Last Blog! Woohoo!

 I thoroughly enjoyed Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits.  I loved the style of magical realism, and it reminded me of how children perceive the world and their surroundings.  When I was little, I believed anything a family member would tell me, so if I were in Alba’s shoes, of course, I would think my grandmother is clairvoyant and the three legged table can shake without any outside force.  My favorite character in the book was Alba because the reader was able to follow her from birth to adulthood.  Alba was not only interested in her grandmother’s magic and ability to tell the future, but she was also the only woman in the family that was some-what involved with politics and her stance on the government.  Alba is a strong and determined girl, like her grandfather, and she is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.  I think this is why I liked her so much because while most of the citizens of Chili were hiding safely behind the curtains of their house, Alba rescued people that the government was trying to kill.  She risked her life and deceived her grandfather in order to do what she thought was morally right.

Another aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the foreshadowing that Allende uses.  She begins foreshadowing events from the first chapter onward that are brought back up later in the story.  One of the most disturbing and sad events of foreshadowing occurred on Clara’s wedding day, when her massive dog, Barrabas, died.  He died with a huge butcher’s knife in his back, but it was never explained how this accident or murder actually happened.  He stumbled to Clara, who was dressed in her wedding gown, and died in her arms.  I think the death of Barrabas signified the loveless marriage that Clara had just begun.  She lost her best friend on her wedding day, and to me, that sounds like bad luck.  I think Allende used Barrabas’ death to foreshadow what was to come in the marriage of Esteban and Clara, which was mostly composed of violence and silence.