New House Of Spirits Thesis

In the novel, The House Of Spirits, Isabel Allende blames the increasing instability of Chile, on many of the country’s political events. Instability and the deterioration of the Chilean quality of life, escalates exponentially throughout the story. There are four stages of stability within the novel, each stage progresses into a state, worse than the previous. The first stage consists of a poisoning, and rebellions against the government. Next is the post–election stage of the Socialist government and the resulting economic sabotage. The third stage is the military coup, and the aftermath of it, including the assassination of the president, a further division of classes and corruption of the government through dictatorship. In the final stage, horrendous prisons appear, where prisoners are tortured ruthlessly.

The first stage, being the most stable and tolerable to the Chilean people had very few negative impacts from the government, this is rather strange because it is by far the largest stage and composes the first eleven chapters of the book, The House Of Spirits. The first event is when Severo del Valle becomes a Liberal Party candidate. The del Valle family is sent many celebratory gifts such as brandy, and a roast pig. Rosa, the daughter of Severo drinks this brandy and dies shortly afterwards due to poisoning intended for Severo del Valle. This however was a very uncommon occurrence in Chile. “In those days, political assassinations were unknown in the country, and in any case, poison was a method only whores and fishwives would resort to, a lowly technique that had not been seen since colonial times; even crimes of passion were nowadays resolved face to face.” (Allende 31) This example is relatively mild, even though the del Valle family was impacted gravely, Chilean society would virtually remain the same. The death of Rosa was the first example of a negative impact upon Chile and it was simply an attempted assassination of a Liberal Party candidate from another political party, the conservatives. Much later, the stability of the country declines a little more, however it is still unclear how the novel will end. The next event was a workers’ strike that Alba, the great-great-grand daughter participated in. “…Alba sat in at the university along with the students who had seized a building in support of a strike by workers.” (Allende 319-20) The rebellion was still a relatively minor occurrence, where the students and workers were showing their discontentment with the government. On a minor scale, we can already see growing instability, however at this point, in the novel it is still insignificant, because it is still part of the first stage, which was the most stable of the four.

The election of the socialist party marks the beginning of the second stage, where the instability of Chile first starts to be apparent. To the shock of the people of Chile, the Socialist party won the election and began to rule the country. The majority of the population was ecstatic, however the Conservatives were livid. The Conservatives, who still had many connections and an immense amount of wealth, wreaked havoc upon the Chilean government. “While the people were celebrating their victory…the right was carrying out a series of strategic actions designed to tear the economy to shreds and discredit the government.” (Allende 347) Unfortunately, the right’s devious plan to destroy the economy was entirely successful and left the people lining up for hours to obtain everyday items which would have been in huge supply just a short time earlier. However the conservatives didn’t expect the people to continue their lives so normally, in spite of the economic instability. “Blanca had organized a network for obtaining provisions through the black-market and her contacts in the working class neighborhood where she went to teach ceramics to the women.” (Allende 350) The economic state of Chile, during the second stage is substantially worse than in the first stage and the quality of life has also been lowered due to the shortage of necessary resources.

After the economic sabotage fails to discredit the Socialist Government, the right tries another, even more drastic plan of action. A military coup is organized, and the president is assassinated; this is where the third stage begins. “Above the din was heard a hysterical voice of an officer ordering them to surrender and come down single file with their hands on their heads. The President shook each of them by the hand. ‘I’ll go last,’ he said. They never again saw him alive.” (Allende 369) The fact that there was a military coup demonstrates how the election of the socialist party caused the military to be unstable, among other things. In this stage, the military doesn’t only destroy the current government but it replaces it with a corrupt government that separates the two major classes in Chile even more than before. “Cement walls were erected to hide the most unsightly shantytowns from the eyes of tourists and others who preferred not to see them.” (Allende 381) The small middle class in Chile is unable to afford the inflated prices and is quickly reduced to the lower class. Around the poorer regions of Chile, cement walls are put up to physically separate the classes. The dictatorship over Chile had many negative impacts such as this separation of classes, censorship and others.

The final stage, located in chapter four is by far the worst stage yet. Allende introduces the final stage through the arrest of Alba. Alba is taken to a prison where the worst conditions, up to this point in the book, are revealed. Alba is taken prisoner because they suspect she knows the whereabouts of her lover Miguel; she is abused mentally, sexually, and physically until she reaches a near death state when her grandfather uses an old connection to free her. “A brutal slap knocked her to the ground. Violent hands lifted her to her feet. Ferocious fingers fastened themselves to her breasts, crushing her nipples. She was completely overcome by fear.” (Allende 407) Fortunately, Alba is one of the luckier prisoners and makes it out of the prison alive, however many don’t. The prisons were secret government operations to scare the civilians into oppression, and to obtain any information they needed.

The contrast from this prison at the end, to the opening of the book is drastic. The peoples’ rights go from being acceptable to being practically non-existent, and the initial stability at first slowly dissipates but near the end, almost vanishes. Every event mentioned within this paper is directly linked to a political event, from the poisoning of Rosa to the military coup and finally the prisons and they are all clearly negative. In the novel, The House Of Spirits, Isabel Allende blames the increasing instability of Chile, on many of the country’s political events.