The House Of The Spirits

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Both struggle with these kinds of relations, as they figure out how to create their own public and private identities while sharing links to people whose philosophies or actions disagree with theirs. The country's hardships and successes mirror those of his own family as the Senator remains staunchly conservative even as the younger generations of his family opt for more liberal values. Allende's skill undoubtedly lies in her ability to detail historical reality in a manner that makes the reader invested in its outcome.

Fearing a Communist dictatorship, Esteban Trueba and his fellow politicians plan a military coup of the socialist government. She is the youngest daughter of Severo and Nívea del Valle, wife of Esteban Trueba, and mother of Blanca, Jaime, and Nicolás. Which is really quite cool, because I don’t read enough fiction set in South America, by South American authors. Either the personal attachment is emphasized at the expense of the historical detail, or the historical events are diluted to platform the characters.Esteban is a man who lacks principles has conquered a lot of women and fathered several children through force but sets himself up as the perfect landlord who has rebuilt the local community and provided stability for its people. In The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, we are introduced to the Trueba family, whose lives are deeply intertwined with the political and social upheavals of their country. And, particularly with a work as multi-layered as ‘The House of the Spirits’, dissecting it truly helped to grapple with the purpose and principles behind Allende’s writing.

This is a book that I have re-read on numerous occasions, and I find myself constantly surprised by the strength of my reaction to it. In the coming days, Blanca is tortured and sexually abused by her half-brother, Esteban García, who had joined the military with his father's help.

The last paragraph reveals that she is pregnant, although she does not know (or care) whether the child is Miguel's or the product of the rapes that she endured at the hands of security police, during her imprisonment. However, his transformation comes too late, and he is left to grapple with the consequences of his past actions. This movement provides the narrative energy which draws the reader into Allende's universe, and sustains the 'good story' for which she has been universally acclaimed. She has written novels based in part on her own experiences, often focusing on the experiences of women, weaving myth and realism together. However, after the military coup he loses much of his power and suddenly has to face the fact that he has become an old and weak man.

By the time he is an old man, with a granddaughter who is the apple of his eye, he is the acknowledged caricature of a reactionary, incorrigible old-timer, walking around yelling at people and gesticulating with his trademark silver cane. At Tres Marias, in his capacity as the hacienda’s patron, Esteban’s brutality and cruelty are brought into sharp focus. Jaime may be inspired by the personal doctor Arturo Jiron of the Chilean president Salvador Allende.Alba (Spanish for "Dawn," Latin for "white") is the daughter of Blanca and Pedro Tercero García, although for many years of her life she was led to believe that Count de Satigny was her father. As the years pass, however, adhering to the higher class norms becomes harder as both family and society crumble around the Del Valle/Trueba clan. Her unearthly beauty intimidates everyone in the village except for Esteban Trueba, who is deeply enamored of her and seeks her hand in marriage. The story begins with the patriarch, Esteban Trueba, a poor but ambitious young man who falls in love with Rosa, a beautiful and ethereal girl.

He works hard to develop his estate at Tres Marias ("Three Marys," a nickname for Orion's Belt), and seduces and rapes many local peasant women, fathering many illegitimate children, including Esteban García (by Pancha García, sister of Pedro Segundo). The story starts with the del Valle family, focusing upon the youngest and the oldest daughters of the family, Clara and Rosa. Through a combination of intimidation and reward, he enforces respect and labor from the fearful peasants and turns Tres Marías into a "model hacienda". Though she maintains some distance from him, she does allow him to meet their seven-year-old granddaughter Alba and to be a part of her and Blanca’s lives again.Meanwhile, Jaime and Nicholas both fall in love with a young drug addict named Amanda; Amanda initially loves Nicholas and becomes pregnant with his child. Despite this demonstration, the Virginia county’s school board voted not to ban the novel from school curriculum. In his youth, he seeks the mermaid-like and green-haired Rosa the Beautiful, daughter of Severo and Nívea del Valle, toiling in the mines to earn a suitable fortune so that he can support her.