By creating a fictional account of a particular phase of Brazilian history, Jorge Amado brings to life the social, political, and economic issues that fed into the agricultural development of the country’s northern territory. A multi-generational family saga is used to highlight personal qualities that supported or undermined successful development. Amado’s fictional families, the Siqueiras and the Baldarós, largely exist in opposition, as the members aim to build their own empire at the expense of the other clan. The author shows how the corrupt deals on both sides create quasi-military strongholds that effectively rule the provinces and block the possibility of effective federal control. Although the original Portuguese title literally means “endless” lands rather than “violent” lands, the novel shows violent as a deliberately employed tool, not an accidental byproduct, of the quest for political-economic control.

Because it is a novel, Amado emphasizes personal relations, joys, and sorrows. Individual family members betray their own people through involvement with the other side. The frustrations of unhappily married men and women combine with unprincipled sexual aggression and uncontrollable passions to form shifting love triangles which, the reader can readily predict, will not end well. The newcomers to the territory, hailing from cosmopolitan urban centers, often adjust with difficulty and seek solace in affairs; a good example is the lawyer Virgilio Cabral, who falls in love with a married woman, Ester Silveira, who seeks refuge from her husband’s boorish ways. Cabral’s greed and feigned devotion sets in motion a set of violent events, including sabotage, arson, vigilante violence, and even murder.

Although the female characters seem conventional, even stereotypical for most of the novel, as the action heats up, the women step up to protect their families, homes, and lands. Ester dies from nursing her sick husband (on whom she had been cheating), but Ana Baldarós fiercely defends her home from invaders. While Amado does not tie up all the loose ends, or convey that the wicked are always punished, he provides a resolution for the Silveira story, as Ester’s husband learns of her affair with Cabral, in whose loyalty he had trusted, and has him killed. This type of justice is consistent with Amado’s overall characterization of a Wild West mentality in this remote frontier.