Esteban Trueba

Words: 676
Pages: 3

In the novel, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, Esteban Trueba is one of two narrators as well as a major character. Throughout the novel his character is very obviously split in half between his overwhelming rage, and love, mainly for Clara and later Alba. Esteban Trueba's two main characteristics are magnified when he has two grandchildren that completely embody each of his character traits. He has an illegitimate grandson named Esteban Garcia; he represents Esteban Trueba's anger and bad temper. On the other hand, his legitimate granddaughter Alba, represents Esteban's loving side. Esteban Trueba is known for his gruesome ways, which is directly passed on when he rapes a young peasant, who later has a grandson who is named Esteban …show more content…
Once Clara dies, their house turns to ruin, and Trueba has lost everything that ever meant anything to him, except Alba. Alba represents his more caring side because when Clara is alive, she is the only thing he loves almost to obsession, which is very similar to when Clara dies and the only person he is ever close with again is Alba. ¨...his granddaughter was the only person in the world with whom he could express tenderness and who was able to make him laugh¨ (350). This signifies the passing of his love first from Rosa to Clara, and finally on to Alba. As mentioned earlier, Garcia rapes and molests Alba many times, possibly being the father of her child. This relates back to all the women Esteban Trueba raped, and all the illegitimate children he fathered. Also like Esteban Trueba, she is involved with politics, although they belong to opposite parties. Alba, being the more loving characteristic, chooses the revolutionary, socialist side. She is soon captured for her ideology and is tortured for information, her captor physically being Garcia, but is more representative of the anger her father is engrossed with his whole life.¨...her Grandmother Clara, whom she had invoked so many times to help her die, appeared with the novel idea that the point was not to die, since death came anyway, but to survive, which would be a miracle¨ (414). This shows her immense strength that she finds through Clara, something