The Trueba Women In Isabel Allende's The House Of The Spirits

In analyzing portrayals of women, it is appropriate to begin with the character of Margarita. For, within the text, she embodies the traditionally masculine traits of bravery, resilience, and violence as a means of liberating herself from an existence of abuse and victimhood. Even more, the woman plays upon stereotypes of femininity in order to mask her true nature. The reader witnesses this clever deception in a scene where the character endures a “wholesome thrashing” from her huge, violent, and grizzly bear-like husband, Guerra (81). Although Margarita “[submits] to the infliction with great apparent humility,” her husband is found “stone-dead” the next morning (81). Here, diction such as “submits” and “humility” relate to the traits of weakness, subservience and inferiority that are so commonly expected of women, especially in their relationships with men. Yet, when one

In The House on Mango Street the women are either empowered or constricted. Rosa Vargas was constricted because she had lots of children and had a husband who left her for no reason. Rafaela was limited because she was so beautiful he thought she would run away. Sally was restrained because she could not express herself without getting beat by her father and when she gets married to escape she is still held back. In The House on Mango Street Rosa Vargas, Rafaela, and Sally are constricted because of thing that have happened to mess up their lives and because of decisions that hold them back.

Esperanza as a child takes the responsibility to fight for all the women who suffer from men discrimination, because in “Mango Street” mostly women are abandoned and the others dominated by their husband, Esperanza takes the responsibility to invite all the women to organize themselves in order to protect each other from men violence. Esperanza consider herself as the one who can liberate those women such as Minerva, a young woman who have already two children and abandoned by her husband, there is also Rafaela held indoors the house by her husband and she spends all her time in the windowsill to watch what is happen outside and many other women who undergo sufferings caused by their men, that is what characterized her commitment for the liberation of the women of her neighborhood. So as the girl, Esperanza carry the burden to deliver all women in “Mango Street” from all pains and she feels she is the right one who capable to let know her neighbors’

In Isabel Allende’s novel The House of the Spirits, there are two definitive classes of people that are present throughout the novel. The poor class, including the peasants of Tres Marias and the socialist party members, has continual resentment towards the other class, which is the wealthy aristocratic class. The wealthy division of the novel shows little humanity towards the poor, treats the poor as servants, and control all politics involved in the country. The wealthy’s treatment of the lower class shattered the peace experienced by Chile because the poor and the wealthy maintained a struggle to co-exist with such division between their

She is being raised in a world where women are expected to suffer silently and to be at the mercy of their men. However, men were not expected to return this slave-like behavior for the women. This setting of the novel allows the reader to see exactly how treacherous life can be. This suffering is so present in Estrella’s family’s lives, yet she somehow is able to bring the family along no matter how difficult the situation may be. She is still trapped in between two very different worlds: "She tried to remember which side she was on and which side of the wire mesh she was safe in" (59). Her mother may be taken over by a world of suffering, but she is not so beaten that she cannot pass some of her fighting

In Junot Diaz’s short story “Wildwood,” many may argue that Lola’s mother Belicia deserved admiration for her subconscious overprotection and love for Lola that she portrays in an uncaring, despicable manner and especially because of her strong, independent fight against breast cancer. However, I think that Lola’s mother was unadmirable due to her lack of support, her weak role as a mother, and primarily because of her constant verbal and physical abuse that she bestowed upon her children.

How do you deal with stereotypes towards yourself or others that have experienced them? People are stereotyped by their physical features and by the information we know about a certain group. They are judged by their physical features instead of seeing what they are really capable of doing. Usually not being involved in such a diverse community can cause that because they are accustomed to what's near them. Exploring and learning about others will help shatter stereotypes. We'll explore in Sucheng Chan and Judith Ortiz Cofer essays on how they've been stereotyped and what they've done to shatter the quo.

Inequalities within minorities is not limited to economic unfairness but also social inequity. The second story that shows how inequality within minorities is “The Myth of the Latin Woman” by Judith Ortiz Cofer. “The Myth of the Latin Woman” is an essay based on the real life experiences of Judith Ortiz Cofer. The story talks about the racist inequalities she has went through as a women of Hispanic descent. “a young man, obviously fresh from a pub, spotted me and as if struck by inspiration went down on his knees in the aisle. With both hands over his hearts he broke into an an Irish tenor’s rendition of Maria from West Side Story”. The author retells one of her experiences from earing graduate credits one summer and she is met by someone whom ignorantly makes racists remark simply because she is Latina. Furthermore in the story Cofer mentions how people gave the man a round of applause. “amused fellow passengers gave his voice the round of gentle applause” (Page 61). This shows that it is acceptable to generalize an ethnic group into a character from West Side Story. In addition to the unfair generalization, Cofer is confronted unfair expectations. I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early”. This is unfair assumption made to Cofer. She is treated like a vegetable rather than a girl who traditionally grows into womanhood. This also generalizes Latin women to be matured at a young age. Which is incorrect just because Latinas fall into a small category in society

Clara married Esteban Trueba, a man who was harsh, quick to react. During the patriarchal society, women were a man’s possession. They had few rights and were exploited and sometimes rejected by men (Metzger). Clara doesn’t put up with disrespect from any man and when her husband, Esteban, hits her during a fight, Clara never speak a word to him again (Allende 223). With this act of cruelty on his part it allowed Clara to escape to her own world of solitude, a spiritual world where Esteban cannot follow her. This world is without rules, without structure, no subordinate to men, no patriarchy, no boundaries (Metzger). These is a gift Clara can give to her daughter, Blanca.

Eleanor, the protagonist, undergoes a difficult childhood which cause many of her repressed feelings to be expressed through supernatural experiences that are ambiguous. She took care of her ill mother for 11 years, until she died. That affected her tremendously. For example, during Theodora’s supernatural experience, Shirley Jackson displays how Eleanor’s inner child managed to let her grow anger and jealously towards Theodora. Eleanor felt like Hill House was giving Theodora more

At the Convent they were able to recover from their fractured selves with the help of the Consolata. As part of the recovery process, Consolata drew templates on the basement that represents symbols of each woman body and after setting the example by first telling her own story to them, each woman began to open up about her story and they each began to sketch in detals the hurt and pain they feel on the templates

In many novels, relationships shape a character. Throughout Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits dissimilar individuals constantly come together to form relationships that change or develop their disposition. While Allende uses relationships to build upon a character, she also depicts a character's living environment in order to confirm their true soul and lifestyle. Due to the observation of both relationships and environments, a character's true qualities are expressed to a reader. The relationship between two individuals, Ferula and Clara, proves itself a positive product of the union of differing people. Through analysis of Ferula's home and close observation of her bond with Clara,

Although a light read, her experience is heart-breaking as she is abused at home, institutionalized, and instead of being treated for her depression, doctor’s attempt to “feminize” her with eye shadow and lipstick. She is the type of advocate that makes noise in a silence because she tells a tale that would otherwise be unknown.

In the book Isabel Allende experiments with various literary devices. The many different narrative voices used in this book allow the reader to understand the book from dissimilar perspectives. As the story unfolds, one can see the symbolism that occurs in many of the events. The story revolves around the different generations of the Del Valle family. Symbolism is used as a literary device in this book to apply ideas and images to explain something in particular. Symbolism provides meaning to the writing beyond what is actually being described. The plot and action that take place in this story can be thought of as one level, while the symbolism of certain things in the writing of this story act on another level to enhance the story.

The story begins with another subtle biblical allusion, this time to the prophet Moses, as the narrator relates the story of how Eliza, as a baby, was abandoned. The memories of that day are mixed. Eliza believes that she was lying in a soapbox, for she remembers the scent; but Rose says that she found the baby Eliza in a wicker basket, reminiscent of Moses's adoption. Although the details of her life are not significantly tied to the story of Moses, Eliza is, in her own way, a leader, demonstrating through her adventures that there is a path that women can follow which will lead to freedom.