Child of the Dark The diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus - Essay Example

Another deterrent of having faith in democracy is the lying that politicians do. Carolina wrote a poem, "Politicians on their platform, Promise they will give you raises, And the people find out soon enough, That its their suffering that was raised" (Maria, 123). Through Carolinas views, one can see that support of democracy weakens with the distrust of politicians. The problems within Brazil also deter Carolina from having sympathy to democracy. She says, "The cost of living makes the worker lose his sympathy for democracy" (Maria, 103).

She also makes the promise that, "If the cost of living keeps on rising until 1960, were going to have a revolution" (Maria, 119). The key word, revolution, supports the claim that democracy and poverty cannot coexist, at least not for long. If the cost of living does not change, the democratic state will be challenged. Another challenge of democracy is corruption. Carolina talks of how the collector for electricity money is allowed to charge those living in the favelados whatever he wants (Maria, 147).

When the poor realize that they are being stolen from, they are not willing to accept a flawed form of government. On the other hand, Carolina also negates the argument that democracy cannot coexist with poverty. She does this through her political actions. On July 7th, 1958 Carolina went to register to vote. She said, "When I got to Semanario Street, I needed a photo for registration papers. I had a picture taken in Foto Lara. It cost me 60 cruzeiros" (Maria, 76) This may not jump out as an action to support democracy, but when one takes into account how much 60 cruzeiros is worth to her, one can see how much she sacrificed to register to vote.

60 cruzeiros was the equivalent to about 1 kilo of beans in Brazil in the 50s. She could have fed her family for days, but yet she still made it a priority to take part in the political process. Another example of her participation occurs while addressing