Alba is again compared to an animal later in her life. In this instance, Allende uses animals to characterize the empathy and fortitude of women. Alba and Ana Díaz are captiveS in a torture camp. There, “Ana Díaz helped her to resist while they were together” (464). The girls find strength in solidarity and comfort each other. Alba realized that “she needed Ana Díaz” (466) to survive the terrible conditions of the prison camp. Although they were independently weak, together the women felt stronger. Their friendship would ultimately sustain Alba. Allende foreshadows this when she describes how “dawn found them huddled together like two small animals” (465). Once again, Alba’s name, dawn, is referenced. Allende suggests in this quote that, although they are feeble, united Alba and Ana, and by extension all women, are strong.
Alba’s imprisonment in the torture camp is foreshadowed by her fear of the zoo as a child. When taken to the zoo, “the child wept with pity for the poor captive animals, especially the seal, who stirred dreadful omens in her soul.” (314) In folklore, seals are creatures who can shed their skin and journey on land as humans. If a human man captures the sealskin of a woman, she is in his power. However, when her skin is returned she can go back to the sea where she belongs; sadly, this often does not happen until she is pregnant with the child of her oppressor. The child may journey into the sea with his or her mother. Alba is raped multiple times while at the torture camp, however; when she is released she has the willpower to put the pain behind her and move forward. She, like the women/seal in the stories, is carrying a child. The mention of a seal earlier in the novel foreshadows Alba’s future captivity, rape, pregnancy, and fortitude.
Allende uses birds to represent Clara’s personality and spirit, which are caged in her worldly body. She is constantly taking her caged friends with her wherever the Trueba’s go. However, even before this, Clara was compared to a bird by Nana. She theorizes, “many children fly like birds, guess other people’s dreams, and speak with ghosts, but that they all outgrow it when they lose their innocence” (15). This means that Clara will outgrow her clairvoyance. However, Clara never does outgrow it or, according to Nana, her innocence. When Clara nears death, she releases her birds from their cages. This symbolizes Clara’s release from her Earthly body, which she believed would heighten her magical powers. She believed that death would be “a way of being more united” (329) with her family and with her spirit friends. Allende uses birds (caged and then freed) to characterize the magical Clara.
Allende illustrates how a woman’s sexuality can make her weak, dangerous, or strong by comparing Pancha García, Tránsito Soto, and Clara del Valle, Esteban Trueba’s three most notable sexual partners, to animals. When Esteban rapes Pancha, she makes “no attempt to defend herself…complain, nor did she shut her eyes” (70). Pancha is resigned to the rape just like her “mother – and before her, her grandmother – [who] suffered the same animal fate.” (70) Pancha accepts her exploitation by Esteban without complaint, allowing him to take the one power she had over him. Afterwards, Allende compares her to a “wounded animal” (71).
Unlike Pancha, Tránsito Soto turns her sexuality into strength, opening a powerful gentlemen’s club with money she received for her services from Esteban Trueba. Tránsito does not give sex away like Pancha, she uses it to get what she wants. Esteban gives her money to move to the city because he likes her and sees her as a “warm, compassionate animal” (359). Esteban is taken with her snake tattoo, which he finds hypnotic. Snakes typically represent hazardous creatures, and Esteban recognizes that Tránsito is dangerous because she “embodied the real danger of addiction” (151). Allende uses Tránsito and her snake tattoo to illustrate how, in contrast to Pancha, women can use sex to gain power.
Clara is beloved by nearly every character in the novel. When she dies, her funeral is attended by hundreds of people. Pedro Segundo is visibly distraught at Clara’ funeral, as he never was when his son got in trouble or ran away. The reader is never sure that Pedro is in love in Clara, but it is evident in his strong reaction at her funeral and in the fact that he quits his job when she leaves Tres Marías because “he can’t imagine working there without Clara” (201). Pedro, as well as Esteban and Ferúla, who also loved Clara sexually, all are hurt by her. Clara’s childhood dog, Barrabás is know for having sex with a dog and then “leaving her to die in the courtyard of the house” (94). Clara and Barrabás both hurt those who love them, although the love they receive is quite different. Allende characterizes Clara through Barrabás as such a strong person that she overwhelms and destroys those who love her sexually.
Allende uses animals to illustrate the different ways women use sex, just as she uses them to characterize, foreshadow, and create vivid metaphors. This choice causes the reader to visualize the very essence of the character. With clear symbolism and dramatic imagery, Allende underscores important characteristics and themes in the lives of her women with animals.