The House Of The Spirits

952 Words2 Pages

Feminism revolves around the notion that men and women are equal, an idea that is seldom accepted or embraced at the end of the twentieth century in Latin America. Set during the revolution of 1970, Isabel Allende’s autobiographical novel, The House of the Spirits, weaves a story about the lives of women through four generations. The idea of male dominance is prominent throughout both the political and social arenas of Latino communities. However, Allende uses members of the Del Valle family to portray the theme of feminism evolving during this time. Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, highlights the intertwined lives of two Latin American women, Clara and Alba, to develop feministic attitudes and overcome discrimination in their community, …show more content…

The estate that Clara’s husband, Esteban Trueba, refurbishes is a place that is later changed by Clara’s actions. Soon after Clara arrives to Tres Marias for the first time, she becomes an active participant in societal politics within this community by “[dividing] her time between the sewing workshop, the general store, and the school” (Allende 118). While there, she demonstrates to her husband the work she and other women are capable of completing. Clara is unfazed that her husband, at times, disagrees and often rants to her about her work. Despite Esteban’s greediness and disapproval of her actions, Clara strives to improve the quality of life in this region. Having an impact on her life, Tres Marias helps prove to others that females can make a meaningful influence on a community. Similarly, her granddaughter Alba, makes impactful decisions within her environment. At the start of the dictatorship, Alba automatically makes significant choices to help save others. Since there are several rooms in her home that are abandoned, she hides refugees and military men while the war is taking place. Alba is driven by political gain and righteousness to protest against her grandfather’s laws. She displays bravery and also feministic characteristics. Clara and Alba are able to display feminism while making admirable differences in both communities. Their determination is also evident …show more content…

Clara begins to age and recognizes her time on this earth is coming to an end. Though, prior to her death, she makes all of her preparations both around the house and within her family. She explains to her granddaughter, Alba, that it is now her time to transition into the afterworld and they cannot do anything to make her better. Alba does not leave her grandmother's side for days and this shows her dedication. In turn, Clara is reassured that Alba is prepared to carry on her legacy. It is not a male figure by her side, but a female revealing complete dedication to each other. Alba becomes a beacon of hope for Clara, that she may teach understanding of the past, present and future. Unfortunately, on Alba’s birthday, Clara passes. Then, as Alba grows and develops a distinction between right and wrong, she credits her grandmother as the means of survival as she reflects “Clara wrote them so they would help me now to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own” (Epilogue 481). Surviving rape and torture, Alba is able to survive with the help and advice that Clara has bestowed upon her. Although Clara is not physically present, Alba reaches her spiritually being taught how to read and write. Writing becomes her means of survival and validation for life after the traumatization of being trapped and abused. Clara and Alba help each other, both physically and mentally, when it comes to

Show More
Related

  • House of the Spirits

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Trueba also desires control over his wife, daughter, and granddaughter. He wants “control over that undefined and luminous material that lay with her [Clara] and that escaped him”. In addition, when Clara stated, “You can’t keep the world from changing, Esteban. If it’s not Pedro Tercero García, someone else will bring new ideas to Tres Marías,” Trueba ...

    Read More

  • Symbols In The House On Mango Street

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.

    Read More

  • "Woman Hollering Creek" - Dreams vs. Reality

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story “Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of Mexicans in a Chicago neighborhood. She depicts the life that women endure as Latino wives through her portrayal of the protagonist, Cleofilas. For Cisneros being a Mexican-American has given her a chance to see life from two different cultures. In addition, Cisneros has written the story from a woman’s perspective, illustrating the types of conflicts many women face as Latino wives. This unique paradigm allows the reader to examine the events and characters using a feminist critical perspective.

    Read More

  • Quote Journal for House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

    2769 Words  | 6 Pages

    ? . . . it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself [Nivea] was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion.? (6, Ch 1) The women in this society are dependant on the dominant male figure to handle political and economical duties. This point of view is intended to mimic the older generation of women ad present a foundation for the growth of an enlightened generation. Allende uses this excerpt to present a foundation of structure to the novel by beginning with the extremes of opinion, which are followed in the novel through different generations. Alba for example, become a very outspoken activist by trying to attend the student protests and follow Miguel on his demonstrations, a sharp contrast to the indifference or shallowness found in her great grandmother.

    Read More

  • The Women Of Colonial Latin America Analysis

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Women of Colonial Latin America serves as a highly digestible and useful synthesis of the diverse life experiences of women in colonial Latin America while situating those experiences in a global context. Throughout, Socolow mediates the issue between the incoherence of independent facts and the ambiguity of over-generalization by illustrating both the restrictions to female behavior and the wide array of behavior within those restrictions. Readers of varied backgrounds will come away with a much deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities that defined the lives of the diverse women of the New World ruled by Portugal and

    Read More

  • The Women Of Colonial Latin America By Susan Socolow

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the past few decades, research on women has gained new momentum and a great deal of attention. Susan Socolow’s book, The Women of Colonial Latin America, is a well-organized and clear introduction to the roles and experiences of women in colonial Latin America. Socolow explicitly states that her aim is to examine the roles and social regulations of masculinity and femininity, and study the confines, and variability, of the feminine experience, while maintaining that sex was the determining factor in status. She traces womanly experience from indigenous society up to the enlightenment reforms of the 18th century. Socolow concentrates on the diverse culture created by the Europeans coming into Latin America, the native women, and African slaves that were imported into the area. Her book does not argue that women were victimized or empowered in the culture and time they lived in. Socolow specifies that she does her best to avoid judgment of women’s circumstances using a modern viewpoint, but rather attempts to study and understand colonial Latin American women in their own time.

    Read More

  • House of the Spirits, Major Motifs

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    him. He tries to go back to raping peasants, but he can’t lift them up

    Read More

  • Woman Hollering Creek: Dreams and Reality

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nevertheless, Cisneros’s experience with two cultures has given her a chance to see how Latino women are treated and perceived. Therefore, she uses her writing to give women a voice and to speak out against the unfairness. As a result, Cisneros’ story “Woman Hollering Creek” demonstrates a distinction between the life women dream of and the life they often have in reality.

    Read More

  • Replace the Old Stereotypes and Myths in Our Society

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Myth of the Latina Woman." Bullock, Richard, Maureen Daly Goggin and Francine Weinburg. The Norton Field Guide to Writing. Ed. Marilyn Moller. 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. 806-812. Print.

    Read More

  • Los De Abajo Analysis

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kumaraswami (2007) identifies that the females presented are stereotypical in their nature; this is to say that they either exist in the domestic atmosphere or that they have lost their purity due to being forced into the revolution. Although Camila and Pintada are complete opposites, the similarity lays in the fact that they both fit different parts of society at that time: “En combinación, forman una síntesis de dos extremos irreconciliables que se le presentan a la mujer mexicana y entre los cuales tiene que escoger” (Clark, 1980). In this sense, the mexican women were in two different situations, those who wished to remain traditionalistic and those who sought self-advancement through the likes of previously considered male characteristics. One can see the traditional character through Camila, Azuela has ensured that initially Camila would fit the traditional role of the female, caring, weak, and doting to the men’s needs. Thus Camila seems to be a flat stereotypical character that is expected to appear in novels of this era if women were to appear at all. Nevertheless, the character of Camila becomes more dynamic as Los de Abajo develops, thus she becomes more of an indication as to how women involved in the revolution did not remain ‘sana y buena’. On the contrary, the almost paradoxical characteristics of Pintada seem to confuse Azuela. Pintada is an emasculated character but only in the sense of

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Underdogs

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    Azuela shows these impacts by the progression of Camila, from a sweet innocent woman, to joining the rebel forces, and lastly to being killed. Symbolically, Azuela kills off Camila almost immediately upon her rise to power and drops her from the novel’s plot. This shows the how insignificant of an impact that women had on the battles, and how easily they were forgotten after death. Women still struggle today with gaining equal rights and treatment within the Mexican culture. It has taken nearly 70 years for women to gain equality with men in the workforce, gaining rights such as voting, and having a shared family responsibility with the male figure (Global). Unfortunately, many women within the working-class household still suffer from the traditional norms and values regarding the roles of men and women. In addition, these women were often subjected to control, domination, and violence by men” (Global). This validates Azuela’s stance on how women should stay within their traditional roles because fighting for equality has been ineffective even still

    Read More

  • Women's Role in Chronicle of a Death Foretold

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Latin America, women are treated differently from men and children. They do lots of work for unexplainable reasons. Others for religious reasons and family orders and others because of the men involved. Women are like objects to men and have to obey their orders to either be rich or to live. Some have sex to get the men’s approval, others marry a rich man that they don’t even know very well, and become slaves. An important book called Chronicles of a Death Foretold is an example of how these women are treated. Purisima del Carmen, Angela Vicario's mother, has raised Angela and her sisters to be good wives. The girls do not marry until late in life, rarely socializing beyond the outsides of their own home. They spend their time sewing, weaving, washing and ironing. Other occupations include arranging flowers, cleaning up the house, and writing engagement letters to other men. They also keep the old traditions alive, such as helping the sick, comforting the dying, and covering the dead. While their mother believes they are perfect, men view them as too tied to their women's traditions. The men are afraid that the women would pay more attention to their job more than the men. Throughout the book, the women receive the respect they deserve from the men and others around them.

    Read More

  • The Haunted House

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped

    Read More

  • An Analysis of The House on Mango Street

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros describes the problems that Latino women face in a society that treats them as second class citizens. A society that is dominated by men, and a society that values women for what they look like, and not for what is on inside. In her Novel Cisneros wants us to envision the obstacles that Latino women must face everyday in order to be treated equally.

    Read More

  • Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Isabel Allende’s novel, Eva Luna, amalgamates many of the techniques and conventions associated with the picaresque tradition, magical realism and bildungsroman in order to present a critique of dominant Eurocentric ideologies of the patriarchy and oligarchy in 20th century Latin America and to valorize the voices and experiences of the marginalized and oppressed. A prominent aspect of Eva Luna which acts as a vehicle for the novels critique of the patriarchal oligarchy are the numerous motifs and symbols utilized throughout the novel. The manner in which Allende introduces and develops symbols and motifs throughout the novel functions to set up a number of oppositions which portray a sense of loss of freedom and expression under the oppression of the colonizing oligarchy, illustrate the superficiality of oligarchic power and align the reader with expression over silence and transgression above oppression.

    Read More

More about The House Of The Spirits

Open Document