A central character and the novel’s first-person narrator, Rodrigo S. M., like his character Macabéa, “grew up in the northeast” (4) and lives in Rio de Janeiro in the narrative present. To make money, Rodrigo works a manual labor job, but he primarily spends his personal time writing. He doubts that anyone significant will ever read his work but believes that writing is his only purpose in life. Writing gives him a sense of meaning and allows him to channel his questions, thoughts, worries, and fears about life and existence into language. At the same time, writing can’t entirely quell Rodrigo’s existential dread or save him from his protracted boredom. This is largely because Rodrigo identifies so closely with the protagonist of his story: the lowly girl from the northeast, Macabéa.

Rodrigo gets the idea to write Macabéa’s story after encountering a northeastern girl while walking through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. As soon as he meets her eye, he glimpses “in the air the feeling of perdition” (4). Macabéa’s economically limited condition and social invisibility move him, and he feels determined to convey her tale in writing.