Jenny Keroack                                                                                                         10/26/10

Kober                                                                                                                        Pd. 8

Commentary from Page 145

 

            In this passage from The House of the Spirits, author Isabel Allende uses dawn as an allegory for Blanca’s sexual awakening. Blanca begins to experience nature on a new level of depth, symbolizing her graduation into womanhood. The passage illustrates the sexual act metaphorically in the rising of the sun. With her walk to the river, Blanca begins a journey towards sex and, eventually, her daughter.

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            An atmosphere of hope and imminent change is established by Allende’s description of the setting. The reader feels that the impossible is suddenly probably and that Blanca is about to undergo positive changes. The earth represents Blanca both physically and emotionally. The fields are personified as “shaking off their sleep,” (l. 1) illustrating the potential for an awakening of sorts in Blanca, who has also just woken up. The type of awakening Blanca will undergo is specified in the lines to come. The imagery of “rays of light... cutting the peaks of the cordillera like thrusts of a saber,” ...

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