League 1

Victoria League
Professor Farrah Cato
LIT3368
24 February 2014
Catchy Title
Isabel Allendes novel The House of the Spirits describes and details the life of a family
over generations. The family spends most of their time between two different homes, each of
which seems to belong to one of the main characters. As time goes on, it becomes apparent that
these characters are connected to their homes. The importance of home is a central theme in
the novel, and is vocalized near the end of the novel: That same day my grandfather wanted us
to leave the countryBut I explained that I could not leave, because far away from my country I
would be like those trees they chop down at Christmastime, those poor rootless pines that last a
little while and then die (423). Although this statement specifically says country, it highlights
the importance of being in a place considered home. Allende goes further with this theme by
showing that it goes both ways; the homes seem to depend on the characters as much as, or more
than, the characters depend on their homes. This twist on the theme of being connected to home
is shown through the parallels between the two main characters and their respective homes,
suggesting that homes are lost without their owners in the same way that people are rootless
without their homes.
Esteban Trueba is the main male figure in the novel. He takes it upon himself to rebuild
his family property, Tres Marias, into the best in the area. It had been in ruins, the tenants
struggling to survive, and he accomplishes this task primarily on his own. None of the other main
characters help him, so he considers the property his own. Tres Marias is so important to him
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that, when away from it, he says that the lazy, empty days in the cityset my nerves on edge. I
managed to keep myself busy, but it wasnt enough: I was always in a bad mood (Allende 113).
Away from his home, he struggles to function well. His hard work fosters a connection between
him and Tres Marias, a connection that develops into a physical connection. This is clear in a
variety of examples throughout the novel. Most notably, a severe earthquake destroys much of
the countryside, including Tres Marias. When the earthquake causes the house to collapse,
Trueba is caught in the destruction and all of his bones are broken. Esteban Trueba appeared in
the doorway at the very instant when the house snapped in half like an eggshell and collapsed in
a cloud of dust, flattening him beneath a pile of rubble (Allende 160). The house was broken in
half, and so was Esteban Trueba: after an hour, when the sun was already shining on that
anguished landscape, they lifted the patrn from his tomb. He had so many broken bones that
they could not be counted, but he was alive and his eyes were open (Allende 160). Both Trueba
and the house were shattered by the earthquake, injured in similar ways and later requiring
similar rehabilitation. Truebas physical connection to his home was so strong that they suffered
the same fate in the earthquake.
In the novel, Truebas sister Frula curses him and says that his body and soul will
shrivel up (Allende 132). As time goes on, this becomes true; he seems to literally shrink and he
also becomes worn down with the problems and stresses that he faces in his life. As this is
happening, Tres Marias is experiencing the same problem. Trueba begins to neglect the property
as he focuses more on his political career. But with the weight of age and politics, Tres Marias,
like many other things that had once seemed essential, had ceased to interest him. Its only value
was symbolic (Allende 309). It becomes less important to him and without him there to keep
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the place functioning properly, it falls into ruins much in the same way that he does; slowly but
surely, the two of them become more dilapidated and ruined:
the countryside was not as prosperous as beforehe was always busy now
and never had the time to make the tripHis foreman was a man defeated by his
own pessimistic views, and his news was mostly a series of misfortunes: the
strawberries froze, the chickens caught the pip, the grapes rotted. Thus the
countryside, which had been the source of his wealth, became a burden, and
Senator Trueba frequently had to withdraw money from his other businesses to
prop up that insatiable land, which seemed to want to return to the days of
oblivion, before he rescued it from misery. (Allende 308)
Two pages before that, Trueba thinks to himself, Frula was rightmy body and my soul are
shriveling up (Allende 306). Tres Marias reflects Truebas decline by experiencing the same
curse and fate that Frula had predicted. By the end of the novel, Tres Marias seems to depend
on Trueba more than he depends on it as it mirrors his condition and his gradual deterioration.
Clara, Truebas wife and the other main character of the novel, has a physical connection
to their house in the city, which is referred to as the house on the corner. In the second half of
the novel, she builds new rooms to accommodate her needs and she spends time taking care of
the house. Clara physically invests herself in the house the same way Trueba invests himself in
Tres Marias. Clara saw to everything. Within two weeks the cages were filled with new
birdsClara brought life back to the house. She ordered the cook to keep a stove always lit and
told her that she should be prepared to feed a large number of guests at a moments notice
(Allende 210). Her attention to the revitalization of the house begins the physical connection
between them, and by building new rooms she makes the home her own. In response to Claras
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imagination and the requirements of the moment, the noble, seigniorial architecture began
sprouting all sorts of extra little rooms, staircases, turrets, and terracesThe big house on the
corner soon came to resemble a labyrinth (Allende 224). Constructing these rooms based on her
desires makes the house belong to her more than any of the other characters. These actions invest
her in the house and foster the physical connection between them that.
Her granddaughter, Alba, knew that her grandmother was the soul of the big house on
the corner. Everybody else learned it later, when Clara died and the house lost its flowers, its
nomadic friends, and its playful spirits and entered into an era of decline (283). Alba sees how
Clara and the house are intertwined, and how much the house relies on Clara for its liveliness.
However, Clara doesnt seem to depend on the house as much as the house depends on her.
Although she cares for it, she is comfortable being away from the home at Tres Marias. Without
her attention, the house would have never been lively. When she dies, the house also dies,
showing that their connection developed through the houses dependence on her existence:
Claras death completely transformed life in the big house on the corner. Gone
with her were the spirits and the guests, as well as that luminous gaiety that had
always been present[Alba] noticed it before anybody else in the flowers wilting
in their vases, saturating the air with a sickening odor that lingered while they
dried up, lost their leaves, and fell apart, leaving only the musty stalks, which no
one bothered to clean up until much laterThen the plants died, because no one
remembered to water them or talk to them as Clara had done. The cats crept away,
disappearing just as they had arrived or been born in the cracks and crevices of
the roof. (Allende 295)
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Claras death signals the biggest decline the house saw in the novel. No one is able to rejuvenate
the house in the way that Clara could; like Alba had said, Clara had been the soul of the house
and it couldnt survive without her. The connection between Clara and the house is mostly one-
sided, as she does not depend on it the way it depends on her. Allendes twist of the theme of
people being rootless without their home is very clear in the way that the house is helpless
without Clara.
The commonplace theme of characters being lost without their homes is present in
Allende, but she also turns the idea around and makes the homes dependent on their owners.
Trueba originally felt lost when he was away from Tres Marias, but as he focuses more on other
aspects of his life and his other stresses, the property is lost without his guidance. They also
experience a physical connection, both suffering similar ways at the same time. At first, Trueba
mirrors Tres Marias when his bones are broken after the house shatters, but later the house is
affected by his physical changes and his gradual decline. Clara and the house on the corner, on
the other hand, hardly share a symbiotic relationship as Clara does not depend on the house for
her comfort and survival. The house only feels lively when she takes care of it, and it parallels
her death. These two characters and their clear connections to their homes show that, if a person
invests him- or herself in their home, that home will be dependent on the person and lost without
the persons guidance.