Challenge In Culture
I read the entire passage from the “culture” link under October 12th’s post that was discussed in class, and I believe that this is a large theme of the book in that culture itself is being challenged. Interestingly, culture can be related to a previous topic, it’s a collection of norms, (or natural fact / accepted truths.) So what in “The House of The Spirits” is natural fact? A largely important, and quite obvious one, is class. The struggle for, and between, status is continuous in this novel. The two classes are the aristocracy and the peasants. However, the peasants can join the police force or the army and gain access to education and a higher-class status, which is the case of Esteban Garcia.
The conflict in this area of culture arises in that the upper class owns the land that the lower peasant class works on. This also causes a struggle between families, the del Valle’s and Trueba’s (crillos), and the Garcia’s (peasants), which all contain characters that have stronger relationships than just ownership. Two of the characters bring this even further by stringing it in with politics. Esteban Trueba, who is conservative, believes that the status quo (* “normal”! *) should be maintainted and that there’s no need for the peasants to share in the wealth of the upper class. Pedro Tercero Garcia offers up the element of challenge within his culture, because not only is he a revolutionary as well as a peasant. He will work to make that resisted change happen. Interestingly, the Trueba women support the peasants, and this sets up an important union that is also yet another challenge to the culture.
There are many more challenges that are written about, such as the position or power of women, and the importance of genealogy. Perhaps those can be written about later as the novel moves further.
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