> Ever since I was a child I’ve been afraid of injury. I fear for the safety of my family, friends and of myself. I’m not sure how this fear started, it could have been from when I got stung by a bee, when I witnessed a gruesome car accident many years ago, or maybe it was just something that I was born with. It doesn’t really matter how this fear was initiated, but it does matter that it affects me everyday. Having a fear of injury isn’t always a bad thing. It has prevented many people, including myself, from doing very stupid things that would have resulted in serious injury, but not havig a fear of injury would make somethings in life alot nicer.
> I learned about injuries at a very young age, and of course I found that I didn’t like them. My first personal experience with a somewhat-serious injury was when I was jumping on a bed and fell off, landing at a bad angle and breaking my arm. Having two older brothers, I have grown up surrounded by injuries. My brothers started play fighting and wrestling with me when I was just a toddler. They never meant to hurt me but were often too rough and throughout the years have given me countless bruises and scrapes. They said it was fun and it would make me tough, sometime it was fun, except for the injury part of it.
> Both of my brothers have had serious injuries from playing sports. My oldest brother, Ian, one time tore many ligaments in his knee when playing football. My other brother Neal was also injured playing football. He fractured his ankle very badly, and had to have three bolts permanently screwed into the bone and was on crutches for several months recovering. Neal also permanently damaged his knee when wrestling with a friend.
> My family has a large yard and is always doing yard work and using chainsaws, tractors and other potentially dangerous equipment. Throughout my life serious injuries and deaths of people I know have not been uncommon, people are always getting hurt. One would think that growing up around so much injury would have made me more comfortable with it, but the exact opposite has happened. I am always scared that a friend or a family member will be seriously injured or worse.
> One day my friend Sarah and I were hanging out. It was getting late and we were wondering what we should do for dinner so I called my mom to find out what she was planning. She answered the phone and quickly said “I’ll call you back in a minute”, there was a bloodcurdling scream in the background; the kind of scream that you only hear if someone is seriously injured. The scream sounded like it was coming from a large man, it was loud and powerful. The scream made a tremble of terror shoot through my body. Sarah, who was sitting right next to me when I made the phone call saw the panic in my face as I was staring into nowhere, wondering “what happened, who’s hurt, are they okay?”. Sarah asked “What happened Lauren?” and I told her about the scream. The thought that someone I know could be seriously injured terrified me.
> My brother Ian had been in town that week. The time that I saw him injure his knee during a football practice flashed through my mind. It was the first time that I had ever watched one of his practices. I was in the bleachers socializing when I heard a scream, just like the one I heard when I called my Mom. Faster than I could take it all in, I was standing next to my brother who was in a hospital bed. “Maybe it is my brother” I thought as my heart started beating faster. Every possible scenario was going through my head as I was waiting for my mom to call me back, which seemed to take an eternity.
> When my phone finally rang, I answered, trying to sound cool-and-collected but failing, I blurt out “Hey, WHAT HAPPENED?”. My mom answered “Hey Sweetie. What do you mean what happened?”. I said “When you answered the phone I heard a scream. Who was it? What happened?”. She answered “Oh, I’m just watching 300 at the movie theater”. My panic was instantly relieved, everything was okay. We laughed about my misconception for a long time. I learned from this experience that I shouldn’t worry so much, and I’ve tried to not panic in during similar situations since then.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Arlene Blum
Throughout her life, Arlene Blum has overcome many challenges, and has achieved many things much greater than a typical person. Growing up as a Jewish female in a poor family situation was tough, but it helped develop her into the person that she is today. The challenges that she faced during her childhood gave her skills, determination, and many other attributes that have helped her excel later on in life. Because of her difficult childhood, Arlene strives for achievement in both mountaineering and in chemistry.
Facing challenges as a child, such as learning to get around obstacles helped her develop skills that she would need later. When she was a child, Arlene badly wanted to learn to play an instrument. When she asked her grandparents they replied with a solid “No”, despite her pleading. She learned to play the piano anyway. She went to her neighbor’s house every day after school and practiced compulsively, without her family’s permission, her “thrill of learning a new skill was intensified by the delicious thrill of doing something forbidden” (p. 35). There were many things that she wasn’t allowed to do when she was a child because she was female, Jewish, poor, and her grandparents were very strict. She took these seemingly pointless regulations as challenges and she learned to find ways around them. Another example of this is when she wanted to learn to swim. Her grandmother didn’t want her to; she said that “Public schools are dangerous, you could get a disease... And what does a Jewish girl have doing at the Young Men’s Christian Association?”(p. 141). But Arlene was determined. She first persuaded her mother that swimming would be good for her health. Then she convinced her grandfather that it would help her make her make new friends. Then she finally succeeds in getting her Grandmother to give in. She used the skill of persuasion along with many others that she developed when she was child, in many situations when she was older. If she didn’t learn these skills so well when she was young, she wouldn’t have had so much success in her life.
When Arlene was young many people didn’t believe that she would go far in life, which gave her the determination to do her best, simply to prove them wrong. One hot summer day Arlene retreated from the sun to play under the porch with her dolls. Her aunts were sitting on the porch talking about Arlene, not knowing that she was sitting underneath them able to hear every word that they say. When Arlene hears her name she listens and hears her aunt say “Arlene… that child will amount to no good…” (p.1) Arlene remembered those words and they hurt her for a long time, but they also gave her determination: “She is wrong. I’ll show her. I’ll show them all.” Arlene is determined throughout high school to do well in school and she does, earning a scholarship, which is a ticket to success and to much needed time away from her family.
During college Arlene discovers a new passion, which was first initiated when her friend took her to hike Mt. Adams. She happily accepted her friend, John Hall’s, invitation, excited at the opportunity to hike a mountain. She was out of shape and the hiking was difficult for her but she loved it anyways: “This place is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.”(p. 3). Later she learned that the only reason that she was invited was to keep Mike (John’s friend who gets altitude sickness and couldn’t make it to the top) company; as John told her “I thought that by ten thousand feet you’d have had enough and be ready to come down. That way, Mike would have company”(p. 3). Arlene disregarded John’s ignorance and kept hiking, that was when she fell in love with the mountains. She climbed many more mountains, her successfulness in climbing these difficult peaks was made possible by motivation to prove that she, and females everywhere can do just as well as men. Arlene fought many battles throughout her life, from sexism, climbing many of the most difficult and dangerous mountains in the world, to proving that chemicals in children’s pajamas cause cancer. But if it weren’t for Arlene’s difficult childhood, which gave her motivation to prove that she could succeed, along with the skills she needed to overcome her challenges, she wouldn’t have won the many of the battles that she fought during her life.
Facing challenges as a child, such as learning to get around obstacles helped her develop skills that she would need later. When she was a child, Arlene badly wanted to learn to play an instrument. When she asked her grandparents they replied with a solid “No”, despite her pleading. She learned to play the piano anyway. She went to her neighbor’s house every day after school and practiced compulsively, without her family’s permission, her “thrill of learning a new skill was intensified by the delicious thrill of doing something forbidden” (p. 35). There were many things that she wasn’t allowed to do when she was a child because she was female, Jewish, poor, and her grandparents were very strict. She took these seemingly pointless regulations as challenges and she learned to find ways around them. Another example of this is when she wanted to learn to swim. Her grandmother didn’t want her to; she said that “Public schools are dangerous, you could get a disease... And what does a Jewish girl have doing at the Young Men’s Christian Association?”(p. 141). But Arlene was determined. She first persuaded her mother that swimming would be good for her health. Then she convinced her grandfather that it would help her make her make new friends. Then she finally succeeds in getting her Grandmother to give in. She used the skill of persuasion along with many others that she developed when she was child, in many situations when she was older. If she didn’t learn these skills so well when she was young, she wouldn’t have had so much success in her life.
When Arlene was young many people didn’t believe that she would go far in life, which gave her the determination to do her best, simply to prove them wrong. One hot summer day Arlene retreated from the sun to play under the porch with her dolls. Her aunts were sitting on the porch talking about Arlene, not knowing that she was sitting underneath them able to hear every word that they say. When Arlene hears her name she listens and hears her aunt say “Arlene… that child will amount to no good…” (p.1) Arlene remembered those words and they hurt her for a long time, but they also gave her determination: “She is wrong. I’ll show her. I’ll show them all.” Arlene is determined throughout high school to do well in school and she does, earning a scholarship, which is a ticket to success and to much needed time away from her family.
During college Arlene discovers a new passion, which was first initiated when her friend took her to hike Mt. Adams. She happily accepted her friend, John Hall’s, invitation, excited at the opportunity to hike a mountain. She was out of shape and the hiking was difficult for her but she loved it anyways: “This place is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.”(p. 3). Later she learned that the only reason that she was invited was to keep Mike (John’s friend who gets altitude sickness and couldn’t make it to the top) company; as John told her “I thought that by ten thousand feet you’d have had enough and be ready to come down. That way, Mike would have company”(p. 3). Arlene disregarded John’s ignorance and kept hiking, that was when she fell in love with the mountains. She climbed many more mountains, her successfulness in climbing these difficult peaks was made possible by motivation to prove that she, and females everywhere can do just as well as men. Arlene fought many battles throughout her life, from sexism, climbing many of the most difficult and dangerous mountains in the world, to proving that chemicals in children’s pajamas cause cancer. But if it weren’t for Arlene’s difficult childhood, which gave her motivation to prove that she could succeed, along with the skills she needed to overcome her challenges, she wouldn’t have won the many of the battles that she fought during her life.
Monday, January 7, 2008
The article The Makers Eye, by Donald M. Murray, has some informative writing advise in it, but I am skeptical of many of the claims that Murray makes. I feel that the article isn’t great writing, so why should I trust his advise on writing? Murray claims in his article that most good writers “usually feel that they don’t start the real writing until after the first draft is done.” I don’t think that his claim is true; I think that the first draft is the biggest milestone in writing. Of course editing is important, but the better the first draft is, the less time is needed to be spent editing. I will take some of Murray’s writing advice, but some of it I feel is rubbish.
Murray is very hypocritical throughout his article. His article says that when editing, one should be making sure that the writing is about the subject, not the writer, but then Murray talks about himself for many paragraphs. He also makes it seem that writers should spend more time editing than writing their first draft. Murray’s article isn’t any more interesting or in any way better than most articles written by amateurs, so obviously he doesn’t know how much time he needs to spend writing compared to editing. Murray needs improve his editing skills by just deleting the details that don’t matter. The Maker’s Eye is a boring and overly detailed article.
There is some very helpful editing advise in Murray’s article, but I feel that much of it will not work for me. Not all writers write the same; not all good writers spend more time editing that writing, or stay on subject. I usually spend more time writing my first draft than I do editing, and I will continue to do so despite Murray’s advise. Something that Murray needs to understand is that writing is more of an art than it is a science. Because writing is an art, some of Murray’s advice that doesn’t work for me, may work for someone else.
Murray is very hypocritical throughout his article. His article says that when editing, one should be making sure that the writing is about the subject, not the writer, but then Murray talks about himself for many paragraphs. He also makes it seem that writers should spend more time editing than writing their first draft. Murray’s article isn’t any more interesting or in any way better than most articles written by amateurs, so obviously he doesn’t know how much time he needs to spend writing compared to editing. Murray needs improve his editing skills by just deleting the details that don’t matter. The Maker’s Eye is a boring and overly detailed article.
There is some very helpful editing advise in Murray’s article, but I feel that much of it will not work for me. Not all writers write the same; not all good writers spend more time editing that writing, or stay on subject. I usually spend more time writing my first draft than I do editing, and I will continue to do so despite Murray’s advise. Something that Murray needs to understand is that writing is more of an art than it is a science. Because writing is an art, some of Murray’s advice that doesn’t work for me, may work for someone else.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Harmony & Disharmony
I have made a poster consisting of a collage of newspaper and magazine clippings. On the left side of the poster I glued on photos, which are tranquil, musical, or that have a pleasing arrangement of parts. On the other side of the collage the photos are much the opposite; they are uncomforting images of terror, destruction and disorganization.
When I was first began this project I thought that it would be easier to find images of harmony than disharmony. But as I looked closer I found that there was at least as many of disharmony printed into articles as there is harmony. I found that there is a balance of harmony and disharmony in each article, much like everything in life.
I believe that harmony is like that little angel standing on your left shoulder and disharmony is like the little devil sitting on your right shoulder. They are the ones that control what you do or don’t do. In the end it was difficult to decide which pictures to put on my poster, I had so many.
The left side of the poster shows everything that I could find that shows harmony. Harmony is in sound, shape and arrangements that bring us good feelings. It’s in the things of life that make us happy, fulfilled, content, and loved. It is in images of family, the beauty of the outdoors, wildlife. They express activities and things that bring meaning to our lives like hiking, yoga, rock climbing, sunbathing, etc.
The right side of the poster has many images of disharmony. They are the things in life that make us sad and feel discontent. Things of disharmony are things that hurt us and hurt others. They are destroying the world that we know for further generations. These unfortunately are things like wars that have been raging since the beginning of mankind. They are things like racism, poverty, and hatred. There is a four-year-old girl pictured with what looks like a real gun. What are we teaching our children?
We can’t control the forces of nature, or can we? Were already seeing the result of Global Warming. Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Thailand are just the beginning. If we don’t bring global warming to a hult, nature could be destroyed and disharmony will outweigh harmony.
Is the disharmony in the world taking over the world? If we don’t take an active role to reduce the violence in our world and try to create more harmony, the disharmony will take over. We can do this by being politically active. Speak up for the rights of mankind and our planet earth. Educate all our children against war, racism, violence, and ignorance. Do everything you can to slow down Global Warming and help endangered species. Only doing everything that we can will help make a difference in the harmony of our world.
When I was first began this project I thought that it would be easier to find images of harmony than disharmony. But as I looked closer I found that there was at least as many of disharmony printed into articles as there is harmony. I found that there is a balance of harmony and disharmony in each article, much like everything in life.
I believe that harmony is like that little angel standing on your left shoulder and disharmony is like the little devil sitting on your right shoulder. They are the ones that control what you do or don’t do. In the end it was difficult to decide which pictures to put on my poster, I had so many.
The left side of the poster shows everything that I could find that shows harmony. Harmony is in sound, shape and arrangements that bring us good feelings. It’s in the things of life that make us happy, fulfilled, content, and loved. It is in images of family, the beauty of the outdoors, wildlife. They express activities and things that bring meaning to our lives like hiking, yoga, rock climbing, sunbathing, etc.
The right side of the poster has many images of disharmony. They are the things in life that make us sad and feel discontent. Things of disharmony are things that hurt us and hurt others. They are destroying the world that we know for further generations. These unfortunately are things like wars that have been raging since the beginning of mankind. They are things like racism, poverty, and hatred. There is a four-year-old girl pictured with what looks like a real gun. What are we teaching our children?
We can’t control the forces of nature, or can we? Were already seeing the result of Global Warming. Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Thailand are just the beginning. If we don’t bring global warming to a hult, nature could be destroyed and disharmony will outweigh harmony.
Is the disharmony in the world taking over the world? If we don’t take an active role to reduce the violence in our world and try to create more harmony, the disharmony will take over. We can do this by being politically active. Speak up for the rights of mankind and our planet earth. Educate all our children against war, racism, violence, and ignorance. Do everything you can to slow down Global Warming and help endangered species. Only doing everything that we can will help make a difference in the harmony of our world.
Michael Franti
The film begins when Michael Franti, his guitar, a group of his friends and some video cameras fly into Iraq. When the plane was nearing Baghdad the flight attendant made an announcement, he said something like “their may be a small discomfort to your ears during landing, due to rapid descent of the airplane in effort to avoid any missile or gunfire that may be shot at the plane. I’m sure that you will agree with me, that the discomfort is worth the benefits.” That was the moment when they seemed to realize just how danger that their trip could bring.
Michael Franti is the main character of the 2005 documentary I Know am Not Alone. Michael is a world-renowned musician and human rights activist. Michael was fed up by how the news only shows the political and economic cost of the war, so in his film he shows the human cost of the war. The movie shows people living in occupied territory and the affect that the war is having on them. He makes a very good attempt with the film to help people around the world understand the perspectives of the Palestinian and the Israeli people. Michael meets many different kinds of people that all have different perspectives about many things but they all have something in common; that is that they want change, they want to live their lives in peace.
Michael is a very good musician, he is a part of Spearhead; a rock/reggae group. He writes about poverty, politics, revolution, or whatever he feels strongly about. He has a knack of making such significant things sound so lyrical, but yet they are still so moving. There is such a love in his music. The takes his guitar around with and he is always singing to the children and the people on the streets. Michael also has a talent of ‘charming’ those around him which comes quite useful during his trip. He was even brave enough to have a little debate with the coalition forces, but the soldiers got a little annoyed when he continuously strummed his guitar as he was talking with them.
Michael Franti is making a difference in the world by expressing himself through his music. He traveled to war stricken countries putting his life in danger. Once, in the movie it shows him caught in the middle of gun fire. He feels so passionately about this that he is willing to risk his life for it. Not many people, not even in the military would be willing to do this.
This documentary, I Know Am Not Alone, is very moving and inspirational. This film makes one wonder why we’re fighting. Is there a possible way to achieve peace? The movie is very thought provoking and I would highly recommend it for all to see.
Michael Franti is the main character of the 2005 documentary I Know am Not Alone. Michael is a world-renowned musician and human rights activist. Michael was fed up by how the news only shows the political and economic cost of the war, so in his film he shows the human cost of the war. The movie shows people living in occupied territory and the affect that the war is having on them. He makes a very good attempt with the film to help people around the world understand the perspectives of the Palestinian and the Israeli people. Michael meets many different kinds of people that all have different perspectives about many things but they all have something in common; that is that they want change, they want to live their lives in peace.
Michael is a very good musician, he is a part of Spearhead; a rock/reggae group. He writes about poverty, politics, revolution, or whatever he feels strongly about. He has a knack of making such significant things sound so lyrical, but yet they are still so moving. There is such a love in his music. The takes his guitar around with and he is always singing to the children and the people on the streets. Michael also has a talent of ‘charming’ those around him which comes quite useful during his trip. He was even brave enough to have a little debate with the coalition forces, but the soldiers got a little annoyed when he continuously strummed his guitar as he was talking with them.
Michael Franti is making a difference in the world by expressing himself through his music. He traveled to war stricken countries putting his life in danger. Once, in the movie it shows him caught in the middle of gun fire. He feels so passionately about this that he is willing to risk his life for it. Not many people, not even in the military would be willing to do this.
This documentary, I Know Am Not Alone, is very moving and inspirational. This film makes one wonder why we’re fighting. Is there a possible way to achieve peace? The movie is very thought provoking and I would highly recommend it for all to see.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The House of the Spirits
Allende's novel The House of the Spirits is a feminist novel because she highlights through her female characters, the struggle for woman in a patriarchal society. This novel is centered around the four generations of woman who are the main characters, their husbands and the men they love are important, but are only secondary characters. These women; Nivea, Clara, Blanca, and Alba, subtly work in their own ways to assert their rights. Experiences particularly central to the lives of the women dominate the events in the story, such as the detailed descriptions of each childbirth and the abortion, as well as physical and sexual violence against women.
Although most of the woman from the novel The House of the Spirits choose subtle ways to assert their rights, Nivea asserts them in not quite as subtle ways. Nivea fights not only for her own rights, but she fights for the rights of woman throughout her country. "She shared her husband's parliamentary ambitions, hoping that if he won a seat in congress she would finally secure the vote for woman, for which she had fought for the past ten years, permitting none of her numerous pregnancies to get in the way." Nivea defies the traditional gender role with her commitment to woman suffrage movements, which is female empowerment that men would not typically allow, she also submits to traditional gender roles by being a good wife and loving mother.
Clara, the daughter of NIvea, may be the most important character in this novel. She uses methods of resistance that could be seen as particularly feminine compared to Nivea's actions regarding woman suffrage. She uses gentle and non-violent ways, such as her love and her predictions, to deal with situations. She inspires great respect and devotion in all those who meet her, including her husband, Esteban. After Esteban, hits her, she never talks to him again. "I think people were afraid of me." Esteban admits, "Even Clara,.. who never dreaded my temper, walked around half terrified." Although Clara became afraid of her husband, and also stops speaking to him in order to make the point that his violence is intolerable, she continues to maintain a civil relationship with him until her death. Clara deals with all situations in a typically female manor but is outside of a traditional gender role in someways such as hardly being aware of the material world.
Blanca, the daughter of Clara, was very close to her mother. When Blanca is young they go to Tres Maria to spend the summer. Blanca meets Pedro Tercero Garcia, the son of the ranch foreman, they become instantly good friends, and after some time they fall in love. The two of the have a secret relationship, hidden because Blanca's father Esteban Trueba and Pedro Tercero disagree in their political views. Their relationship is revealed and they are forced to separate for a while. During that time period Blanca is forced to marry a man named Jean de Satigny. Blanca doesn't love this man whom she married and he tells her that he has "no particular inclination for married life", he only married her for her fathers money and to get connected with his business. Their arranged marriage is a great example of female oppression. Blanca leaves her husband because she finds out about his strange sexual habits and goes to her parents house, right before she gave birth to her and Pedro Tercero's daughter Alba. Blanca continues to meeting Pedro Tercero but doesn't run away with him for many years during which "She lacked the freedom of an unmarried woman and had all the limitations of a married one even though she had no husband.", but eventually she got a official divorce and went to live with her true love, Pedro Tercero.
Alba grows up and she falls in love with a man named Miguel. Their love seems to a predetermined destiny, like the loves of the three generations of woman before her. Alba opposes her grandfathers will and supports the revolution with Miguel. Alba becomes hated by her grandfather's son, Esteban Garcia because he is jealous of the affection that her grandfather gives her. Esteban Garcia ends up raping and torturing Alba. Afterwards, In order to, as Alba puts it "reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own", she convinces her grandfather to write the story of their family.
This novel having taken place in a time when the men had authority over the women, there are many sexist things that occur throughout the book. Some of the things that I noticed were that not all woman had educations, there were arranged marriages, women couldn't vote, and that there wasn't any birth control available. Each of the woman's life's are marked by the gender inequality, however, the woman in The House of the Spirits are strong women who don't tolerate being mistreated. They choose to respond to situations in subtle ways rather than responding through violence like the men do, which proves to be very effective. The women's methods of dealing with situations and fighting for their rights bring more important, long-lasting changes than the changes brought by the men. Because of how this novel is focused on the woman and their struggles in a male dominated society, and the male characters not being of much importance other than being the woman's husband or lover, The House of the Spirits, is a very feminist novel.
Although most of the woman from the novel The House of the Spirits choose subtle ways to assert their rights, Nivea asserts them in not quite as subtle ways. Nivea fights not only for her own rights, but she fights for the rights of woman throughout her country. "She shared her husband's parliamentary ambitions, hoping that if he won a seat in congress she would finally secure the vote for woman, for which she had fought for the past ten years, permitting none of her numerous pregnancies to get in the way." Nivea defies the traditional gender role with her commitment to woman suffrage movements, which is female empowerment that men would not typically allow, she also submits to traditional gender roles by being a good wife and loving mother.
Clara, the daughter of NIvea, may be the most important character in this novel. She uses methods of resistance that could be seen as particularly feminine compared to Nivea's actions regarding woman suffrage. She uses gentle and non-violent ways, such as her love and her predictions, to deal with situations. She inspires great respect and devotion in all those who meet her, including her husband, Esteban. After Esteban, hits her, she never talks to him again. "I think people were afraid of me." Esteban admits, "Even Clara,.. who never dreaded my temper, walked around half terrified." Although Clara became afraid of her husband, and also stops speaking to him in order to make the point that his violence is intolerable, she continues to maintain a civil relationship with him until her death. Clara deals with all situations in a typically female manor but is outside of a traditional gender role in someways such as hardly being aware of the material world.
Blanca, the daughter of Clara, was very close to her mother. When Blanca is young they go to Tres Maria to spend the summer. Blanca meets Pedro Tercero Garcia, the son of the ranch foreman, they become instantly good friends, and after some time they fall in love. The two of the have a secret relationship, hidden because Blanca's father Esteban Trueba and Pedro Tercero disagree in their political views. Their relationship is revealed and they are forced to separate for a while. During that time period Blanca is forced to marry a man named Jean de Satigny. Blanca doesn't love this man whom she married and he tells her that he has "no particular inclination for married life", he only married her for her fathers money and to get connected with his business. Their arranged marriage is a great example of female oppression. Blanca leaves her husband because she finds out about his strange sexual habits and goes to her parents house, right before she gave birth to her and Pedro Tercero's daughter Alba. Blanca continues to meeting Pedro Tercero but doesn't run away with him for many years during which "She lacked the freedom of an unmarried woman and had all the limitations of a married one even though she had no husband.", but eventually she got a official divorce and went to live with her true love, Pedro Tercero.
Alba grows up and she falls in love with a man named Miguel. Their love seems to a predetermined destiny, like the loves of the three generations of woman before her. Alba opposes her grandfathers will and supports the revolution with Miguel. Alba becomes hated by her grandfather's son, Esteban Garcia because he is jealous of the affection that her grandfather gives her. Esteban Garcia ends up raping and torturing Alba. Afterwards, In order to, as Alba puts it "reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own", she convinces her grandfather to write the story of their family.
This novel having taken place in a time when the men had authority over the women, there are many sexist things that occur throughout the book. Some of the things that I noticed were that not all woman had educations, there were arranged marriages, women couldn't vote, and that there wasn't any birth control available. Each of the woman's life's are marked by the gender inequality, however, the woman in The House of the Spirits are strong women who don't tolerate being mistreated. They choose to respond to situations in subtle ways rather than responding through violence like the men do, which proves to be very effective. The women's methods of dealing with situations and fighting for their rights bring more important, long-lasting changes than the changes brought by the men. Because of how this novel is focused on the woman and their struggles in a male dominated society, and the male characters not being of much importance other than being the woman's husband or lover, The House of the Spirits, is a very feminist novel.
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