Themes to Think About

I am a pretty easy going person and generally look at the bright side of things.  However, The House of the Spirits didn’t have much of a bright side to look at.  I won’t say that the book was just an awful read.  In fact, I read it with some ease, although it took me quite a while to get through.  I generally don’t read books that have so much sex, magic, and violence in them.  Those things go against what I believe in and I don’t like to fill my head with all of that junk.  I know that those things are out there, but things like rape, sex outside of marriage, and killing innocent people make me uneasy and I would rather not read books about them.  However, I’m going to attempt to look at the bright side of things by investigating what I got out of the book because despite all of the bad things, there were some good points.

One of the first things that struck me about the book was the way that religion was portrayed.  The people were mostly Catholic and they were all very concerned about looking good, not serving God.  The priest preached fire and brimstone and scared everyone into following God, and when he was questioned by Clara, he condemned her and told her that she was possessed by the Devil.  This part of the book made me examine why I go to church and what my motivations are for serving God.  These people had such an empty religion, which is something that I need to be careful of.  I want to serve God not because it makes me look good and I want to avoid Hell, but because Jesus died for me and He deserves every bit of my life.

Another thing that came up was Esteban Trueba’s arrogance and his belief that he was better than his workers.  He used his status and money to oppress the people under him, although he would say that he was doing them a favor because without him the whole hacienda would fall apart.  Throughout the book, he takes advantage of his people by raping them and working them too hard.  At the end of the book, he goes to the hacienda and burns the whole thing down because the people had taken possession of it after the Communists took power.   Here are a few of his quotes:

“What they don’t realize is that these poor people are completely ignorant and uneducated.  They’re like children, they can’t handle responsibility.  How could they know what’s best for them?  Without me they’d be lost…” (pg. 64)

“It’s not a matter of rich and poor, it’s a matter of strong and weak.” (pg. 137)

“They need someone to do their thinking for them, someone around to make decisions, someone to help them.” (pg. 283)

“Charity, like Socialism, is an invention of the weak to exploit the strong and bring them to their knees.” (pg. 297)

It is sad that people think this way.  We live in America, where everyone is free and we are all created equal, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t judge people.  I’m just as guilty as anyone.  It’s hard not to put yourself on a pedestal, just like Esteban Trueba did, and I need to be careful to stay humble.  Look at all of the trouble Esteban’s pride got him into. 

Another huge theme in the book was love.  We talked a lot about it in class, and I commented that we were being too harsh on Esteban for not being selfless and for taking advantage of the ones he loved.  Although he was extreme and abused his wife and family, I can relate somewhat to his struggle to show love and not just feel it.  Ever since I have been married, I have realized how selfish I am.  I’m concerned over things like who should do the dishes when we are both busy or where we should go out to eat, but I want what is best for me.  It is so hard to give that selfish part up.  Esteban Trueba sickened me and made me really mad because he didn’t appreciate his wife and hurt her, but that made me examine my own marriage and made me want to do better at doing what is best for Justin.  Look where Trueba’s selfishness got him!

I’m sure there are many more themes that I could go into, but these were the main ones that I took away from the book.  Hopefully I can forget all the bad stuff and take away the things that were really good for me to think about.  Not the worst book in the world, but not one that I’d read again.