Kristine Rojas
Around the World
The House of Spirits
For many children, adolescents, and even matured adults, their environments and surroundings can have a formative influence on their spirituality and identity. In The House of Spirits we see this is a very common trend and theme throughout the narration. With the story taking place in Chile, along come many religious and family traditions that are implemented and planted into these countries cultures, that directly influence these individuals from a very young age. This book helps understand the general concepts of the Chilean household, religion, social order, marriage, beliefs, traditions, class, and sex roles. One big role in this novel is spirituality, several of the characters in
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During this time in history, economically there was only two final outcomes concerning economic standings. Either there is a total unequal distribution of wealth, making the rich considerably more wealthy and make poor even more poor. Or on the flip sides, peasants could take over and fight to equalize wealth distribution among all classes. The struggles between classes is a major theme that takes places throughout this entire book and also within Chilean culture. This causes many of the characters in the book, specially the women to be very cautious of who they married. We see how marriage is taken very seriously in Chile and how your partner must be approved by your family. Clara, the main character is set up to marry a very wealthy, conservative miner called Esteban Trueba. Since Clara grew up wealthy and a father involved in the political world. It was only right for her to choose someone with such a background, hoping to keep the family's name high and remain respected. This idea of only marrying wealthy is an example of how Chilean culture was a deciding factor when it came down to Clara as to who she would be marrying. This very much influenced her future lifestyle and the extravagant way she finds herself living in, a couple years down the