Research Paper on:
Macabea in The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

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often is she oblivious to her social ineptness that she is unfazed by what others know to be outright deviant behavior. That she cannot see beyond the emptiness of  her life and the absence of meaning to anything she does speaks volumes regarding the complete vacancy that occupies her personality. To stray  from the norm is to deviate from socially acceptable behavior; when one is deviant, she goes against the very essence of what society has deemed acceptable. One of the  easiest things in life is to deviate from what is considered by the masses to be normal; in fact, Morpheus points out that it is often considerably more difficult to  remain upon a straight and narrow path with the myriad obstacles that appear in daily life. The student can readily argue that deviant behavior has found its niche within  Macabeas life, even and especially to the point of infiltrating what is considered to be a standard of normalcy. Human nature is defined  by myriad elements, not the least of which is the social need to categorize people into distinct groupings based upon certain criteria. These innate classifications can represent significant social  power, as in the case of beauty, wealth and status, or they can symbolize aspects of society that people would just as soon forget, such as Macabea. Her personality  - or rather lack of one - is but one of the many elements that repel others from even wanting to be near her; it takes everything they can muster  for the other women at work to even give her the time of day. Macabea is blind to this harsh treatment, however, inasmuch as she does not have the