The Struggle In Isabel Allende's Life

Isabel Allende, a passionate woman, has experienced many heartaches in her life. The abandonment she experienced, along with her siblings, by her father resulting in poverty and vulnerability of her childhood is just one example of the struggles that formed Allende into who she is today. The dominant troubling times in Chile forced her mother with four children to return to her parents’ home. It was there she began to acknowledge wealth and power. In an interview she stated “We lived in an affluent house – with no money. My grandfather would pay for what was necessary but my mother did not even have the cash to buy us an ice cream. I wanted to be like my grandfather because my mother had a terrible life and he had all the privileges and the

No wonder that by age five I was a raging feminist -- although the term had not reached Chile yet, so nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me. (Laughter) I would soon find out that there was a high price to pay for my freedom, and for questioning the patriarchy. But I was happy to pay it, because for every blow that I received, I was able to deliver two. (Allende, Isabel Allende: Tales of passion, 2007)” She then went on to talk about women empowerment and presented to the audience that if women came together we could make the world a good place, not better or good again but, good (Allende, Isabel Allende: Tales of passion,

The distinction is clear: the one produces the infant such as it actually is, including its latent faculties of growth of body and mind; the other affords the environment amid which the growth takes place, by which natural tendencies may be strengthened or thwarted, or wholly new ones implanted. Neither of the terms implies any theory; natural gifts may or may not be hereditary; nurture does not especially consist of food, clothing, education, or tradition, but it includes all these and similar influences whether known or unknown (Galton, 1875).” This is the origin of the topic nature vs. nurture, however to analyze Allende’s character Violet through this titular and perceptible lens would be entirely too facile. It is through psychoanalytic criticism that we can dive into the strenuous, complex and vexed character that is