Near to the Wild Heart opens with a scene of the child Joana playing in the garden, making up poems for her father. Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. She is frequently compared to animals: over the course of the book Lispector compares her to a bird, a snake, a wildcat, a horse, and a dog. She commits transgressive acts—as a child she throws a book at an old man's head, for example, and as a married woman she leaves her husband, Otávio, and greets the news of his adultery—he has made another woman, his
She Married Her Boss Julia's hotel room after she insists he cares more about the store than about her. Julia feels the marriage is over, and makes plans for a cruise to Cuba and Panama with Rodgers. As she stops by home to pick up her things, Annabel begs her to stay. Richard, usually a teetotaller, has been getting drunk with his butler. When he finds out Julia is in the house, he confronts her drunkenly, then pretends to have a gun in his pocket and forces her into a car being driven by the intoxicated butler. The car careens through the city to