 percent growth in the United Kingdom (“A Game of Catch Up”). In the past decade, Brazil’s increased mining of natural resources, most notably petroleum, has also led to economic success. Brazil’s president Dilma Rouseff recently launched a campaign to increase Brazilian oil production to 5 million barrels a day, in an effort to land Brazil a spot in the top three oil-producing countries by 2020 (“The Devil in Deep Sea Oil”). For these reasons, Brazil’s is currently on trajectory to become a definitive world power by the end of the twenty-first century. However, a dramatic increase in poverty has also accompanied the country’s economic success. The most prominent and visible example of this poverty was the development of favelas—or squatter slums—outside major Brazilian cities, such as Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, in the early twentieth century. According to a study conducted in 2005 by Janet Perlman, over twenty percent of Rio de Janeiro’ residents reside in favelas, a major increase from a previous survey in the 1960s (Perlman). Many hypotheses exist as to why favelas have developed so rapidly. While some blame urbanization and industrialization (Skidmore), others cite de-urbanization due to rent raises and pay freezes in cities (Loyd-Sherlock). Despite Brazil’s economic growth, the number of favelas in Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil’s largest cities, has more than doubled since 1969 (“Metamorphosis of Marginality” 155). Today, thirty-four percent of all Brazilians live below the poverty line, while fifty percent of the wealth is controlled by the top ten percent of society (“Metamorphosis of Marginality” 155). Brazil’s economic success has been more beneficial to those few wealthy, while the poor have continued to suffer. This dualist nature of urban Brazilian society is a common theme within the writing of Rubem Fonseca. Throughout his writing, Fonseca attempts to depict the struggles of Brazilian society by ironically juxtaposing poverty and prosperity. For example, Th e B e r k sh i r e S c h ol a r
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