She describes herself as being very different from the other favelados, and claimed that "she detested other blacks from her social class". While she watched many of the people around her succumb to drugs, alcohol, prostitution, violence, and robbery, she chose to stay loyal to her children and her writing. Carolina was consistently able to provide for her children by recycling used trash for money or foraging through garbage cans for food and clothing. By saving some of the paper she collected, Carolina had the material she needed to continue her writing. Another atypical part of Carolina's life concerned her choice of sexual partners. Although it was not unusual for faveladas to seek lighter-skinned partners, since light skin was associated with higher economic status, Carolina never used her relationships to better her own situation. The fathers of her children were all white foreigners from Italy, Portugal, and the United States. Many of her lovers offered to marry Carolina but she accepted none of their proposals, even though they would have lifted her out of poverty. A possible explanation may be that she did not want anyone to compromise her way of living. Regardless of the reason, Carolina stayed true to her beliefs and would not submit to the way of life that the favela offered her. She wrote four additional books after "Child of the Dark", which were published without success. She rose and fell from the public eye rapidly. This was probably because of her strong personality that kept her from getting along with a lot of people. But also the political panorama of Brazilian society would change drastically after the coup d'état, in 1964, leaving little room for social manifestation. She also dabbled in poems, short stories, and brief memoirs, none of which were ever published. In fact, her obituary in a 1977 edition of "Jornal do Brasil" comments about her blaming herself for not being able to take advantage of her brief celebrity status and that her stubbornness led her to die in poverty. We should rather consider how her story and descriptions provide insight to the Brazilian favela condition. For example, the events of Carolina's life can be seen as a sad story for one individual, or one can look beyond that and see the average Brazilian's view of society, family life, equality, poverty, and other aspects of daily existence. Her book was read extensively both in capitalist areas such as Western Europe and the United States, as well as in socialist bloc countries, the Eastern bloc and Cuba, the wide range of audience suggesting how many people her story affected outside of Brazil.