Esteban Trueba Character Analysis

The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende masterfully incorporates complex characters and intricate plots to create an unforgettable spectacle of familial relationships, femininity, and political strife. The story develops over three generations of the De Valle/Trueba family allowing for relationships to be made between an array of characters. Esteban Trueba, a central figure in the story, is defined through characteristics conveyed in his treatment of Alba de Satigny and Esteban García. With the establishment of Alba and Esteban García’s interactions, Allende also makes a simple but crucial distinction between the characters which, in turn, leads to a fuller understanding about the nature of forgiveness and resentment.
In analyzing Esteban’s

character, one must evaluate his relationships and the effect of those relationships, specifically with his grandkids, Alba and Esteban García. Now, unlike his success in the material world, Esteban, since the loss of Rosa, begins an endless cycle of grief, destruction, and failure. Starting with the rape of the peasant girls and the birth of his bastard child, Esteban has lost all sense of himself and immerses into activities that help him fill the void of losing the love of his life. Upon finding out that Pancha Garcia, the first woman he raped is pregnant, he kicks her out of the main house and completely abandons the woman and child for virtually the rest of his life. Although he is distracted by his success at Tres Marías, there are many moments where his temper gets the best of him and his choleric personality surfaces. Esteban García, the grandson of Esteban Trueba and Pancha García, grows up to be reminded of the atrocious acts committed by Esteban. Esteban García grows up with an obsessive, indignant, and vengeful ideology. Their first interaction occurs when Esteban García is a boy, and for a reward, he tells his grandfather where Pedro Tercero Garcia is hiding. Upon not receiving a reward, his hatred for Trueba increases. Esteban’s ill will and carelessness towards Esteban García exemplifies his outlook on the people of Tres Marías. Esteban Trueba uses people for his own benefit and this blatant authoritarian principle is a clear flaw that comes to punish him later in the story.
Alba has a profound influence on everyone in the story and her existence, especially, “sweetened Esteban Trueba’s character” (266).

Esteban’s relationships with everyone else in the house were deteriorated, so much of his affection and sentiments are bestowed to Alba; he mentions that Alba meant more to him than any of his actual children had. “Those moments with his granddaughter [were remembered] as the happiest of his whole existence...Senator Trueba’s relationship with the rest of his family only worsened with time” (275). From waking him up in the morning to accompanying him to Tres Marías, Alba has developed a special bond with Esteban that allows for his repressed personality to arise, one that simultaneously was covered again by the rest of his family. Seeing Esteban in a negative light for much of the book due to his behavior at Tres Marías and his treatment of his family members, Alba gives a refreshing take on Esteban, showing that Esteban has the potential to become a person separate from his actions. His relationship with Alba is also his reconciliation with his past. Esteban gives Alba what he was unable to give his other children, whether it be lavish gifts or support. In caring for Alba, he was also making up for his love that would’ve gone to Rosa, his original lover, and Clara, who left him after his abuse. Alba had inherited traits from Esteban’s past lovers, such as Rosa’s green hair and Clara’s intuition; for Esteban, this allows a deeper connection to be made with

Alba.
Despite both being children born through a taboo lifestyle, Esteban García and Alba’s lives end up contrasting to a great extent. This stark difference influences their personality and perceptions of the world. Unlike Esteban García, Alba had always grown up with a father figure, her grandfather, and he was able to support her materially and even emotionally. “Her [Blanca’s] poverty contrasted with the embroidered dresses and custom made shoes in which Senator Trueba dressed his granddaughter, Alba” (279). Alba had always lived securely with her grandfather heeding to her needs to the point of sending her to boarding school, whereas Blanca, under the harsh judgement of her father was barely making enough to sustain herself. Esteban at one point mentioned that he wanted to leave Tres Marías to Alba, which shows how deeply he cared for Alba, much more than he could ever muster towards Blanca. Much of Alba’s character can be defined through the effect she had on others. Alba was one of the only people in the De Valle/Trueba family that had a good relationship with every relative, obviously excluding Esteban García. She was always included with the supernatural instances Clara had taken part in. “At six she had discovered the magic books in the enchanted trunks of her legendary Great-Uncle Marcos...Her two uncles were very close to her...She was the only person in the house who had the key to her uncle’s [Jaime’s] tunnel of books” (268-270). Like Blanca, Alba had begun reading the fabulous adventures that her Uncle MArcos wrote about, and the bonds formed between her uncles, both of which were different from the family as well as each other, displayed her objective view of different perspectives that each relative felt. This good will and impartial behavior is what gave her the courage and resilience to survive the torture of Esteban García and his military coup. To contrast, Esteban García’s character, as mentioned before, carries a deep resentment and takes a lot of it out on Alba. “He [Esteban García] felt that he hated this little girl as almost as much as he did the old Trueba. She embodied everything he would never have, never be” (286). This was the first instance where the grandchildren meet, and Esteban, filled with envy cannot help but shed his hatred of his illegitimate status onto the girl. He encounters Alba at numerous instances in his life, such as her fourteenth birthday party and at the University lock in; in both situations, he finds a way to make her uneasy, first molesting her and then wanting to humiliate her by leaving her in a cell. Arguably the most important event in both of these characters’ lives was the military regime and Esteban García’s dictatorship. Alba and Esteban García’s personalities get completely outlined during these occurrences. “Alba understood that he was not trying to learn Miguel’s true whereabouts, but to avenge himself for the injuries that had been inflicted on him from birth and that nothing she could confess would have any effect on her fate as the private prisoner of Colonel García” (411). The crucial difference between those characters, much more significant than their lives, would be their perspective on revenge. Esteban García wanted to complete the cycle of rape, grief, and sorrow because much of his motivation lied in avenging his grandmother. Alba, on the other hand, through the help of Clara learns to write and strengthen her mind against the physical and psychological torture she was put through. “When I was in the doghouse, I wrote in my mind that one day Colonel García would stand before me in defeat and that I would avenge myself...And now I seek my hatred and cannot seem to find it...because revenge would be just another part of the same inexorable rite. I have to break that chain” (431-432). Alba realizes life’s cyclical and intertwined nature, and rather than going back into a cycle of vengeance, she reconciles with her life and understands everything happens for a reason, even Esteban García.
Much like Alba writes to overcome her terrors, Allende, through the disparity seen between Esteban García and Alba de Satigny, illustrates an idea rooted in “forgive but do not forget”. To conclude, Esteban García and Alba de Satigny are critical characters in developing not only the plot, but the character of Esteban Trueba. The contrast between these grandkids also signifies a theme of disregarding resentment, as it leads to a vicious cycle of grief, and accepting the past as it is, forgiving those who have caused harm, but not forgetting the moral behind it.