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
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It is a matter of strong and weak”” (Allende 152). Clara consistently performs charity work for the poor in their city. She believes that everyone should have justice, and that this work she does for them is a very small piece of the impoverished troubles. Esteban, on the other hand, believes that only the strong (those that work hard) are deserving of any rewards in life. According to two critics, Earle and Allende, “...Clara and Esteban would always constitute its vital antithetical nucleus. The latter embodies privileged power; the former, humanitarian resistance” (547). While both essential to running and setting the mood for their family, each handles the family very differently. Esteban is more controlling over people’s whereabouts and personal items, while Clara allows people to come and go as they please in her otherworldly daze. The juxtaposition between Clara’s more selfless views versus Esteban’s thoughts showcase how Esteban really is looking out for himself and the wealthy people surrounding him, selfishly even, taking into consideration the imbalance between the Trueba’s wealth and that of those in the slums and countryside. In maintaining his singular goal, he ostracized himself from his family, …show more content…
He becomes more indifferent to the Liberal party; the very party that he has been working against to fight socialism through Chile. He does something he has never done in his life, he takes a passive role in the affairs of his family member’s lives, and allows occurrences to pass by that he would not have before. This occurs after this wife, Clara, passes. Perhaps without her to fight for, Esteban has lost his determination in his growing age. He now does not try to stop Blanca, his middle-aged daughter, from seeing Pablo Tercero, a socialist sympathizer he has always had ill-will towards. Nor does he attempt to halt Alba, his granddaughter, from hiding weapons with his son, dating a socialist leader, and taking goods from their house to supply the socialists. Esteban takes this unassertive position by failing to communicate with his family members and closing himself off after Clara’s death. Alba, not wanting to upset her grandfather further, also does not make the effort to try communicating with Esteban about her situation: “Communication as a war zone is a concept that becomes immediately relevant, as within the first few pages Clara (still a little girl) stops talking at all” (Cooper 18). This lack of communication between family members only further throws Esteban into greater extremes in his work and causes schisms in the relationship between each of the
It is a matter of strong and weak”” (Allende 152). Clara consistently performs charity work for the poor in their city. She believes that everyone should have justice, and that this work she does for them is a very small piece of the impoverished troubles. Esteban, on the other hand, believes that only the strong (those that work hard) are deserving of any rewards in life. According to two critics, Earle and Allende, “...Clara and Esteban would always constitute its vital antithetical nucleus. The latter embodies privileged power; the former, humanitarian resistance” (547). While both essential to running and setting the mood for their family, each handles the family very differently. Esteban is more controlling over people’s whereabouts and personal items, while Clara allows people to come and go as they please in her otherworldly daze. The juxtaposition between Clara’s more selfless views versus Esteban’s thoughts showcase how Esteban really is looking out for himself and the wealthy people surrounding him, selfishly even, taking into consideration the imbalance between the Trueba’s wealth and that of those in the slums and countryside. In maintaining his singular goal, he ostracized himself from his family, …show more content…
He becomes more indifferent to the Liberal party; the very party that he has been working against to fight socialism through Chile. He does something he has never done in his life, he takes a passive role in the affairs of his family member’s lives, and allows occurrences to pass by that he would not have before. This occurs after this wife, Clara, passes. Perhaps without her to fight for, Esteban has lost his determination in his growing age. He now does not try to stop Blanca, his middle-aged daughter, from seeing Pablo Tercero, a socialist sympathizer he has always had ill-will towards. Nor does he attempt to halt Alba, his granddaughter, from hiding weapons with his son, dating a socialist leader, and taking goods from their house to supply the socialists. Esteban takes this unassertive position by failing to communicate with his family members and closing himself off after Clara’s death. Alba, not wanting to upset her grandfather further, also does not make the effort to try communicating with Esteban about her situation: “Communication as a war zone is a concept that becomes immediately relevant, as within the first few pages Clara (still a little girl) stops talking at all” (Cooper 18). This lack of communication between family members only further throws Esteban into greater extremes in his work and causes schisms in the relationship between each of the