Final evaluation The House of Spirits Isabel Allende

Socioeconomic interpretation of the novel The Latin American mindset understands reality as having multiple sides. Politics in Latin America has manipulated and distorted the life of individuals. The reader observes this by looking at the discrepancy of wealth and social status that define each of the characters in the novel. –only a group of privileged ones, such as Del Valle family, lead a life of leisure and comfort. –even the middle class has difficulties surviving. For example: Esteban Trueba’s mother and sister. –the poor urban neighborhoods are also painted in the novel with realist details. Allende’s purpose is to document such a tragedy, which is evident in Chile and many other countries.

Historical interpretation Allende does not present the military coup and the political events of the 1970s in an isolated and disconnected way, but rather, she starts from the roots that will lead us to the country’s social structure today. Allende provides meaning for the events by covering a long period of time and by following the story of various families throughout generations. The past is brought towards the present and is maintained alive. By preserving memory and past, the truth won’t disappear, hence the importance of Clara’s notebooks and Alba’s memories. Clara and Alba’s writings, and the novel itself, illustrate the importance of knowing the past and not forgetting it, as Esteban has done. Like history, the novel is not organized nor logical; it cannot be fixed into dates and times, and it depends on innumerable factors. Allende often reminds the reader about the connections between past and future, between fiction and non-fiction.

Philosophical interpretation Allende hopes for a more peaceful and equalitarian tomorrow for Chilean citizens and all Latin America. With time, social and class barriers will disappear through marriage and new relationships. The three main family groups in the novel mix as the author searches for harmony and change. –Clara’s son, Jaime, becomes a doctor and lives among the poor. –Blanca marries Pedro Tercero and both move to Canada. –Alba’s boyfriend, Miguel, is not from her social class (nor has the same political antecedents). –After the earthquake, Clara becomes a very good friend of Pedro Segundo. The former predicts the fall of the feudal system. –Esteban has to form an unusual alliance with people outside his social and political doctrine to ask for help for Alba. The novel ends with Alba’s optimism, forgiveness, and hope for the baby inside her.

How is the novel construed? The House of Spirits is built upon contrasts. Allende presents a world where reality is ordinary and magical. Allende moves back and forth between these two types of realities. For example, after setting the Del Valle family in a typical Sunday mass, the narrator mentions that Rosa has green hair. Like the author, the characters have no problem with such dual vision of reality. For example, Clara’s ability to move objects is part of the character’s daily routine. However, the two political perspectives in the novel do not easily reconcile.

Unlike Esteban García, Esteban Trueba is capable of loving, although he is sometimes blind to other people’s needs. –He tolerates Clara’s peculiarities; he welcomes pregnant Blanca in his house again; and he feels so close to Alba that he is determined to rescue her, no matter how “radical” the cause she defends is. Towards the end of the novel, Esteban Trueba changes his mind about politics, maybe because of his disillusionment with the new regime, or maybe because of the influence of all these liberal women. His literary collaboration with Alba represents not only a personal and political reconciliation but also a fusion of old and young, of conservative and liberal ideas, and of the masculine perspective and the feminine one. All this suggests that there exists hope for the future.

Magical realism and the novel Magical realism is mixed with politics. When the Trueba family gets involved with the violent confrontations between oligarchs and socialists, the magical submerges and the real emerges to illustrate political brutality and its power to disintegrate families.

Hope and writing Alba’s baby incarnates hope for a future of reconciliation and love, and so does the act of writing. Language and words have the power to recover what is lost and to recreate lives and stories, real or invented ones. Isabel Allende goes beyond national borders with this lyrical story full of imagination set in a turbulent political scenario. Allende’s novel represents a complex, universal world, full of love, hate, death, and time.

Last words The narrative makes the reader to reject dictatorship and any type of abusive power at all levels. Sexism, which is directly related to abusive power, is represented by Esteban. Pancha’s grandson, Esteban García, is a monster created by the tirannical, patriarchal system incarnated by Esteban Trueba. He takes revenge on Alba and, ironically, he gets poetic justice when tyranny turns against Esteban. Allende believes that race, genre and class conflicts perpetuate hate and violence, and turn victims into aggressors.