House of the Spirits

he House of the Spirits is stocked with selfless characters who serve as foils to Esteban Trueba, the novel's bastion of selfishness and materialism. First there are those characters who care for others (including the less fortunate), but do not devote their entire lives to selflessness. These begin with Nà vea the suffragette. She sets an example for Clara, who invites anyone who needs shelter or care into "the big house on the corner." Clara also tries to improve the living conditions at Tres Marias almost single-handedly. After her, Blanca starts the weekly pottery program for mentally disabled children. Then there are the characters that seem to have an addiction to sacrifice and go to extremes in their displays of selflessness. The first of these is Férula. She spends much of her youth caring for her mother, Doña Ester, as she becomes paralyzed by arthritis and in her last days, rots alive. When Doña Ester is finally dead, Férula seeks another outlet for her generosity and capacity for sacrifice. She finds it in Clara, who, though not as helpless as Doña Ester, does not look after herself. Férula becomes so obsessed with caring for Clara that she even develops a selfish desire to cuddle with her in bed. After Esteban banishes Férula from the household, she still maintains a saintly existence. She does not use any of the money Esteban sends her, instead living in a filthy tenement and saying daily prayers for her unappreciative neighbors. In a similar vein, Jaime rejects the material comforts with which he was raised for a bare-bones existence as a doctor to the poor. His only possessions are his books and tools, and he wants no more. Jaime's life ends in sacrifice when he refuses to betray the president during the coup and the police torture and kill him. Nà colas also sacrifices material comforts, but his sacrifice is not necessarily selfless like Férula's and Jaime's are. On the contrary, Nà colas's abandonment of food, clothing, and normal human...