"The Hose of the Spirits" Analysis - BAQUIRAN
While Esteban is off in the mines trying to make his fortune, Rosa is accidentally poisoned in the place of her father, Severo del Valle. Rosa dies. Clara, Rosa’s younger sister, is so shocked by the events that she stops talking. Nine years later, Esteban has made a fortune with his family property, Tres Marias, thanks to his hard work and to his exploitation of the local peasants. On top of exploiting their labor, Esteban exploits all of the young girls of the peasant families, notably Pancha, for his sexual satisfaction. Esteban also has sexual relations with prostitutes, including Transito Soto. Transito and Esteban become friends, and he lends her money to move to the city. He pays a visit to the del Valle home. Esteban and Clara become engaged and marry. They move into the big house on the corner that Esteban built for them. Ferula moves in with them.
About a year after they are married, Clara and Esteban's first child, Blanca, is born. When the family travels to Tres Marias for the summer a few years later, Blanca meets Pedro Tercero and they fall in love. Over the years, Ferula and Clara have developed a deep friendship. Ferula's feelings for Clara border on passionate love, and she and Esteban develop a rivalry over Clara's affections. One morning, Esteban comes home unexpectedly and finds Ferula in Clara's bed. Esteban kicks Ferula out of the house. As she leaves, Ferula curses Esteban to eternal loneliness.
Blanca and Pedro Tercero's love grows as they mature, and they soon realize that Esteban would disapprove if he knew. Blanca and Pedro Tercero continue their romance in secret. Several years later, they are exposed to Esteban by Jean de Satigny, who is trying to ingratiate himself with Esteban so he can become either his business partner or his son-in-law. Esteban makes Blanca leave Tres Marias and tries to kill Pedro Tercero. In his anger, Esteban hits Clara. Esteban becomes very involved in the Conservative party, runs for Senate, and is elected. Esteban and Clara eventually return to a civil, if silent, relationship.
A few years later, Blanca gets pregnant. Esteban tells her that he has killed Pedro Tercero and forces her to marry Jean de Satigny. About six months after they are married, Blanca discovers Jean de Satigny's unusual sexual practices and leaves him. She gives birth to her daughter Alba as soon as she arrives home at the big house on the corner.
According to Clara, Alba is born lucky. She is raised by her entire family, inspiring great love in all. Although she thinks that Jean de Satigny is her father and that he is dead, Alba meets Pedro Tercero and establishes a friendship with him. To the great sadness of everyone but herself, Clara dies.
To everyone's surprise, the socialists win the elections. Esteban and the conservatives do all they can to discredit the socialists, including preparing to a military coup. A few months later, there is a military coup. Pedro Tercero goes into hiding in the big house on the corner. Esteban is at first pleases with the coup but soon realizes that it results not in the conservatives' return to power, but in the establishment of a military dictatorship. He is powerless to do much other than to help Blanca and Pedro Tercero escape to Canada.
The colonel at the head of the dictatorship abducts Alba. He turns out to be Esteban Garcia, Pancha and Esteban Trueba's grandson. Before she died Pancha told Esteban the story of his ancestry. Esteban slowly made his way up the ranks of the military, in the process acquainted himself with Esteban Trueba and his family, especially Alba. Under the guise of finding out where Miguel is, Esteban Garcia exacts revenge on Alba for his grandmother's mistreatment. Desperate to find Alba, Esteban turns to Transito Soto, who runs the Christopher Columbus, a brothel-turned-hotel. Thanks to the connections she has established through her sex work, Transito is able to repay the favor Esteban did for her years before, and she assures that Alba is returned home. Alba and Esteban have just begun to write the story of their family when Esteban dies. Alba carries forth the project, pregnant with a child whose father is either Miguel or one of the men who raped her while she was in detention.
Time and place written · 1981, Venezuela
Date of first publication · First publication in Spanish, 1982. First publication in English, 1985.
Narrator · Alba and Esteban Trueba
Climax · None, although there are many moments which appear to be a climax, notably each birth and each death
Clara - Severo and Nivea del Valle's daughter, Esteban's wife. The key female figure in the novel, Clara is the connection between the Trueba and del Valle families. She holds her family together through her love and predictions. Clara marries Esteban because she understands that it is her fate. After he hits her she never talks to him again, but she maintains a civil relationship with him until her death.
Alba – She is Blanca and Pedro Tercero's daughter and Clara and Esteban's granddaughter. She devotes her life to her family and to her love for Miguel. Alba becomes the object of all of Esteban Garcia's hatred.
Blanca - Clara and Esteban's first born. Blanca falls in love with Pedro Tercero at a young age and throughout her life defies her father to meet with him as often as possible. Blanca is forced to marry Jean de Satigny. Blanca leaves Jean just before giving birth to her daughter by Pedro Tercero, Alba.
Settings (time) · The twentieth century
Settings (place) · Tres Marias and the capital of an unspecified Latin American country
Point of view · The point of view switches between the first person of Esteban and a third person omniscient narrator who turns out to be Alba
Falling action · Chapter fourteen, The Terror, when Alba is abducted by Esteban Garcia, and Esteban Trueba realizes how much damage he has caused
Tones · Calm and dispassionate, even while presenting extremely violent, passionate, and unbelievable events (characteristic of magical realism)
Motifs · Class struggle; political upheaval; women's roles and rights; the power of writing; fate and free will; genealogy and inheritance; revenge
The Big House on the Corner
Esteban builds a big house on the corner that on the surface is straightforward, if somewhat ostentatious. Similarly, The House of the Spirits can be read as a traditional romance novel, following a single family over several generations. However, Esteban’s house ends up full of complicated and impractical additions. The title of the novel underlines the association: The House of the Spirits refers both to the book as a whole, and also to the big house on the corner, which is always full of ghosts and spirits.
"I set my curse on you, Esteban!" Ferula shouted back. "You will always be alone! Your body and soul will shrivel up and you'll die like a dog!"
--- Ferula and Esteban are siblings. Cursing a brother shows great anger and a never forgiveness.
“You can't find someone who doesn't want to be found.”
--- That someone you are looking for will never show up, so why find someone who doesn’t want to be found?
“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity; they need justice.”
--- This is true when it comes to a country or should we say heads of the government that does not give proper justice to the poor and tends to let the poor be poorer.
“Land is something one should never sell. It is the only thing left when all else is gone.”
--- All memories are stored in that land.
“Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change” --- When we are born, we tend to cry or be afraid for the strange people, same as when we are scared of dying.
The Struggle between Classes
The characters come from two opposing classes: the landed aristocracy and the peasants. The two classes come into conflict because upper one owns the land that the lower one works on. The House of the Spirits supports the view of the peasants. The novel gives us an idea about how peasants can prevail from land owners. There should be equal rights among people to prevent struggles and resistance.
The protagonists of the novel are all women who work in different and subtle ways to assert their rights. Experiences particularly central to the lives of women dominate the minor as well as the major events in the story, such as the detailed descriptions of each childbirth and the abortion, as well as the presentation of physical and sexual violence against women.
The women rarely explicitly condemn gender inequality. All of the women in The House of the Spirits are strong women who do not bow to mistreatment. They choose subtle responses the situations, though, instead of outright revolt. If violence and activity are male traits, gentleness and passivity are female ones. The women in The House of the Spirits effect more long-lasting and drastic changes than do any of the men. The women’s subtler methods of teaching literacy and basic healthcare, setting curses, and refusing to speak are far more effective in exacting permanent change.
The Importance of Genealogy
The family name or genealogy to which each character belongs determines her or his class position. In the novel, it is less whose genes you share and more the last name you carry that determines genealogy. At the birth of each child, the question of last name is raised. Despite Esteban’s efforts to make genealogy by name the only type of genealogy that matters, his refusal to acknowledge some of his biological children ultimately comes back to haunt him. Illegitimate children should be acknowledged and loved because these people are deserving of acceptance not only of having a family but to live peacefully and complete.
