"Compare and explore the notion of 'status' and 'power' in No One Writes to the Colonel and The House of Spirits"
“Compare and explore the notion of ‘status’ and ‘power’ in No One Writes to the Colonel and The House of Spirits” Latin America has a history, in only the previous century, of being an area of the world where dreams are kindled by revolutionaries talking of long away countries where democracy can work. Detached from the rest of the world, it gives the impression of a parallel universe – or so it would seem from the allusions created between the countries in The House of Spirits and No One Writes to the Colonel and the real countries of Chile and Columbia. In these two tales, the notion of status and power play a very big part, not least because of the role they have to play in South American history. In a land where governments are fickle and most families have lost someone to a revolution in the past, South America – and in particular Chile and Columbia – are heavily involved in politics. The House of Spirits and No One Writes to the Colonel deal with political themes in two very different ways, although there are certain similarities.An achievement of both writers is masking their political themes slightly – The House of Spirits follows several plot lines, and most of the book covers non-political events with politics very much an undercurrent of the main plot – that of a family saga. However, at the climax, politics is driven swiftly to the fore with terrible and tragic results. It becomes clear as the novel progresses that politics affects everything and everyone, from the smallest actions and most insignificant characters. We see how status and power are affected by the current political climate; and how politics has the final say in the end regarding the central characters. In The House of Spirits, the author very much supports the idea that one person can make a difference – almost every single major character changes the world in some minor way – but in the end, all their work is for nothing. Ironically, the only character whose changes really affect the way the country is run is Esteban Trueba, who, although he finally redeems himself somewhat, aids the revolution and resulting military coup out of his misguided conservative views.However, in No One Writes to the Colonel, although politics are also an undercurrent to the plot, the revolution has happened before the events of the story, instead of at the end. We see the after-effects of revolution from the eyes of a revolutionary, a disillusioned Colonel who fought for the defeated. We see him as a man of great dignity and composure, who spends his life waiting for his pension. This contrasts heavily with the obvious comparison: that of Esteban Trueba, the violent-tempered conservative who is highly ambitious and driven, who can’t bear to sit around doing nothing. No One Writes to the Colonel is, despite its very passive relay of political events, a very political story. Its notion of status and power differs from The House of Spirits in that the status in question is that of age, rather than wealth or gender in the novel, and the power is that of a stubborn old veteran who is fighting against many other powers in the world
including (perhaps in a rather sexist design from the author) his wife.The political ideals in the two novels are both important to the plot and to understanding the characters and their motives. In both novels, socialism is the political ideal. There are some communist references, particularly the use of “Compañero” in The House of Spirits and “friend” in No One Writes to the Colonel as a term of address – reminiscent of “Comradé” in Orwell’s Animal Farm, and almost a symbol of communism. However, I think the authors both believe that communism is no more than a perfect world – ...
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including (perhaps in a rather sexist design from the author) his wife.The political ideals in the two novels are both important to the plot and to understanding the characters and their motives. In both novels, socialism is the political ideal. There are some communist references, particularly the use of “Compañero” in The House of Spirits and “friend” in No One Writes to the Colonel as a term of address – reminiscent of “Comradé” in Orwell’s Animal Farm, and almost a symbol of communism. However, I think the authors both believe that communism is no more than a perfect world – although perhaps these tenuous associations with communism are a clue that, particularly in The House of Spirits prior to the coup, the country was headed towards a communist society. Largely, however, communism remains a tool which the conservatives use to frighten the neutrals or their weaker party members – one memorable instance in The House of Spirits involves Jaime finally losing his temper when Esteban Trueba launches a smear campaign against the left wing parties – “…he awoke to find the city plastered with angry posters that portrayed a full-bellied, lonely woman vainly trying to wrest her son from the arms of a Communist soldier who was dragging him off to Moscow”. An example of right wing propaganda and the stirring of hatred that eventually led to revolution, this outlines the way the right wing parties use the fear of communism to manipulate people. However, it appears that Esteban Trueba himself genuinely fears the communists, especially for the power this would give the working man. He became increasingly paranoid and fearful about the communists – “his one obsession was to destroy what he called ‘the Marxist cancer,’ which was slowly gaining ground among the people” which, as shown here, increases his desire to destroy them. However, he is told, in what proves to be a foresight that “Marxism doesn’t stand a chance in Latin America.” Even when the left wing parties, gathered under one leader named “the Candidate” win the election, they are doomed to fail – sabotaged by the conservatives and eventually crushed by a military coup, it really does seem that communism stands no chance in Latin America.This is only reinforced in No One Writes to the Colonel, where the rebellious spirit we see at the end of The House of Spirits in characters such as Miguel has faded away to almost nothing, and all that is left for the inhabitants of the town is their dignity and pride – but as the Colonel’s wife says, “you should realize that you can’t eat dignity.” We can imagine that after the revolution there were pockets of resistance involving people like Miguel in this unnamed town in the novella, but that they eventually gave up – indeed, we get a sense that the resistance has only recently ended when the Colonel says “this burial is a special event… it’s the first death from natural causes which we’ve had in many years.” This implies that there’s been so much fighting that no-one has died of old age or disease, only through war – although, by the time of the novella, there appears to have been no fighting for some time. The whole town seems to be waiting and decaying, as the Colonel’s wife says “we’re rotting alive.” The time for revolution and ideals is certainly over in this novella, and yet there’s still something of hope left – shown by the Colonel himself, and by the townsfolk, concerning the rooster. Their refusal to lose their dignity even if it means losing all else is admirable, if somewhat foolish, and perhaps the last vestige of hope amongst the people of this forsaken town. This stubbornness is shown when the Colonel says “he’s one rooster that can’t lose” – he refuses to panic, refuses to give in to despair, even though we see how hard he finds life now. Socialism in The House of Spirits and No One Writes to the Colonel is much more achievable than communism, and many of the characters, particularly in The House of Spirits, are socialists – even some of the upper class characters such as the del Valle family and Jaime are strong supporters of socialism – Jaime in particular devotes his entire life to helping the poor and sick. This is an interesting display of social class, as the author doesn’t paint a black and white picture of classes. Jaime almost seems to wish to atone for being born into the upper class, which is hardly surprising considering the sentiments of his father – “you’re a hopeless loser, son” he tells Jaime, “you have no sense of reality” – sadly, this proves to be accurate by the end of the novel. Fate cruelly plays with Jaime, and after devoting his life to helping others he is killed by the fascist regime his father helped install. I believe that Jaime symbolises socialism more than any other character in the book. His desire to help others above all, his kind, gentle nature and his almost monk-like lifestyle seem to embody the core socialist ideals. Other characters, like Pedro Tercero or Miguel have other reasons aside from their socialist ideals that drive them – love for Blanca and hatred for conservatism and fascism retrospectively, but Jaime chooses to give up everything save that which he needs to help others. He believes that “helping one’s neighbour is a value that exists.” He is everything Esteban Trueba isn’t, but he is destined to lose. Jaime symbolises socialism itself, and Esteban Trueba conservatism, in a way. And as socialism dies in the novel, so does Jaime. In No One Writes to the Colonel, socialism is symbolised more by the rooster than an individual person. The rooster is the shared hope for everyone, it is, in a sense, owned by everyone as shown when the Colonel’s wife says “they said the rooster didn’t belong to us but the whole town.” The Colonel also condones the actions of the townsfolk in taking the rooster to the cockfight from his house – “they did the right thing” which more or less seals the fate of him, his wife and the townsfolk. The rooster is the one thing that everyone is willing to take risks for, like socialism must be to work, and is also the one thing that remains constant and impartial, as socialism must to succeed. The rooster also represents the Colonel in his stubbornness, and in this way the Colonel could be said to represent socialism (and since he was on the other side in the revolution, we presume, he must have changed his political views as Esteban Trueba does right at the end). This is best shown by a description of the cockfight – “his rooster didn’t attack. He rebuffed every attack, and landed again in exactly the same spot. But now his feet weren’t trembling” – this is describing the personality of the Colonel almost perfectly, for the Colonel is stubborn and steadfast despite being nervous and even scared at first, and comes through at the end – it also hints at the ending of the novella. The notion of status isn’t only about political stance or social class in The House of Spirits and No One rights to the Colonel. It is also about gender – women struggling for independence, freedom and more rights in particular (although this is generally limited to The House of Spirits, No One Writes to the Colonel paints a far less complimentary picture of women). Naturally, this is also related to the political theme of The House of Spirits and No One Writes to the Colonel – the form of The House of Spirits even mirrors that of revolution, a cyclic diary that doesn’t drastically change no matter who is writing in it. This in itself links to the theme of fatalism – the characters in The House of Spirits are unable to change the world in the end – whereas, in a small way, by the end of No One Writes to the Colonel, the Colonel has changed his surrounding environment. The cyclic structure of The House of Spirits also ensures that good and evil are balanced out – revenge is exacted, for example, Alba was raped by Esteban Garcia just as Esteban Trueba raped Pancha Garcia. Debts are repaid – when Esteban Trueba finds Pedro Tercero in his house, he allows him to stay – atoning somewhat for his earlier attack – this is repaid when Pedro Tercero helps free Esteban Trueba from the hands of his former workers. The House of Spirits is very much a book about strong women as well as political currents and beliefs, and it is no coincidence that the strongest, most important women in the novel belong the same family. Clara, Blanca and Alba are all influential to everyone they meet, and play big parts in the novel. Clara is a clairvoyant, a special girl perhaps overlooked at first because of her unusual sister. She is outspoken as shown when she says “Psst! Father Restrupo! If that story about hell is a lie, we’re all fucked, aren’t we….” Her mother, Nivea, is very much involved in woman’s rights, but Clara marks the first generation of a new highly influential type of woman in Latin America. She works slowly, transforming the world around her as she can, not rushing into anything, and seems to “float through the world” due to her spiritualism. She is a mystical, almost legendary figure by the end, at conflict with the harsh reality of the coup which is the purpose of this genre of magical realism.Blanca, Clara’s daughter, is more in tune with the world around her and her life is punctuated by her love with Pedro Tercero. Their love, whilst not always bringing them together, plays an important part in the novel as their survival and departure from the country at the end of the novel is another symbol of the frugal hope found in this time and place. Their relationship also symbolizes the generation in which it was believed “love conquers all,” the anti-war generation. Pedro Tercero is shown as a gentle man, with kind eyes who believes there are different ways to fight oppression than open revolution, as shown when he uses a song to defy Esteban Trueba – “his eyes did now leave the patrón’s face while his velvet voice rose passionately above the soporific air of the siesta.” He is no coward, and neither is Blanca, but they do not believe that violence can do any good. Alba represents the educated women, the women who are starting to really share the same opportunities as men and being regarded more as equals. She unites the failing family, and seems to have something of Clara, Blanca and Pedro Tercero in her. She finally goes to university and takes part in a student strike, more for Miguel, her lover, than for any personal reasons – at least at first. Gradually, she too gets drawn into the world of politics. She quickly becomes shrewd in this media, to the extent that even Esteban Trueba praises her for her political mind – “my granddaughter Alba, however, saw the true nature of the dictator long before I did.” However, even as Alba has gained the respect of one of the most sexist males in the novel as a person, and not just his granddaughter, her new found equality is taken away from her. By being taken to a prison camp, all that the three women have strived for seems to be lost, it seems that the chain will end with Alba. Although she survives, the country, and the socialist dream, is in ruins. Compared to No One Writes to the Colonel, women are presented in a favourable light – whilst I don’t believe that The House of Spirits is mainly a book about women, I believe that Clara and Alba in particular are very important characters. In contrast, No One Writes to the Colonel presents the wife of the Colonel, the main female character, as somewhat of an obstacle in the way of socialism. She is portrayed as practical but not at all aware of the bigger picture. I think that status and power are presented quite differently in The House of Spirits and No One Writes to the Colonel. They are both political novels, but neither chiefly so – The House of Spirits has a fatalism theme and No One Writes to the Colonel possesses an individualism theme, other themes can also be found in both stories. The two could be described as a before and after of revolution, and although No One Writes to the Colonel is more vague, The House of Spirits has some very softly masked references to Chilean history and the beginning of Pinochet’s regime, in particular near the end of the novel; “few could have guessed that one day they would see him wrapped in an emperor’s cape with his arms raised to hush the crowds that had been trucked in to acclaim him, his august mustache trembling with vanity” – here, a clever reference to Pinochet’s first name Augusto can be found. I think that the fact that this novel in particular was based on real life makes it all the more sad, and Jaime’s death more disturbing in its unfairness and brutality – it is his blood that mars the brush of right wing politics, not only in South America but worldwide.
