My blog (At last)
I owe an apology to my group mates for not blogging sooner. I have read the book, I finished it a few weeks ago. Anyway, onto my thoughts.
Since I’m behind I’ll just combine my blogs into one massive one if that’s alright with everyone.
Well, let me first say that I enjoyed this book. The different cultures and how they blend together during the book made for great reading. I’ve read two other books by Allende, and I enjoyed them as well, but this one had a much different feel to it. She didn’t spare the details in any part of the book, and that was different from most media published today. A book that graphic couldn’t be made into a movie without losing much of the feeling from the necessary censorship.
I did like the ending. I feel like there was enough closure to put my mind at rest. Yes, I did wonder what happened to them next, but I suppose that’s exactly what Allende wanted the reader to feel. It lets the reader’s imagination and wonder take hold and makes you think, something that doesn’t always happen in books. I think that it would have been nice to see what happened between Eliza and Tao, but then again the whole history of their relationship has been fuzzy. At some points Eliza talks about him as a friend, and other times as more of a husband like figure. The ethnic differences in their relationship and how they were treated by others could have made a great side story, if indeed they did end up in a sort of long term relationship.
I really enjoyed the strength of Eliza during the entire novel. She takes hold of her life, much like Rose did in her own life. Rose tells Eliza that she wishes she was a man so she could be free. From Rose’s influence Eliza develops into a very strong woman, that doesn’t obey the strict laws of her Chilean society. And I enjoyed that. Allende portrays the women in this book as strong and loving, yet trapped by the society in which they live. I think that women today have much more freedom, yet this exaggeration from history tells her own views that women are still partly trapped in their societies. In the US it’s much less than the rest of the world, yet there still hasn’t been a woman president, and the number of female CEO’s and presidents of large corporations can be counted on fingers alone.
Another thing I enjoyed about this book is the character development. Many of the characters have their pasts described in vivid detail in some part of the book. Tao has a large section devoted to him alone. This book is primarily about Eliza, yet with little effort this book could be split up into several short stories about each of the characters. I really liked this. I felt that it helped to explain the characters and why they did what they did in their interactions with Eliza. And in each of these backgrounds the culture shines through. Allende obviously did her homework on Chilean and Chinese culture at the time period.
Well, there are my basic views on the book.
April 25, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
i found it interesting that you thought that the women in this book seemed trapped by their societies. i felt the exact opposite. i felt like the societies were trying to contain them, and hold them down to become gala-throwing debutantes, but all the women highlighted in this novel, in one way or another, cast off those shackles of society and forged her own way in the world. Paulina became an entrepeneur (sp?) long before that was even considered acceptable for women, forget common. Rose never married, although she did have an illicit affair with an older man at a time when abstinence was law. Eliza ran away from home in search of a forbidden love and ended up cross-dressing, living with a Chinese man, and free-riding around California in search of Joaquin. from Allende’s writing, i felt that the society of the time wanted women to fit into a mold – it wanted them to all act one way, etc. – but the women, themselves, wanted much more than that, and this novel tells the story of multiple women who followed that dream of being more than society wanted and made it a reality.
April 30, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
I think were were arguing for the same point, just in different ways. At least that was what my intention was. Society was the factor holding back these strong, intelegent women back from realizing their full potential. That was the point that I was getting at, which is overall, the same as the point you were making.