Unexpectedly Important Characters in House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

To foreshadow events in books or to tell the meaning of a story, authors often use symbolism. Symbolism uses people, places, or things that have their own meaning, to express something different. The author of Esperanza Rising, Pam Muñoz Ryan, uses a certain fruit or vegetable to symbolize events of emotions that occur in the chapter. Three chapters in Esperanza Rising that represent an important part of the book are Los Higos, Las Cebollas, and Los Aquacates. In Esperanza Rising, figs, onions, and avocados symbolize a new beginning, the acceptance of starting anew, and the rewards followed after hardship.

Esperanza is the protagonist of the story. She is very wealthy and gets everything she wants. She struggles through her father’s death and moving to California. Throughout the story she becomes very mature, determined, and a hard worker. She really shocked me because she was a very spoiled princess who became a very strong migrant worker. Ramona Ortega also known as Mama is Esperanza’s mother. They are always together and she helped Esperanza stay strong. Throughout the story she is very strong but becomes very ill and depressed. Miguel was Esperanza’s best friends when they were little kids. He is the child of two servants that work for the family. He wants to become a mechanic and is very determined to reach that goal. They still look after eachother, even though they aren’t very close due to their social status. In the end he is able to bring back Abuelita back from Mexico. Hortensia was a servant that took care of their family. She always looked after Esperanza and was almost like a second mother. She was a Zapotec Indian. She was Alfonso’s wife and the mother of Miguel. Alfonso was a field worker and a very close friend to Papa. He loved the land and took care of the rose garden. He is the main person who helped everyone get to California. Isabel is the daughter of Juan and Josefina. She is only 9 years old but can clean, do laundry, and change diapers. She was the one who taught Esperanza how to do housework. She becomes very close friends with Esperanza. Isabel is the only one who goes to school to learn to read, write, and speak

The House of the Spirits written by Isabel Allende is an extraordinary novel that weaves together, history, politics, and current events to create a unique piece of literature. Throughout the novel on several occasions it is clear that there is inequality between the aristocrats and the peasants and this leads to struggle between the classes. The issue of class struggle takes the form of growing conflict by causing a division between the Conservatives and Socialists. At the head of the Conservatives is Esteban Trueba, a violent and materialistic figure. He believes people need to work their way up to the top and there is no reason that peasants share the upper classes wealth. On the other hand, Pedro Tercero Garcia represents the

As Antonio is forced to develop into a more independent and well-informed young man, he must come to terms with the harsh realities in the outside world from which he was shielded during his early childhood. He encounters the truth behind what happens at Rosie’s—while he has always been told that Rosie is “evil, not evil like a witch, but evil in other ways” (34), he does not learn of the nature of that “evil”—and that his brother is partaking in it (165); Antonio even begins to have dreams that are far more “intense” than any he has previously experienced (70). Antonio must also confront the reality of the hardships of loss, as the people around him with whom he is acquainted—and even those he loves—die at the hands of others. This is particularly important in Antonio’s exploration of religion, as he begins to question why an all-powerful God would allow his loved ones to die, and why such a deity would not sentence those who killed them to hell (186). Antonio’s loss of innocence is finally and forcefully demonstrated at the end of the novel, when he speaks to his mother “as a man,” commanding her to take the younger (and still “innocent”) children inside (269). This is doubly important, as it demonstrates not only that Antonio has lost enough of his innocence to be speaking “as a man,” but also that he recognizes innocence in others and strives to protect them from what he has

Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their live. A female role model or friends seems to be important to Esperanza. Some of the women that are her role models are, Esperanza's great-grandmother, Marin, and Rafaela. Even though she may not have known these women very well they still impacted her life immensely , some showed the way that Esperanza did not want to live in her life to information about boys she found interesting.

She also saves her pride and arrogance as the Choragos remarks, “Like father, like daughter: both headstrong, deaf to reason! She has never learned to yield.” She had many chances to prevent her demise but her pride stood in the way. Through the progression of scenes leading to her tragic ‘fall’, she is every bit of the woman she was at the beginning.

Esperanza is able to look at her great grandmother and realize what she does not want to become, but also she realizes what she does want: to become a strong, independent woman.

Do you think besides literature have another ways to display history? Can historians show you the picture about the historic event instead of imagining them by yourselves? “Abina and the Important Men” is a graphic history book, so the authors not only gives readers literal record but also give images to illustrate the history. The story happened in west Africa in 1876. In story includes phenomenon of the society, and certain African cultures. Abina Mansah, Quamina Eddoo and William Meltonare most important characters in the story because they represent different hierarchies in the society and display different condition in these hierarchies.

A poignant figure in Esperanza’s life is her own grandmother. In fact, Esperanza was given her birth name after her grandmother. A touching gesture that came from good faith. A name may have some value, but for Esperanza there was a high intrinsic quality to such a simple component. Despite, never encountering her own grandmother in person, Esperanza was grateful to have fond memories by carrying her legacy through her name. Life’s motto concerns dealing with adversity and carrying the legacy of one’s family eternally. Being confident and smart was the only way to live by. No man was needed to help raise and nurture herself. Her grandmother instilled in Esperanza a sense of fortitude and independence. It is sad that a regret of Esperanza is linked to her grandmother, further illustrating the physical and mental hardships one can endure in

She doesn’t seem that interested in getting to know people, as much as she is interested in keeping money to survive and supporting her habit. Due to the lack of love Rosa received from her mother she had no motivation to stop what she was doing and change for the better.

Clara’s only daughter, Blanca, was not born with the gifts of visions as her mother was but was down to earth, sensual, and passionate (Rossman 55). Living on an estate in Tres Marias, is where she meets the person that would ignite her strength of passion, Pedro Tercero. Pedro was a peasant’s son who lived on the Trueba’s estate. During this time in Latin America, people stayed with their own class. Pedro being a peasant, was classified as bad for Blanca. During The House of the Spirits,

Also, each character has his or her own form of a Meeting with the Goddess. For Blanca, her meeting occurs when her daughter, Alba, is born. Alba portrays the Innocent character archetype from the moment she is born. She brings happiness to everyone she connects with. This helps ease the tensions in the Trueba family and transforms Esteban into someone who is a little softer on the inside, which causes him to ultimately accept Pedro and Blanca’s relationship. For Winston Smith, his meeting occurs before many of the previous stages. When he meets with Julia in Victory Square and they hold hands amongst the busy crowd of Oceanians. This meeting not only gives him assurance of who Julia really is, but also increases his strange feelings of affection

In the case of Blanca and her encounters with Pedro Tercero, Trueba is prepared to do anything to keep his family in control and protect its outward image to society even if it consists of inflicting bodily harm upon his loved ones. “When he saw his daughter, Esteban Trueba was unable to restrain his evil character and he charged her with his horse, whip in the air, beating her mercilessly, lash upon lash, until the girl fell flat and rigid to the ground.” However, Trueba can’t control Alba as much as the others and he tries to rationalize her actions when she participates in political activities: “she took it into her head to help fugitives get asylum in foreign embassies, something she did without thinking, I'm sure”. Trueba can't understand thinking from the heart, until he must rescue Alba from the militants and experience it firsthand.

Born to have good luck, Alba suffered one of the most horrific brutalities a woman could ever encounter: rape. She was captured because the military thought that eventually after enough brutality she would give up Miguel's location, but as strong willed as her mother she never gave him up. She would have probably been held captive for the rest of her life by Esteban Garcia just to keep Miguel safe. When she reunites with Ana Díaz, a former revolutionary, they help each get through the sexual abuse and beatings by singing hymns and comforting each other. A little while later, they reunite again when they were both held in a concentration camp for women and children; there the women pull together to support each other. They all knew that if they

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,