The Anti-Universal Human Experience: The House of the Spirits Anonymous 12th Grade

Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits is a whirlwind of color, sound, and magic, set in the midst of Chile’s 1970 socialist revolution. Although the novel paints a lucid portrait of Chile in tragedy, I would like to focus on the conclusively transcultural and transhistorical aspects of the novel; more so, on how Allende herself concentrated on the idea of the foundation of humanity along with its quests and experiences, rather than the periodical facets of the novel. Allende focuses greatly on the universal themes of predetermined or free fate, the role of the mind in reality, and the power of testimony. However, I believe Allende herself, in the presentation of these themes, actually seeks to defy the misconception of a universal human experience, for every human story and reality is different. Ultimately, through the magical and fantastical aspects that well define her novel, Allende reveals the colorful cacophony that is our universe in tandem with our minds, and why the two make for a universal human experience to be unattainable.

Allende unites humanity under the human endeavor of questioning. Questioning is the universal motion and pandemonium of the human pursuit to discover one’s place in our macrocosm. The novel...