The House of the Spirits

The lives of the Trueba family members are tumultuous ones. The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende stretches through over seventy years of time in Chile, providing the political and socio-economic backdrop to the continually fluctuating perspectives of the characters. The first half of the novel sets-up the characters and provide juxtaposition to the second half. Beginning in roughly 1900-1910, the stagnation of life, especially for the wealthy is evident. The dominant political party holds control and seems interminable, while the impoverished suffer without great opportunity for social mobility. The novel’s latter half depicts the cultural and political revolution, taking place in the 1960s-70s. Many of the people are forced to…

He was Powerful and Above All, or So He Thought. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, introduce us with characters too fantastic, or too realistic and bring us to the world of magical realism. Throughout the story a reader encounters many of these characters and is wrapped in the story which enables them to see the development of major round characters, such as Esteban Trueba. He is a character that with a few chapters into the book is seen as the evil protagonist. Esteban develops…

Hypermasculinity is the psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression and sexuality. In novels such as The House Of The Spirits, through the use of characters, Isabel Allende depicts political and social issues like this with characters such as Esteban Trueba. He embodies this to the point of toxicity and takes toll on character and plot development. Sexuality, strength and the power of Esteban play a pivotal role…

The House of the Spirits, illustrates a family saga of the Trueba and de Valle family. The families's passions, struggles, and secrets are carried for over three generations. Although the family holds respectable status within their society, the bond between one another is delicate. The family's horrific and violent past finally catches up to their present allowing each family member to grow. The novel, The House of the Spirits written by Isabel Allende presents the heroine Clara. Clara, a…

Moreover, each of these characters, like every hero and heroine, confronts some sort of temptation off of their path. In The House of the Spirits, Blanca has to go through an unwilling marriage with Count Jean de Satigny before anyone realizes that she is pregnant with Pedro Tercero’s child in order to not taint her father’s political reputation and family name. Her moment of weakness causes her to temporarily give into the temptation of an easier, open life. However, she soon realizes that she…

Shakespeare Quotes"). As Shakespeare suggests, gender expectations compel people to play roles according to their society. Fulfilling roles negatively influences humans, as it clouds their true identity and they lose individuality. In Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits and Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, the controlling portrayal of men and the independent portrayal of women conveys the effect of a patriarchal society on gender roles. The depiction of men as controlling reveals how the…

In the year 1982, Isabel Allende officially completed her first novel, (The House of the Spirits) but it was very difficult to find a publisher back then because she was a woman; it was very arduous. “She finished the book in 1982, but because Latin American editors were prejudiced against women writers and were used to reading shorter works, finding a publisher was difficult.” (Stone) Isabel did not give up without a fight and she continued to find a publisher. She was resolute. “Eventually a…

In the magical realist novel, The House of Spirits, the author, Isabel Allende, characterizes different characters in different aspects. By using imagery, dialogue, and telling the story from different point of views, the reader gets a grasp of what is going on amongst different characters. Alba is the granddaughter of Esteban Trueba and the daughter of Blanca and Pedro Tereco, who plays a significant role in the novel. Throughout the novel, Alba goes through many changes as she tries to figure…

In this day and age, there are many female authors out there that most everyone knows, such as J.K. Rowling, creator of the wildly known Harry Potter. However, in Isabel Allende’s time, perhaps up to this day, male authors were the ones who got the recognition. Nonetheless, Allende took the world by storm with one of her first novels, The House of the Spirits, which captured three mystical women's lives in a patriarchal Chile. From the day she was born, Isabel Allende was not quite ignorant to…

The fourth step of the journey is crossing the first threshold,here Campbell describes the stage as" the hero goes forward in his adventure”. The fourth stage is where the hero actually start his adventure, here he leaves the safety of what is known into a location that is horrific and unknown. The rules and limits of location of the adventure are unknown, adding to the insecurity of the hero. The House of the Spirits presents it nicely, clara moves from her home, the location where she is…