Two Hundred Years of Solitude

My parents have been living in the United States for 20 years and I am a part of the first generation of my family to be born in the United States. This means that growing up I was exposed to both Mexican and American culture. At times growing up with both cultures was difficult because I was exposed to different cultural standards, which made it difficult for me to find a balance between the cultures. I want to focus on the sexism that is present in these first chapters of The House of Spirits and compare it to the sexism I have encountered growing up in a Mexican household in America.

Esteban provides various examples, through his actions, of the Latin American sexism because he embodies the definition of machismo. First of all, before he marries Clara he spends his time assaulting young women without thinking his actions are wrong. Further, whenever a young woman would come to ask for his last name for their child he would deny it because how could he know she didn’t just “wiggle her tail at the first man she saw and then come accusing him” ( Allende, 74). This provides an example on how women were expected to stay virgins and if they had relations various men they would have been considered promiscuous. This is still evident in today’s Latin American culture because women are expected to be pure until they are married. While on the other hand, if a man is unfaithful or had relations with various women it can be simply brushed off by the saying “asi son los hombres”. Another example involving Esteban has to do with the way he judged Nivea and Clara, in regards to their fight for equality. He believes that the woman’s place is in the home, not in politics or anywhere that provides women with power or a voice. For his own daughter Blanca, “he believed her destiny was marriage and a brilliant life in society”, while on the other hand he had different expectations for his sons (Allende, 152). This standard is still upheld in Hispanic household. Simply from conversing with some of my other Hispanic friends, they feel the divide between the sexes in their own homes. Girls are taught from a young age that they are required to keep the house and do everything for the man because their place is in the kitchen.

Do I think our societies; especially the Latino societies have bettered in terms of equality of the sexes? My answer is yes and no because machismo is so engraved in Latino culture that I don’t think that it will ever completely disappear from those societies, but it will not stop women for fighting for what they deserve.

The House of Spirits is a Latin American novel written by Isabel Allende.

I’m currently reading for my CI class. It’s quite an interesting read so far, mainly because of the structure. For whatever reason, it seems like every chapter is independent yet connected at the same time. There’s so much content packed in each one and each one focuses on one sort of mini story within this massive story, if that makes sense. Well, that’s how it seems to me anyway, but I like it.

One thing I will say though is that the writing is fascinating. One chapter can be both horribly dramatic and yet cartoonish, though at different points. For instance the part with the ants eating up everything. I just imagined them like termites destroying everything like in a cartoon. Because of this variety and unexpectedness, I find myself sucked in with the reading. Though past me would say no, that’s only because I often read this the night before the reading is due and find myself very tired and going “I have HOW many pages left?!”, but it’s still entertaining.

When it comes to the characters of this book, I can remember most of what they do but not the names. But that’s due to how I’m very bad with names. Esteban however, sticks out because of how much of a psychopath he is. And because the novel focuses on him a lot, but mainly because he’s so crazy. One day he’s building an economy, and the next he’s raping every woman in town. Never a dull moment with Esteban. The writer seems to have painted him in a very negative way, but I think he might be slowly redeeming himself. It’s hard to tell at this point where I’m at if he’ll become good again or not, but those few moments he has when he realizes his mistakes and sees how messed up he is, makes it feel like there might be some sort of redemption coming up. Then again it could be to just make him more human and show how even though he’s like this, and knows it’s bad, he can’t control himself because he’s gone mad. Hm. Whatever the case, I should get back to reading the book and find out what happens.

Isabel Allende’s “The House of Spirits” is a book filled with political and social commentary.One  of the biggest examples of this is her commentary on the relationship between males and females during the beginning of the twentieth century in South America. She specifically speaks about the oppression males direct towards the females. We can see several examples of this for example we can see Esteban’s cruelty towards women in his life such as Pancha who he rapes on multiple occasions, and the way he ridicules his wife’s suffragette movement.Even though we can view the suffragette movement as a way women are trying to fight back the oppression, however the book offers us some insight into how the oppression has become a social norm. We see this in the way the peasants react to the teachings of Clara.  “Since when has a man not beaten his wife?”, and” “Since when has  a woman ever done the same things as a man”. As we can see from the quotes physical violence towards women is fully accepted if not encouraged. Since the peasant women in the scene are not part of the oligarchy, we can view them as a representation for the common viewpoint held by the majority in South America during this time. In chapter five however we can see a subtle shift in this position, in chapter five there is a shift in the generation we are focusing on. We are now focusing on Blanca and the love she feels for Pedro Tercero. We can see this as shift because, we see Blanca continuing to see Esteban Tercero even though she fully is aware that her father hates him and his Marxist beliefs. A few generations ago this disrespect for the patriarch would be unheard of, but since this is happening in a new generation we can view this as a change in the times and traditions.  

When assigned this book i was very hesitant. I’ve never came across an assigned piece of literature that I had enjoyed. So when I began to read The House of Spirits by Allende I was pleasantly shocked. I was engaged, and genuinely enjoying the novel, then as the book went along it became more difficult to swallow. I don’t claim to be a feminist however, when Esteban began to coup with Rosa’s death, I had trouble flipping onto the next page. As I continue to read I grow accustomed to Allende’s blunt writing style. I’ve only read one part of the book that effected me on an emotional level and that was when Barrabas was killed (Allende 102). I will openly admit I cried like a baby. The House of Spirits is filled with communism, sexism, and the supernatural. I feel like each theme plays its own part in each character of the book. However it can be said vise versa as well that the characters are important to each theme. I’m very excited to finish the book and understand it as a whole!

The book itself has created a battle within my mind. Between the oppressed women depicted and the power driven men, I have found myself questioning my beliefs and values towards modern sexist problems. Chapters three and four take a different approach on describing the character Esteban Trueba. In chapter one, Esteban is portrayed as respectable, valiant, and loyal as he expresses his love and gratitude for Rosa and her family as well. Esteban spent years trying to win Rosa and her family over and eventually succeeded. Although, after Rosa’s death, Esteban seems to become a bitter and pitiful man. I say pitiful because although he is strong and feared by many of the people he encounters later on, he seems to lose sight of his morals and becomes empty inside. This is first seen when he enters Tres Marias for the first time. He is taken back by all of the savagery shown by the inhabitants of the land and automatically assumes that he will control them forever because they have no hope. Something that I found ironic was the way he referred to equality and how he executed equality in Tres Marias. There is simply no correlation between the two. His opinion does change towards the end of chapter four when he states that only certain people deserve equality, excluding the people of Tres Marias. I noticed that Esteban is extremely obsessive in anything he decides to accomplish and he will not stop until he is satisfied. What really strikes me as funny in chapter five is Clara’s ability to make Esteban so angry without doing anything. She is a strong (if not the strongest) woman figure in the book and she seems to be the only person who stands up or ignores Esteban’s obsessive rage. It is interesting to see such a strong and powerful person like Esteban, be humbled so easily by Clara.

Getting further in depth with The House of the Spirits, I have begun to discover the multiple themes and interesting contrasts that Allende has planted into this book. For example, the recurring facet of barbarism that is mainly in Tres Marias entices the reader to truly question the real definition of it. As Esteban travels to the countryside packed with “his fury and his outsized pride” (Allende 61), I began to suspect that situations in Tres Marias would ultimately not end well. The book makes it clear that Esteban considers the dwellers in Tres Marias as barbaric and in urgent need of civilization (with his help of course). However as I continued reading, I noticed that Esteban’s definition only allows the reader to view one side of barbarism, which is to be not in touch with society’s standards. Ironically, the more common definition of being barbaric is when one shows characteristics of being inhumane and “savagely cruel”, which Esteban persistently demonstrates. Such as when Esteban sexually abuses many girls during his long stay in Tres Marias. As Esteban can no longer tolerate his sexual frustrations, he first lashes out at fifteen year old Pancha Garcia. When Esteban was seen taking Pancha by force, “attacking her savagely, thrusting himself into her without preamble, with unnecessary brutality” (Allende 74), he contradicts himself since he too embodies barbarism (however in this scenario, he’s in a worse light compared to his workers). Additionally, being repulsed by Pancha’s pregnancy, Esteban inhumanly kicks her out and moves onto his next victims. Like a true barbarian and man of no class, Esteban and his irredeemable hubris and overall mentality selfishly ruins many lives and is similar to that of a true beast. In his defense, Esteban began letting himself “little by little… be conquered by rusticity” (Allende 72), which in a sense, means that the countryside broke the seal of his inner rage. However, Esteban fighting his poverty-ridden, traumatic childhood with determined anger is what I think is his true origins of barbarism, which loops the blame of his wicked tendencies directly back to him. Additionally, Esteban’s sudden change from a courteous, madly in love gentleman to a sexually driven beast reminded me of William Golding’s classic The Lord of the Flies. In his novel, Golding clearly portrays that everyone, no matter what variation of quality in nurture and care one receives, has inner savageness that will some day break free. Golding’s theme is seen in Esteban’s self when his obsession and lust for Rosa was not fulfilled, which drove him into his repulsive ways.

My favorite part of “The Lovers” was when Old Man Pedro saved Esteban’s life after the earthquake. He did not hesitate, and did not even exactly offer his services. He said Esteban would die if he were moved to a doctor’s office, and then Esteban said it was okay for Pedro to operate on him. Esteban just said, “‘He knows what he’s doing,'” (161) and then let an ancient blind man (who had every right to not help him after being manipulated and mistreated for many years) go to town on his misplaced bones.

His faith and trust in Old Man Pedro was surprising to me. Maybe it should not have been, though, because here’s the thing: Esteban berates and belittles the people at Tres Marias (and really anyone who is not living up to his impossibly high, not clearly defined standards), and all of the working/lower class, until he needs their help. He acts like they are so unnecessary and just mooching off of him. (Which does not make sense, because they’re the ones building and planting and working in the hacienda. But Esteban likes to credit himself as the restorer of Tres Marias, so I’ll just chalk this up to his inflated opinion of himself.) When Pedro Tercero is talking to his father, he says that “he was breaking his back to restore the patron’s wealth while the rest of them would remain as poor as they had been before.” Pedro Segundo calls this “the law of God,” saying that things won’t change because this is just how they’ve always been (163). Esteban also whipped Pedro Tercero after he discussed ideas like maternity leave, health plans, and minimum wage – things that we find normal today – showing just how controlling Esteban wants to be of his workers. This reminded me of the Progressive movement in the early 1900s, when the FDA developed and ideas of worker’s unions and health insurance first came to light.

I liked seeing the beginning of Pedro Tercero’s challenging of the social norms, and I’m excited to see the development of a true revolution. Esteban’s general disdain for the lower class who work so hard for him and his hacienda is disgustingly selfish, and I’m more than ready to see someone try to shut him down.