The Chilean history from 1910 until 1973 provides the novel's framework with its combination of personal, political, private and public spaces. The change in power stability occurs through Allende's preference of female voices. It accurately mirrors Chilean society and the repression under which the country lived during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990). In the novel, we get a deep sense of the actual worries of the people, families that lived through it, and how they affected their daily lives and their plans for the future. The novel also shows the emergence of an opposition to the ruling classes and the inevitable clash between the two. In addition, mistreatment of women and suppression by the military after the coup are also highlighted. In 1970, the Chilean political system gave birth, without the predicted violence, to a democratically elected Marxist government. The government of Salvador Allende, head of the Popular Unity party has been elected in full agreement with the Chilean …show more content…
Books were censored or blacklisted. Newspapers and magazines were shut down or intimidated out of business. Television was either run directly by the government or by persons loyal to the dictatorship. These drastic changes affected Chilean life profoundly. The force and bloodiness with which Pinochet and his followers pursued their ideological enemies profoundly shocked the Chilean people if not the whole world. Thousands were detained. Many were tortured. Many more simply disappeared. In the aftermath of the bloody coup d'etat of September, 1973, rape of detained women by their military jailors was common. Cigarette-butt and cattle-prod treatment to "jar the memories" of detainees of both sexes occurred over and over again. They were then set free (but blacklisted) or instead just shot and squirreled away somewhere, far from public