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The article focuses on the social conflicts depicted in two excerpts from the novels O cortiço (1890) by Aluísio Azevedo, and Recordações do escrivão Isaías Caminha (1909) by Lima Barreto. The conflicts take the form of confrontations between the people and the police, and the standpoint from which they are presented at once reveals and distorts elements of the historical context. This is the period characterised by the redefinition of work relations and by the policies of the sanitisation and urbanisation of Rio de Janeiro. The excerpts capture two moments within a continuing process and reveal some of the consequences of imposing modernisation on a society, such as the elimination of the “expendable” population from the city centre, and the repression of popular uprisings that were opposing the approaching Modernity.