Journal Entries
‘House of the Spirits’ by Isabel Allende
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Journal Entry #1 – Chapters 1 - 3
“Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own.”
This is the first sentence of the novel, and is later repeated as the last sentence of the novel. The “I” here is referring to our narrator, Alba, who is Clara’s grand-daughter. There are 2 major questions posed in this sentence when the reader first opens the book and reads it, first is why does Clara go mute and secondly, what terrors does the narrator need to overcome?
Within the first chapters we find out why Clara goes mute – the death of Rosa the beautiful, her sister. Clara goes mute here until she announces that she will be marrying Rosa’s fiancé – Esteban Trueba 9 years later. Throughout this period of muteness, the De Valle family tries to force Clara into talking, The housekeeper tries to scare Clara into talking, the doctor gives her medication, but Clara was not suffereing from any illness, she simply does not want to talk. This act of defiance ties in with the theme of the power of women in this book as Clara, by refusing to speak is in a way expressing herself of her emotions. Clara goes partially mute again many years later after Esteban Trueba loses his temper with her and strikes her, this time Clara refused to speak to him and is once again silently protesting against the violent act done to her, and showing her anger at Trueba.
Having read the book, we understand that it is the terrors of the country in which Alba lives in is experiencing because of the political troubles and also the terrors that Esteban Garcia inflicts upon her, which is of course part of the cyclical nature of the book. The idea that everything is in a cycle and that events will be repeated and are, moreover, fated to do so. Esteban Garcia imprisons Alba and rapes her, just as Esteban Trueba, who is Alba’s grandfather raped Esteban Garcia’s Grandmother in Tres Marias back in the day. This cycle of revenge and anger is carried through the generations in a cycle, until Alba puts an end to it by forgiving Esteban Garcia, just as Clara in the end forgave Esteban Trueba, the fact that Alba would be like Clara is also something very predictable since Alba is named after Clara (in a different language).
The significance of the repetition of the first sentence in the epilogue is in this motif of cycles. The cycle of revenge between the Trueba-Garcia family, and the cycle of forgiveness between Alba and Garcia, and Clara and Trueba, and most importantly, the cycle of writing to help others overcome terrors of their own. Clara wrote her notebooks so that Alba would use it to overcome her terrors, and now Alba writes us this book – The House of the Spirits to help us overcome our own terrors, whatever they may be.
Journal Entry #2 – Chapter 4
Page number / quote / CommentsPg 105 / “Many years later, they would be found in the same position, and a whole lifetime would not be long enough for their atonement” / Blanca and Pedro Tercero’s love began the day they met each other. This is an example of fate, and how the two of them are destined to be together.
Pg 105 / “Her ability to see what was invisible immediately detected the workers’ resentment, fear, and distrust” / This is a classic example of the class difference. The workers are of a lower class, while Clara is the patron’s wife. This is the first mention of the attitude given from the peasants; the unequal distribution of wealth will later lead to conflict.
Pg 105 - 106 / “…repeat the slogans she had heard her mother shout when she chained herself to the gates of congress.” / Clara repeats what she has learned from her mother, showing the personalities and ideals which are passed down from generation to generation. These slogans also happen to be feminist slogans, which shows once again the theme of the power of women throughout this book.
Pg 113 / “She entered one of her long periods of silence – I think it lasted several months…I had come to understand that silence was my wife’s last refuge” / Silence, is Clara’s way of hiding from the world. She goes silent lots of times throughout the story, and everytime it is because she has to escape from pain (physically or mentally) or because she is mad at someone. Trueba is right in saying that silence is his wife’s last refuge.
Pg 115 / “Her decision was inflexible” / In the decision of the names of the twins, Trueba wanted them to be named after him, however Clara ended up deciding upon the names of her children without his consent, showing that she is the one in power in the household, and that Trueba cant do anything about it either.
Pg 117 / “They need a man to feel secure but they don’t realize that the one thing they should be afraid of is men.” / Transito Soto is a special woman. She is a prostitute and yet I, as the reader have respect for her. She has ambition and treats the whore house as a business. She really does not need a man to feel secure, and is truly working only for herself. Because of this, she is free of the chains that her fellow whores have, she has freedom because she has no “pimp” telling her what to do.
Pg 124 / “to continue working for the same blood” / This shows the value of “blood”, and how things are passed on through the family lines, even the servants want to continue to serve the same family.
Pg 124 / “She had been born to cradle other people’s children, wear their hand me down clothing, eat their left overs, live on borrowed happiness and grief…” / Here is again the idea of fate and destiny. Nana is fated to be a servant. And she accepts it with open arms. She embraces her destiny and lives it to the end.
Pg 127 / “He wanted her to be completely dependent” / Trueba wants that of Clara, but even in the end, he is unable to get that. This is a classic example of a man trying to completely dominate a woman, but failing miserably, because women are not objects and they have their own thoughts and will never be completely dominated
Pg 132 / “you will always be alone! Your body and soul will shrivel up and you’ll die like a dog” / Everything that someone does will eventually come back to haunt that person. Therefore when Trueba kicks Ferula out of the house, her curse on him acts as a foreshadowing of the events that will follow. Esteban Trueba’s body will shrink and he will always be alone (he never gets close to Clara again, until the very very end when Clara is about to die she forgives him)
Pg 136 / “But it doesn’t help the poor. They don’t need charity, they need justice.” / The idea of the poor needing justice is told to Blanca as a child, and this idea is also one that Pedro Tercero dreams of. Justice for the poor. Maybe this is a link between them?...
Pg 140 / “The strange Esteban Garcia who was destined to play a terrible role in the history of the family” / Despite Trueba’s efforts of keeping his illegitimate family separate from this legitimate family, Esteban Garcia – a product of his past creeps up and is DESTINED (again the theme of fate and destiny) to play a terrible role, just as Trueba played a terrible role in his grandmother’s.
Pg 141 / “and the fox escaped with his tail between his legs, with all the hens chasing after him” / This shows the idea behind the revolution, where people want change, the poor want to be like the hens, and the patrons are the foxes.
Journal Entry #3 – Chapter 5
The love between Pedro Tercero Garcia and Blanca:
As Blanca grew older, she is dressed more appropriately to her class; she is no longer a child and therefore can’t just play with the peasants as she wished. Her dressing style having changed alerted Pedro Tercero of their class difference, and for once he sees that this is a forbidden love. Which is why when Blanca says, “When I grow up, I’m going to marry you and we’re going to live here in Tres Marias”, he simply shook his head. Though Pedro Terecero is young, and may not have grown as much as Blanca has in the previous year, he knew his place. It is because of this class difference that made the two of them hide their love more and more.
This forbidden love highlights the class struggle within the story, it allows the reader to empathize with the poor and want them to be able to have just as much freedom as the rich. This is why I, as the reader really like Pedro Terecero who has the dream of revolutionizing the system, and changing the status quo.
The death of Ferula:
To me, the death of Ferula was heart breaking. Ferula who spent all her life taking care of her sick mother, then when she finally found her love in Clara was kicked out of the house by her own brother because of it has lived a very harsh life. The magical realistic aspect of the way we find out about her death is also very interesting, as we see that even in the end, Ferula still loved Clara, and Clara still loved her despite the many years of separation.
Ferula dressing herself up to die is a sad scene. I can picture in my head the room where old clothes and wigs hung, where poverty is so apparent. She was so uptight before, that when she was kicked out of the big house she was set free, she could choose whether or not to open the envelopes of money, she could choose if she wanted to wear amazing clothes, wear her hair in a bun or what not, however, this freedom she has now is nothing compared to her love for Clara, in fact, as Clara said, she had nothing other than the money and being able to dress up. Only in death, could she have she received care from Clara just as she has given to her when she was still alive.
Trueba hates her sister, but inside he loves her. He only is angry at her because she has the ability to make him feel guilty at all times, however it is because he loves her that he cares enough about what she thinks that he feels guilty about himself. She is everything he is not, and that is why he hates her. (“He despised her spirit of sacrifice, her severity, her vocation for poverty, and her unshakable chastity, which he felt as a reproach toward his own egotistical, sensual, power-hungry nature.”)
The earthquake:
The earthquake marks the change in attitude towards Esteban Trueba on Clara’s part. Because of his confinement, Trueba’s temper worsened, and what he usually would never say or do, he did. Not only did he shout at Clara for nothing, he also hit her, causing Clara to actively dislike him. The earthquake grounded Clara, it made her more aware of the material things around her, whereas she used to only care about the spirits. She realizes that her three legged table can’t save her when things go wrong, and therefore becomes much more practical. During the rebuilding process after the earthquake, Blanca learns to make clay figures, which is what Rosa did when she was still alive, again emphasizing this passing on of skills and the cycle of things.
Chapter OneRosa the Beautiful
“Barrabás came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own.”
I felt that this passage was important because it’s the first paragraph in the novel and really digs the reader deep into the sticky contents. Clara sounds like an important character who goes mute. I assumed at first that meant she became either ill as a child or very old and loses the ability to talk, never would I have imagined that she chose to become mute, in what I believe are the most important years of ones life, adolescence. This paragraph also lets me know that the author is writing based on Clara’s journals which I thought would make it a biased story, but I later learn that other characters also give their accounts of the story which will, I believe make this an interesting book to read.
“I wasn’t the type always falling in love – I have been. I’m the faithful type, though it’s true that all it takes is the shadow of an arm, the curve of a waist, or the crease of a female knee to put ideas into my head even now when I’m so old that I don’t recognise myself when I look in the mirror. I look like a twisted tree. I’m not trying to justify the sins of my youth by saying that I couldn’t control my instincts: nothing of the sort. By that point I was used to having dead end relationships with easy women, since there was no possibility of any other kind. In my generation we used to distinguish between decent women and all the rest, we also divided up the decent women into our own and others’. I had never thought of love until I met Rosa, and the romance struck me as dangerous and as pointless; if a young girl caught my eye, I didn’t dare approach her, since I was afraid or being rejected and ridiculed. I’ve always been very proud, and because of my pride I’ve suffered more than most.”
This was part of the first encounter where the dialogue was changed from a third person responsive stance, to a more personal encounter of events. Having learned about Rosa, I got the impression her lover would also be a nice person. When talked about, Esteban sounds like a young innocent man, however as soon as he starts to tell his story, his character begins to unravel and I discovered that he was quite a proud arrogant man. This passage shows in particular, his attitude towards women. The fact that he had decided to distinguish women in two vague categories, “decent and all the rest”, the ones to marry and the rest for pleasure, already shows his naivete and ignorance of the issue. It makes me angry that a man can seem to wonderful and devote his life to one woman and sleep around and pleasure himself with others, it’s very two faced. However, on the other hand he says he was always embarrassed to approach a young pretty girl which makes me question how arrogant he really was. He sounds like a confusing character who is now older and wiser and looking back at these times with some regret. Which makes me a little more sympathetic.
“Clara announced that there would soon be another death in the del Valle family.” ”But it will be by mistake,” she added.”
This I feel is very important because later, Rosa does die, and this leads to Clara becoming mute. I believe things like this is what Nana meant by once she tries out her powers, she will learn to stop using them because bad things may happen. Unfortunately, Clara goes mute because she believes that because she said it, she caused it to happen, it makes me sad to think of little Clara taking on such a burden. I believe incidents like this might cause Clara to become angry and no longer use her powers for good, but possibly for evil like in many novels.
“When she came to Rosa’s door, she stopped, gripped by some premonition. She entered without knocking, as she always did, and immediately noticed the scent of roses, even though they were not in season. This was how nana understood that an inescapable disaster had occurred. She set the tray down carefully beside the bed and walked slowly to the window. She opened the heavy drapes and let the pale morning sun into the room. Grief-stricken, she turned around and was not at all surprised to see Rosa lying dead upon the bed, more beautiful than ever, her hair strikingly green, her skin the tone of new ivory, and her honey coloured eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling. Little Clara was at the foot of the bed, observing her sister. Nana fell to her knees beside the bed, took Rosa’s hand in hers, and began to pray.”
This I felt was a key passage because it not only because it’s where Rosa has died, but because of the description of her. Note how it says she lay upon the bed and not just on it, that generated me to think of her like something angelic. This fits with previously statements such as her mother noticing a ray of sunlight “outlining her face in a halo of light” or Esteban, who said she moved “as if she were flying” that she ”floated”. This, her green hair, bluish translucent skin and honey coloured eyes and the fact that their uncle died twice, brings me to a conclusion that she has not really died and might possibly return later in the book. Clara just sitting there, observing her sister shows the love and respect she had for her and that this incident will burden her heavily, turning her mute.