Isabel Allende's House Of Spirits

Isabel Allende’s novel, House of Spirits, is an insightful snapshot into various aspects of Latin American culture as told by a granddaughter through her grandmother’s journals. Right at the beginning of the novel the reader has a sense of mysticism and childlike reasoning when introduced to the horse-sized dog Barrabas who was carried in by the sea on a Holy Thursday and Clara’s astounding gifts of clairvoyance as detailed in her journals. We are taken on a journey that follows four generations through the turmoil of life, death, and a political revolution. While the tale of the Trueba family is intoxicating, it is but a vessel that carries the true message of the classism in society, the roles of men and women, and the politics of Chile.

As illustrated in House of Spirits, there were two main classes at odds with each other: the Crisollos and the Mestizos. The Crisollos were those of direct Spanish descendants and fairer of skin, controlled nearly all of the land in Chile, and were the only ones who were able to hold any semblance of power within the government. The Mestizos were those who were born of a mix of Spanish/Crisollos heritage with the indigenous they had limited political power, and were the ones who worked the land owned by the Crisollos. This social structure had been established during Spanish colonial rule in the region and the concentration of wealth and land in the hands of the few is a prevailing problem throughout Latin America and House of Spirits. Just like in House of Spirits, the lower class had limited social mobility and rights and so they were presented with few ways to

The relationship between Esteban Trubea and Pedro was a great personification in the novel of the conflict between social classes. Pedro rallied his fellow land workers together, crying out for their rights and demanding them to begin asking for the respect they deserved. Esteban had amassed his wealth through his own hard work, a violent temper, and the traditional Conservative politics of the time. The rhetoric that Pedro was peddling was gaining leverage among the other workers but Esteban was not one to encourage this kind of dissidence, especially not after discovering the relationship between Pedro and his daughter Blanca and attempted to murder this rebel to the status quo. There are many more instances throughout the novel of conflict between the classes but is the tip of the iceberg of what was experienced during this