The+House+of+the+Spirits



=**Title of the Work**=


 * //The House of the Spirits// (Originally published as // La Casa de los Espíritus // in 1982)

=Author=


 * Isabel Allende

=Nationality/Ethnic Background=


 * Country of Origin: Chile
 * Originally published in Spanish, then later translated into English

=Pertinent Biographical Information=


 * Isabel Allende was born August 2nd, 1942 in Lima, Peru to Francisca Llona Barros and Tom ás Allende, who at the time was the Chilean ambassador to Peru. Her father was a first cousin to Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973.
 * Allende's works are known to contain elements of the "magical realist" tradition. Her novels are often based on personal experience, paying homage to the lives of women while weaving together elements of myth and realism.
 * In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and in 2010 she received Chile's National Literature Prize.

=Literary Historical Period/Movement and Pertinent Background=


 * //The House of the Spirits// was Isabel Allende's debut novel. It was originally rejected by several Spanish-language publishers, but was published in Barcelona in 1982 and became an instant best-seller. The novel since been translated into over twenty languages, and was named the Best Novel of the Year in Chile in 1982. That same year, Allende won the //Panorama Literario// Award.
 * The idea for the book came when Allende received news that her one hundred year-old grandfather was dying, and she began to write him a letter which would ultimately become the starting manuscript for //The House of the Spirits.//
 * The story details the life of four generations of the Trueba family and also chronicles Chile's post-colonial social and political upheavals. Many readers believe that the novel is based on real life but incorporates elements of fiction and magical realism. They think that The Poet in the novel is probably based on the actual poet Pablo Neruda, and that both The Candidate and The President are based on Salvador Allende, who was a Chilean physician and politician, as well as Allende's cousin once removed.

=Genre and Sub-genres=


 * Autobiographical novel
 * Magical realism

=Major Characters, Their Relationships, Their Conflicts=


 * **Clara**- Clara is the daughter of Severo and Nivea del Valle, the wife of Esteban Trueba, and the mother of Blanca, Jaime, and Nicolas. Clara is the key female figure in the novel, as she serves as the connection between the Trueba and the del Valle families. She is clairvoyant and is most interested in communicating with spirits. She is sometimes described as "floating through life" and is certainly not the typical housewife, often neglecting chores and housework. Clara marries Esteban because she understands that it is her fate (but after he has a violent outburst and hits her, she never speaks to him again). She has an extreme sense of calm which inspires respect in all who meet her, and her love and predictions are what hold her family together. Clara's character changes very little as she grows from a young girl to an old woman.
 * **Esteban Trueba**- Esteban is the patriarch of the Trueba family and narrates sections of the novel. From the time he is engaged to her until the end of his life, Esteban is passionately (and almost obsessively) in love with Clara. As strong as his love for her is, though, it is not enough to curb his violent temper. Esteban is obsessive, violent, and materialistic. He devotes his life to his business and his political career, becoming a rich and powerful senator, and ends up building a vast fortune for himself. Esteban achieves his material goals, but the violence he shows towards his family and his workers makes it impossible for him to be close to anyone except his granddaughter, Alba. As he gets older, Esteban is able to finally see the negative outcomes of his violent, selfish actions, and he becomes increasingly aware of how lonely he is.
 * **Blanca**- Blanca is Clara and Esteban's first born child. Like both of her parents, she is very stubborn, and unlike her mother, Blanca is very practical. At a young age, Blanca falls in love with a boy named Pedro Tercero, of whom her father disapproves. Blanca's character is defined mainly by her love for Pedro Tercero. She is very close to her mother, yet her relationship with her father is strained. Throughout her youth, she defies her father as often as possible to meet up with Pedro. Blanca is eventually caught with Pedro Tercero, and they are forced to separate. She is forced to marry a man named Jean de Satigny, but she runs away from the marriage just before giving birth to her daughter by Pedro, Alba. Blanca moves back in with her parents and raises Alba in their household. She continues seeing Pedro Tercero, but refuses to run away with him until after the military coup, when they flee together to Canada.
 * **Alba**- Alba is Blanca and Pedro Tercero's daughter, and Clara and Esteban's granddaughter. (Although for many years, she was led to believe that she was the daughter of Jean de Satigny). Even before she is born, Alba's grandmother Clara declares that she is "blessed by the stars". Alba's character is defined primarily by her ability to unite her family through her love for them and their love for her. Alba is in love with a man named Miguel, yet she is imprisoned, raped, and tortured by a man named Esteban Garcia. It is as a result of this trauma that Alba convinces her grandfather to help her write down the story of their family, so that she can "reclaim the past and overcome terrors of [her] own". The novel ends with Esteban Trueba's death, and Alba sitting alone in the Trueba mansion with the body. She is pregnant, although she does not know if the baby is from Miguel or as a result of the rapes she endured during her imprisonment. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Alba is the third person narrator who has been telling parts of the story.

=Brief Plot Summary=


 * The novel begins with the story of the del Valle family, focusing on the youngest and oldest daughters of the family, Clara and Rosa. Clara has clairvoyant powers, and predicts at a very young age that there will be a death in the family. Shortly thereafter, Rosa (called "Rosa the Beautiful") is accidentally poisoned and dies. To mend his broken heart, Rosa's fiance, a poor miner named Esteban Trueba, dedicates himself to uplifting his family hacienda, Tres Marias. There, he hires a foreman named Pedro Segundo, who becomes the closest thing Esteban has ever had to a friend. Esteban is unable to control himself and rapes several of the peasant woman in the village. His first victim, a woman named Pancha Garcia, becomes the mother of his bastard son, Esteban Garcia.
 * Esteban returns to the city to see his dying mother, and after her death he decides to fulfill her dying wish that he marry and have legitimate children. Esteban goes to the del Valle family and asks for Clara's hand in marriage. During their engagement, Esteban builds what everyone calls "the big house on the corner", a large mansion in the city where the Trueba family will live for generations. After their wedding, Esteban's sister Ferula comes to live with Esteban and Clara. Clara and Ferula become very close, and Ferula commits herself to caring for Clara. Esteban has a wild obsession with Clara, and is incredibly jealous of how close his sister is to his wife. His anger drives him to throw Ferula out of the house, and she curses him, saying that he will "shrink in body and soul, and die like a dog". Even though she misses Ferula, Clara finds happiness in developing her psychic powers, and many spiritualists come to see her at the house.
 * Clara gives birth to a daughter named Blanca and twin boys named Nicolas and Jaime. The family lives in the city during the year, and then goes to the hacienda during the summers. Upon arriving in Tres Marias, Blanca meets Pedro Tercero, the young son of Esteban's foreman Pedro Segundo. During their teenage years, Blanca and Pedro eventually become lovers. After an earthquake destroys the village and leaves Esteban injured, the family moves permanently to Las Tres Marias. Clara spends her time teaching and helping peasant children, Blanca is sent to a convent school, and the twins are sent to a boarding school in the city. Blanca missed Pedro Tercero, so she fakes an illness and returns to the hacienda. Everything runs smoothly until Esteban bans Pedro Tercero from the hacienda because of his revolutionary communist/socialist ideals.
 * A French count named Jean de Satigny visits the hacienda and tells Esteban about Blanca's nightly visits to see Pedro Tercero. Esteban is furious and whips his daughter, which greatly upsets Clara. When Esteban finds out that Clara is upset with the way he handled the situation, he slaps her, knocking out her front teeth. Clara moves back to the city with Blanca, and never speaks to Esteban again. Esteban begins searching for Pedro Tercero, convinced that Pedro is the reason for his family leaving him. Esteban eventually finds Pedro and ends up cutting off three of Pedro's fingers, but is then filled with regret over his uncontrollable furies.
 * Blanca finds out that she is pregnant with Pedro Tercero's child. When Esteban finds out, he is desperate to save the family honor, so he orders Blanca to marry Jean de Satigny, telling her that he has killed Pedro Tercero. Blanca gets along with the count, but then leaves him when she discovers that he has been participating in sexual fantasies with the servants. Blanca returns to the Trueba household and names her daughter Alba. Clara predicts that Alba will have good luck and a very happy future.
 * Esteban eventually moves back to the big house on the corner with his family, although he continues to spend periods of time in Tres Marias. He becomes isolated from every member of his family except for his granddaughter Alba, whom he is very fond of. Esteban runs for senator of a conservative party, but is unsure of whether or not he will win. Clara communicates with Esteban through signs, but never actually speaks to him again. A few years later, Clara dies peacefully and Esteban is overwhelmed with grief.
 * Blanca has become very poor since leaving Jean de Satigny, and is again dating Pedro Tercero. Pedro and Alba are very fond of each other but do not know that they are father and daughter (although Pedro suspects it).
 * When she is older, Alba attends college and falls in love with a man named Miguel. Out of love for Miguel, Alba participates in student acts against the conservative party, and celebrates with Miguel after the victory of the People's Party (a socialist movement).
 * Fearing a communist dictatorship, Esteban and his fellow politicians plan a military coup of the socialist government. However, when the military coup is set into action, the military men take their power and become out of control. Esteban's son Jaime is killed, and many people are kidnapped and tortured. Esteban helps Blanca and Pedro flee to Canada, where the couple is finally able to find their happiness.
 * The military regime tries to eliminate all traces of opposition, and eventually comes for Alba. She is made the prisoner of Colonel Esteban Garcia, the son of Esteban Trueba and Pancha Garcia's illegitimate son, and therefore Esteban Trueba's grandson. During an earlier visit to the Trueba house, Esteban Garcia had molested Alba as a child. Out of pure hatred for her privileged life and inheritance (since they both have the same grandfather), Esteban tortures Alba repeatedly and eventually rapes her. This completes the cycle that Esteban Trueba put into motion when he raped Pancha Garcia. When Alba loses her will to live, she is visited by Clara's spirit, who tells her to choose life over death.
 * Esteban Trueba manages to free Alba with help from Miguel, and after helping Alba write the Trueba family memoirs, Esteban dies in Albas arms, accompanied Clara's spirit. He is content, since he did not die like a dog as Ferula suggested he would. Alba explains that she will not seek vengeance on those who have harmed her, but rather suggests that maybe one day, the human cycle of hate and revenge could be broken. Alba writes the book to pass time while she waits for Miguel and the birth of her child.

=Motifs (Recurring Images, Ideas, Figures of Speech, Symbols, Colors) & Their Thematic Significance=
 * Domestication vs. Wilderness- Similar to the separation of classes in this novel because the poorer peasant workers live in the countryside. The more wealthy business and politcal men live in the urbanized areas of the country. There is a hypocrisy in the civilized culture because many of the peopele's actions and behavior is barbaric and inhumane. This is emphasized especially during times of political turmoil and war. This motif is a symbol for the party divide in Chile's civil war
 * Freedom vs. Imprisonment- The book's pot is written while Alba is imprisoned. The women of the novel struggle to break free of marital sterotypes and abuse from the men in their lives. Clara also uses her voice or lack thereof to have some control and be free of the influence of those around her.
 * Fate- Clara can see into the future and predict people's fates. Romantic connections are weaved throughout the plot and over the time of the novel's setting, bringing together former lovers again. The fate of the characters is symbolic of the fate of Chlie, it is inferred that their fates are made by their actions and choices, like the country's fate is determined by political movements and actions.
 * Writing and Literature- The novel is entirely made of Alba's writing and recording of her family history whlie in prison. She uses her grandmother Clara's journals to learn about her genealogy. Writing is important in this story because it keeps the history of the family accurate and keeps the characters connected. Letters are exchanged between relatives and allows them to record the events happening to them.
 * Family- The entire novel is made of a family history being recounted. The plot spans through the personal history of three generations of one family.
 * The Past- The past is kept accurate through Clara's detailed diary and the letters exchanged between Clara and Blanca. Clara and Blanca refuse to talk about past events that were unpleasant. The events that are not retold are seen as never having happened in their opinion. The past is also a positive thing however. It provides a comfort to Esteban Trueba in the end of the novel as he is dying.
 * The Big House on the Corner- represents the manliness of Esteban and the femininity of Clara.
 * Politics- Chile undergoes a revolution in this novel. The setting is constantly turbulent, similar to the characters' erratic life events. The family is divided several times due to their political beliefs. The peasant workers learn about their rights and begin an uprising against the conservative, unfair government. This movement brings about talk of women's rights, children's rights, and Socialism. This activism is reflective of the women in the family and the children in the family and their struggle to be in positions of equality.
 * The Supernatural- There are many elements of the supernatural and magical qualities about the plot. The BIg House is full of ghosts and spirits, and Clara can see all of them. Clara is psychic as well and can see other's fates. Clara's sister is Rosa the Beautiful, who was born with green hair and later Alba, her descendent is born with green hair as well. An enormous dog also appears in the beginning of the novel, letting the reader know that this novel is more than just realistic fiction, but contains surreal additions.This is why this novel is under the category of magical realism.

**Other Significant Thematic Elements (Significant Character's Names, Significant Quotations, Significant Actions/Events)**
 * Nivea, Clara's mother, has a name that means snowy. She is the first to have a name related to purity or whitness.
 * Clara is psychic and her name implies that she is calirvoyant or clear.
 * Blanca means white
 * Alba means dawn

=Major Themes=
 * Struggle Between Classes
 * Women's Rights and Women's Power
 * The Importance of Bloodlines in Society- The importance of genealogy is significant because there are several instances in which the characters are mistaken about who their parent is and where they come from. Some characters can't be together romantically because of their family. Estaban Trueba is the character that shows that a family name is not the only thing that makes up a family tree. He still must deal with the consequences of siring children outside of his marriages.