A New Respect for the Fantastical

Hi everyone!  My name is Chris and I am excited to be able to discuss this book and many more throughout the rest of this year.  I find it interesting that we are visiting the theme of magical realism this quarter – Victoria and I were speaking of our disdain for that particular style shortly before the winter break.  I have to admit, when it was first assigned, I was not very excited about reading The House of Thousand Spirits.  I have been pleasantly surprised.

Unlike the magical realism novels that I have read in the past, author Isabelle Allende uses the fantastical in a limited fashion.  She does this to bring attention to characters and events that are important to the plot.  To me, this only enhances the scene and gives it dimension.  In the first three chapters of the book, the characters that stuck out to me through Allende’s surreal writing style were Clara, Rosa, Uncle Marco, and Esteban.   These characters all have unique magical qualities.  For instance, Clara, the first character introduced in the book, is a mystic—a clairvoyant.  Her strange powers draw attention to something important.  She was “a fragile creature whose lungs were always full of phlegm, who was always on the verge of losing her breath and turning purple…”(8).  Despite this, she has an immense power and the ability to foretell the future.  Although she has not been able to change the future, this ability is important to readers as a tool of foreshadowing.

Esteban is another fantastical character.  He seems to start out as a devoted son and smitten suitor, but when beautiful Rosa dies, everything falls apart for him and he becomes a sort of villain of fantastical proportions.  Once in power, Esteban demonstrates an unreasonable amount of condescension and develops an insatiable appetite for unwilling sexual partners.  His exploits do a lot to illuminate the central themes of class divide and sexism.

More to come....