Setting:
Alba's Adolescence in the University
Having matured and leaving "childhood for good", Alba finishes her
school around the "age of 18" (p. 318) and goes on to attend
university where this chapter, entitled Awakenings, is set. Amidst the
academic surroundings, Alba encounters Miguel in the cafeteria of the
university. They immediately fall in love with each other, with
neither one of them realizing that they had already met once before.
In this setting, Alba, Miguel, Professor Sebastian Gomez and a group
of students seize "a building in support of a strike by workers"
(p.319). With this setting the author portrays Alba's characteristics
in detail and positions her as finally mature enough to inherit the
central female character role from Clara and Blanca.
Miguel & Amanda's house
Although not as significant as the university, there is another
setting at the end of the chapter: Amanda's house. Compared to the
university, atmosphere of this setting is very tense and somehow
doleful unlike the university. Here, Jaime finds an emaciated Amanda
asleep on a bed. Ominous mood is given off in from this setting, and
unfortunate events are foreshadowed.
Power:
Power of Esteban Trueba:
Allende implies and emphasizes indirectly Senator Esteban's political
and influential power subtly through the actions of his granddaughter
Alba. During the occupation of the university, Esteban Garcia, upon
hearing "orders from the mouth of a civilian [(Alba)]", is "tempted to
take [her] to the stockade and leave her there to rot in a cell,
bathed in her own blood, until she got down on her knees and begged
him." His profession as a policeman, however, reminds Esteban that
"there are men more powerful than he and that he [can] not afford the
luxury of acting with impunity" (p.325). Allende suggests that "the
fear [Esteban Garcia] has of Senator Trueba is more powerful than his
desire to humiliate [Alba]" (p.325) at that instance. Reluctantly,
Esteban Garcia succumbs to the "authoritarian tone [Alba's]
grandfather employed with everyone he considered beneath his social
station."
Power of love:
Unlike Alba, Miguel is a revolutionary extremist. She, on the
contrary, "is not interested in politics; she wants only to talk about
love" (p.319) with Miguel. It is "out of love for [him], and not for
any ideological conviction" (p.319), that Alba becomes involved in
revolutionary politics. She joins Miguel, Professor Sebastian Gomez,
and a congregation of students in an occupation of the university
forgetting that she is undermining her grandfather's reputation.
Only later is Alba's clandestine identity revealed to Miguel. Although
she is the granddaughter of his enemy Esteban Trueba, Miguel still
forgives Alba for "not [being] entirely truthful". His seemingly
interminable disappointment and rage at the discovery of Alba's
pedigree vanishes "the second time he [sees] Alba wandering like a
lost soul down the corridors near the cafeteria where they had met"
(328). It is evident that before love, even such powerful emotions as
anger and disappointment amount to nothing.
