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
The Socialist Woman its publishing house agreed to produce "The Socialist Woman" free of charge. The move freed Conger-Kaneko to focus more of her attention on editing, and over the next year she made several changes designed to bring in new readers. She began publishing fictional stories as well as news, and published special issues devoted to teachers, temperance, and child labor. Hoping to reach new readers, Conger-Kaneko changed the magazine's name to "The Progressive Woman" in March 1909. The change had the desired result, and by 1910 "The Progressive Woman" had between 12,000 and 15,000 subscribers. Special issues sold as many as