The House of the Spirits: Chile

PowerPoint by Richard Lin

When and where was it written?

• Written in:– 1981– In Venezuela after Isabel

Allende and her family fled from their home in Chile

– Started off as a letter from Allende to her 100-year-old dying grandpa

Setting in the Novel• The setting (country) is unidentified– Allows readers to make references to 20th-

century Latin America– Historical events point to Chile

Historical Events• 1920s: Mine boom (a way for poor men

to make a fortune)• Wealthier woman embarked on charity

projects• “The big house on the

corner”/hacienda becomes representative of the upper class in the city

• 1939 Chillán Earthquake• 1950s: heavy internal migration

growing gap between the wealthy upper class and middle/lower class• 1960 Valdivia Earthquake• “The President” = Salvador Allende (in

office 1970-1973)

Politics

• UP UNTIL 1970S, DEMOCRATIC RULE IN CHILE• 1970: SOCIALIST* SALVADOR ALLENDE

BECOMES PRESIDENT

*A WAY OF ORGANIZING A SOCIETY IN WHICH MAJOR INDUSTRIES ARE OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY THE GOVERNMENT RATHER THAN BY INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE AND COMPANIES