Yarmouth HS Daughter of Fortune

Although the women in this book are not in our culture or society, I believe Allende purposely depicted them this way to parallel women today. Paulina, Joe Bonecrusher, Miss Rose, Mrs. Andieta, and Eliza all are entrepreneurs of their own making. Paulina is by far the most successful woman entrepreneur, and she is contrasted with her husband who scoffs at her first business endeavors and in the end profits from them and relies on them. Joe Bonecrusher is, in my opinion, the most creative because she invents a business endeavor and succeeds. This parallels women in present day culture and society because more and more women are breaking into businesses and breaking the glass ceiling. Paulina was an exception in those days, but “Paulinas” are becoming more and more prevalent. I think that by writing this novel in the present day about women in history, Allende is complimenting the women of today as successful businesswomen.

i realized:

as i was reading, i was afraid to look to see the number of pages because it is one of the few things that bugs me more than anything to have a book ruined for me, so i didn’t look to see how many pages i had left (not that it was really dreadful to read it, just sometimes i can’t focus so i count pages and things), so i wouldn’t accidentally glance up the page and see a revealed ending.

but now, i realize that i could have looked at the end of the book

because it wasn’t anything revealing.

it wasn’t a terrific secret that kept me on the edge of me seat until the end of the book.

it was a lame ending.

with no closure, so even reading the last page pre-emptively, wouldn’t have ruined it.

inconclusive endings bother me, in case you didn’t realize…

i’m done.

i am furious.

SEETHING.

that was the worst ending ever.

EVER.

no closure.

that bothers me more than almost anything else.

i can’t even think in full sentences right now.

GAH.

such a bad ending. i need to know more.

i’m not gonna be able to sleep tonight.

i blame it on you, allende.

Women in Daugter of Fortune are portrayed in interesting ways. Miss Rose represents the more outgoing side of women. She is not married in a time when all women were expected to get married. She considers herself lucky to have escaped being tied down by a man, and to be able to rely on her brothers the way she does. Mama Fresia is another portrayal of women. She is an Indian woman, therefore by default she is expected to be submissive to the “superior” English women and men. Not all Indians are servants for the English colonists living in Valparaiso, but many can’t find employment any other way, so she is representative of the native Chilean women’s status. Eliza is yet another portrayal of women. At this point in the novel, she is just beginning to come into her womanhood. She is quickly turning from a girl to a woman. She is experiencing love and trying to figure out what she wants. She is a woman torn between two worlds because of her unknown, but obviously Chilean, origins, and then being adopted by the Sommers – a pair of English siblings come to Chile as colonists. Thus she was raised as an English woman.

I think that Allende did a fabulous job of contrasting Mama Fresia and Miss Rose. Both were significant female influences on  Eliza while she was growing up – Miss Rose in the conventional English way, and Mama Fresia as more of a free-spirit. Both teach Eliza different lessons and life virtues, yet they are extremely contrasting, and I think they contribute to the way she is torn between two cultures.

I also must add that this book was SO slow in the beginning. I’m finally starting to see some sort of a plot forming, but for the first 80 pages or so, all the different stories just seemed completely  unrelated. I couldn’t understand why a story about a Chilean woman searching for her love in San Francisco had anything to do with the del Valles and Paulina who ran away with the help of Miss Rose’s suitor, Jacob Todd. I had trouble staying focused because the book just seemed like completely irrelevant love stories of all the different people in the book. I hope that it continues to form more of a plot line.