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General Commentary on the passage on pages284 from “The young man…” to pg. 285 “I will.”House of the Spirits

Isabel Allende effectively describes Esteban Trueba’s office as to illustrate his personality. “two glass cases with marble and hard stone from the Orient.” The ‘hard stone’, and the ‘glass cases with marble’ represent Trueba’s character. He is a stubborn, bad tempered, ‘hard’ or cruel, disturbed man. “black leather chairs with their backs to the window,” The keyword of this quotation is ‘black’ because of its connotations. It represents Trueba’s ‘black’ sinister personality which ties in with the ‘hard stone’ and ‘glass’ metaphor used previously. The fact that the chairs are not facing the window or hit directly by the light tells us the lack of life or vivacity in Trueba’s personality. There is a dark side to the patron, he used to rape women. The chairs, however, are “strategically placed” so that there would be “good light” for reading. This tells us that there is some vivacity in Trueba’s life. He does have some joyful moments,...

Posted by: Sheryl Hogges

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