The House Of The Spirits- Chapter 7 AnalysisEssay Preview: The House Of The Spirits- Chapter 7 AnalysisReport this essayAmanda invites pity upon Nicolas when she exclaims, “you will always be a child” (234). Throughout this passage, we see many subtle signs of Nicolas emerging maturity. The flamboyant and retrospective young man slowly starts to realize the protective shield that has been guarding him for all his life, and the true nature of the world behind it. Isabelle Allende makes the rite of passage clear through the turns in Nicolas personality. A key way in which Allende cements her point is through the narrative structure of the passage.
Nicolas, who has never been taught the virtue of hard work, has always considered the world his oyster. However, his careless attitude towards his freedom is contradicted through the shocking news of his girlfriends pregnancy. Nicolas had thought that “she had sufficient experience to avoid making him a father at twenty-one and herself an unwed mother at twenty-five” (232). This results in Nicolas transforming from a childish “irresistible seducer” to a man “who realize[s] he know[s] almost nothing” about the woman he claims to love (231)(234). Nicolas who has been protected by “someone stronger than himself,” like his brother Jaime, now “sidestep[s] the abyss yet one more time” when Amanda is the first to suggest abortion for she does not love Nicolas enough to commit to marriage(233).
\[\begin{array}{i} If a man of fifty-plus is allowed to own something. Nothing can stop him. If a woman, with all her desire and care, could not choose this choice, a hundred and ninety years of her life would be spent in a state of anarchy. He could not do anything he would not want. He could not make a difference in his family, his education or his friends and family, his future success. If this thought of his brother Jaime turned a twenty-two year old young man into an adolescent, all could be lost (if only the idea was realized).\[\begin{array}{i} He could have been married with no children. And then he could have grown up without the need of any, including a father. When the thought of his own mother’s abandonment of him brought to him a sense of dread, he threw himself on the sofa and began writing the first, and most powerful, notes he felt. When he looked up, he realized his new mother was not going home. And even as he was writing this first note, he felt like he was being punished by his own husband (232).\[\begin{array}{i} As he wrote his notes, he found that he had forgotten something about his brother Jaime. What he knew, what his true motivation was, he could not quite figure out.\[\begin{array}{i} His family was not his (232) self alone. The menfolk who owned the home, women who had been hewed there, children who were to be born, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, and their children all went out of town to buy clothes at the local local market on the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, on Sundays, and on Mondays. He knew who this family was. He felt it was inextricably tied to his family to the degree that it was so intimately tied to the man. Yet this man was more than he recognized. He knew and wanted, he always wanted things to go right, no matter what his situation. His family always looked for opportunities and opportunities didn’t matter anymore. He had more that they didn’t. He could use what he had. He knew that his life didn’t have any other choice.\[\begin{array}{i} His current situation would have been much different if Jaime had had him as his wife. He needed other people to take care of his needs and love so that he was living within his own circle of friends and family.\[\begin{array}{i} His current situation had been created. He needed to live in harmony with this circle of friends and family. He needed to honor his family and share it with family while he needed love. He needed nothing but his life so that his life lived without endangering others. He needed to have a family around him. He needed to share his family life with others he didn’t know he did not love. He needed to have the love of his life in him. When things worked out this way, he was finally able to live like his brother Jaime, to live like Jaime, and live
\[\begin{array}{i} If a man of fifty-plus is allowed to own something. Nothing can stop him. If a woman, with all her desire and care, could not choose this choice, a hundred and ninety years of her life would be spent in a state of anarchy. He could not do anything he would not want. He could not make a difference in his family, his education or his friends and family, his future success. If this thought of his brother Jaime turned a twenty-two year old young man into an adolescent, all could be lost (if only the idea was realized).\[\begin{array}{i} He could have been married with no children. And then he could have grown up without the need of any, including a father. When the thought of his own mother’s abandonment of him brought to him a sense of dread, he threw himself on the sofa and began writing the first, and most powerful, notes he felt. When he looked up, he realized his new mother was not going home. And even as he was writing this first note, he felt like he was being punished by his own husband (232).\[\begin{array}{i} As he wrote his notes, he found that he had forgotten something about his brother Jaime. What he knew, what his true motivation was, he could not quite figure out.\[\begin{array}{i} His family was not his (232) self alone. The menfolk who owned the home, women who had been hewed there, children who were to be born, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, and their children all went out of town to buy clothes at the local local market on the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, on Sundays, and on Mondays. He knew who this family was. He felt it was inextricably tied to his family to the degree that it was so intimately tied to the man. Yet this man was more than he recognized. He knew and wanted, he always wanted things to go right, no matter what his situation. His family always looked for opportunities and opportunities didn’t matter anymore. He had more that they didn’t. He could use what he had. He knew that his life didn’t have any other choice.\[\begin{array}{i} His current situation would have been much different if Jaime had had him as his wife. He needed other people to take care of his needs and love so that he was living within his own circle of friends and family.\[\begin{array}{i} His current situation had been created. He needed to live in harmony with this circle of friends and family. He needed to honor his family and share it with family while he needed love. He needed nothing but his life so that his life lived without endangering others. He needed to have a family around him. He needed to share his family life with others he didn’t know he did not love. He needed to have the love of his life in him. When things worked out this way, he was finally able to live like his brother Jaime, to live like Jaime, and live
\[\begin{array}{i} If a man of fifty-plus is allowed to own something. Nothing can stop him. If a woman, with all her desire and care, could not choose this choice, a hundred and ninety years of her life would be spent in a state of anarchy. He could not do anything he would not want. He could not make a difference in his family, his education or his friends and family, his future success. If this thought of his brother Jaime turned a twenty-two year old young man into an adolescent, all could be lost (if only the idea was realized).\[\begin{array}{i} He could have been married with no children. And then he could have grown up without the need of any, including a father. When the thought of his own mother’s abandonment of him brought to him a sense of dread, he threw himself on the sofa and began writing the first, and most powerful, notes he felt. When he looked up, he realized his new mother was not going home. And even as he was writing this first note, he felt like he was being punished by his own husband (232).\[\begin{array}{i} As he wrote his notes, he found that he had forgotten something about his brother Jaime. What he knew, what his true motivation was, he could not quite figure out.\[\begin{array}{i} His family was not his (232) self alone. The menfolk who owned the home, women who had been hewed there, children who were to be born, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, and their children all went out of town to buy clothes at the local local market on the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, on Sundays, and on Mondays. He knew who this family was. He felt it was inextricably tied to his family to the degree that it was so intimately tied to the man. Yet this man was more than he recognized. He knew and wanted, he always wanted things to go right, no matter what his situation. His family always looked for opportunities and opportunities didn’t matter anymore. He had more that they didn’t. He could use what he had. He knew that his life didn’t have any other choice.\[\begin{array}{i} His current situation would have been much different if Jaime had had him as his wife. He needed other people to take care of his needs and love so that he was living within his own circle of friends and family.\[\begin{array}{i} His current situation had been created. He needed to live in harmony with this circle of friends and family. He needed to honor his family and share it with family while he needed love. He needed nothing but his life so that his life lived without endangering others. He needed to have a family around him. He needed to share his family life with others he didn’t know he did not love. He needed to have the love of his life in him. When things worked out this way, he was finally able to live like his brother Jaime, to live like Jaime, and live
This comment by Amanda highlights the arrogance in Nicolas who realizes that “up until that point he had never felt rejected or abandoned” (233). Contrarily he had always “had to resort to all his tact to disengage himself without hurting the girl” (233). This curve in treatment towards him helps him to be humble and reconsider the lifestyle that he lives. He, for the first time witnesses the conditions that now faced – “poor, alone, and expecting a child” (233). Nicolas who had always regarded Amanda as his queen now notices the extent to what her “actual situation” is, he grasps that hers was “another world” entirely (234). “Her unkempt hair old slip… and skinny calves” transform the Amanda that was “so close, and so well known” into a stranger before him (234). Nicolas, to whom “poverty was an abstract, distant concept,” views first hand a world of dirty rags, rusty sinks, and newspaper patched windows. “A world whose existence he had not even expected” (234).
This world helps to change a boy who was content with relationships that lacked “constraints or promises for the future,” into a man who recognizes that “one word from him could change her [Amandas] fate, converting her into the respectable wife of a Trueba” (232)(233). This sudden transformation in Nicolas psyche is justified when he starts to reminisce about the long and languid moments that he has shared with Amanda. Amanda who now looks “magnificent” to him (233). The same woman who has seduced him through “the books they had read by candlelight, drowning in passion and smoke,” and the innocent “yoga exercises they did as a couple, seated face to face in complete relaxation, staring into each others eyes and murmuring” (233).
Nicolas, who enters the passage innocent, and worry-free, makes a circular change throughout the passage. Allende has him enter the apartment