Death without Weeping by Nancy Hughes
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Death without Weeping
Nancy Hughes in her book tries to explore the mortality of infant in Brazil and issues surrounding it, and more so the culture and beliefs. She gives a focus to the maternal love, relation with vulnerability of the children and action of mothers in the intention of survival of the children. Her theme focuses on the provision of motherly love to the children who are likely to survive and shift of care for those not likely to survive. Therefore, from the script, mothers only invest their attention and love for those children who are liable to survive and distance themselves from those who are perceived to be vulnerable and likely not to survive.
Most children were subjected to the conditions of higher mortality rate, and most of them are likely not to survive. Brazil at the time had poor health conditions and violence that subjected children to risks that made them vulnerable to death. Therefore, the conditions are the cause of the vulnerability of infants to succumb at that time. Many children were succumbing, and mothers had to get used to the occurrence, as their practice trained them to accept the death of their children as the transition from the real world to another. Mothers were made to believe that by weeping they impeded their children from accessing the other world.
The violence in Brazil subjects children to hunger and extreme conditions that risk their lives. Even as mothers care for their children, they have little to do with controlling the situation to make their children survive. From the motherly love, no mother would love to see their children suffer due to the socioeconomic complexities yet it is difficult for a child to survive in a place of violence. Sicknesses dominate due to the poor controls, and the children too are subjected to the extremities that threaten their lives and increase mortality rate.