The House of the Spirits

Epigraph-Chapter 4

Reading Check

1. Rosa (Chapter 1)

2. Tránsito Soto (Chapter 2)

3. Esteban Trueba (Chapter 3)

4. Three: Blanca and the twins, Jaime and Nicolás (Chapters 3, 4)

Short Answer

1. The sight of Rosa’s autopsy, combined with the worry that she brought about Rosa’s death through her prophecy, leads Clara to stop speaking for nine years. (Chapter 1)

2. Férula resents Esteban’s freedom, as she has taken on caring for their arthritic mother and does not have much of a life beyond this. (Chapter 2)

3. Nívea spends a lot of time and attention on Clara to make up for her daughter’s absent social life and tells her a number of family stories. (Chapter 3)

4. Esteban sends his sons away to boarding school so they are not influenced by Clara’s “magic,” which he believes to be a feminine pursuit unsuitable for men. (Chapter 4)

Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. Férula (Chapter 5)

2. Pedro García (Chapter 6)

3. Nicolás (Chapter 7)

4. Incan relics (Chapter 8)

Short Answer

1. Esteban fires Pedro Tercero for spreading socialist ideas amongst the peasants. (Chapter 5)

2. Esteban hates the Truebas because, partly owing to his grandmother Pancha García’s stories, he believes Tres Marías is his rightful inheritance, denied to him due to his illegitimacy. (Chapter 6)

3. Jaime is secretly in love with Amanda, Nicolás’s girlfriend, and the rift widens when Nicolás asks Jaime to perform an abortion on Amanda. (Chapter 7)

4. Blanca finds the staff’s behavior to be odd and disconcerting, and she begins to have nightmares and hallucinations about the mummies that the count brings home from excavations. (Chapter 8)

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. Green hair (Chapter 9)

2. A mausoleum (Chapter 10)

3. Miguel (Chapter 11)

4. Pedro Tercero (Chapter 12)

Short Answer

1. Alba internalizes her grandmother’s teaching that death is only a change, so she is not disturbed by Clara passing away. (Chapter 9)

2. Just like Clara used to as a child, Alba writes and records the stories her mother tells her. (Chapter 10)

3. He rejects Alba’s offer as it is born out of love for him, and the guerrillas can only afford to accept people with true political conviction. (Chapter 11)

4. The Conservatives begin to arm themselves to take back political power from the Socialists, and Esteban buys and hides weapons in accordance with this plan. (Chapter 12)

Chapters 13-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. Amanda (Chapter 13)

2. Miguel (Chapter 14)

3. A concentration camp (Epilogue)

Short Answer

1. Esteban’s realization that the military does not plan on relinquishing political power and his recognition of the atrocities it is committing lead him to realize he was wrong to seek the military’s help in overthrowing the leftist government. (Chapter 13)

2. It is Tránsito Soto’s way of repaying, with interest, the loan of 50 pesos that Esteban gave her 50 years ago. (Chapter 14)

3. Alba realizes that doing so will only perpetuate a cycle of violence. (Epilogue)