Analyze The Book: The House Of The Spirits

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The House of the Spirits
Explore the role of silence in the novel. You may want to consider Clara’s bouts of silence, Esteban Trueba’s refusal to allow radios in his house, and instances in which characters keep silent in protest of each other, and in one another’s interest or in order to save one another.
In Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits is a book that tackles certain issues that continue to plague societies all over the world. Female characters take center stage in this captivating story as Allende is trying to showcase the often ignored evils in the society. She delves deeper into the characters of the women characters who use different tactics to fight and oppose the silencing tactics often imposed in a patriarchal society. The novel focuses on Clara, her daughter Blanca, and their granddaughter Alba. The setting of the book is a highly patriarchal society where men use verbal abuse, physical abuse, rape, and limitation on communication to exert their control over women. However, instead of cowing to the men and their tactics, women in the novel led by Clara make use of silence, art, writing, and the use of spiritual powers to bypass men’s control. Knowing very well that the men would not stand their silence, women use silence to exercise their power. So, this article will explore the bouts of silence as depicted in the novel and show how these turn out to be powerful in turning the tide or ensuring a balance in the society.
Clara is the first person who is seen in the novel to be using silence as a weapon. In the story, her older sister Rosa was engaged to Esteban who was working in the mine to make enough money to marry. However, even before he get to marry her, Esteban learns that she has passed. From the novel, one learns that Esteban loved Rosa deeply. He said “I thought about how I had lost two years dreaming of Rosa, working for Rosa, writing to Rosa, wanting Rosa, and how in the end I wouldn’t even have the consolation of being buried by her side. I thought about the years I still had left and decided that without her it wasn’t worth it, for I would never find another women with her green hair and underwater beauty” (35). These are words that saw the love Esteban felt for Rosa. However, she had been taken away from him. Clara was still young at this time but she too loved her sister. So, in the aftermath of Rosa’s death, Clara decides to stay silent because of the shock of learning the truth. Apparently, she was privy to the autopsy’s results and what she saw shocked her and left her with no option other than to stay silent. Even though she recovers with time, she still decides to stay silent. As Allende notes what she experienced filled her with “the silence of the entire world” (39). However, with time, she improved but still remained silent and Allende notes that this was a decision she made because simply “did not feel like speaking” (73). Here silence was a way out for Clara because of the pain and shock that came with Rosa’s death.
Silence is indeed a powerful tool in the novel and Clara’s use of it is indeed a testament of this statement. During her second pregnancy, Clara makes use of silence again to bypass her anguish and pain. Her pregnancy as noted by Allende caused her discomfort and fatigue (113) and instead of speaking to help those around her understand her pain, she decides to communicate through writing. Silence appears to be her resort or her refuge whenever life seems to throw a curveball in her direction. One thing that stands out is that her silence is not induced or is not because of anyone close to her. Clara decide to stay silent of her own accord something which is unusual but essential with regards to presenting the unorthodox methods used to fight the patriarchal tactics of silencing women. Her silence was a strength and this helped her maintain her inner self and further helped her to survive all that life seemed to throw in her direction.
Throughout the novel, Esteban was considered stubborn and his stubbornness superseded any other character’s level of stubborn. At one point in the novel, the reader learns that Esteban never allowed radios in his house and while one would be quick to criticize him, his main reason seemed justified. Esteban had been dealt a blow when Rosa died. This death threw him on a path that was void of lo...