The Stories of Eva Luna
Clarissa
And of Clay We Were Created
Simple Maria
Phantom Palace
Elements of Fiction
Magic Realism
Plot
Magical Realism
Folklore/local or cultural myths or legends
Clarisa is described as if she were a saint, and towards the end of the end it was said the she had two bumps on her back that looked as if wings were about to sprout out of her. This story has a lot of elements that are fantasy such as the bumps on her back or how she healed people of their pain. Clarisa is described throughout the book as a saint and also has her fair share of troubles. She possesses mysterious abilities as well.
"they say she helps a person through a hangover, or problems with the draft, or a siege of loneliness." (27)
"She had the hands of a healer, and people who could not pay a doctor, or were disilluioned with traditional science, waited in line for her to reliev their pain or console them in their misfortune." (27)
Elements of Fiction
Magical Realism
Setting (Palace Deteriorating)Towards the beginning of the story, the Summer Palace was described as "a landscape with incomparable beauty with a labyrinth of countless columns, wide colonnades, curving staircases, arches, domes and capitals, salons, kitchens bedchambers and more than thirty baths decorated with gold and silver faucets". Towards the end of the story, the Palace was described as: "the torrid climate had changed the color of building materials, covering them with premature patina, nothing was visible of the pool and garden On every side were signs or disorder. The Summer Palace had been transformed into a living creature defenseless against the green invasion that had surrounded and overrun it".
Setting (Historical fiction - land belonged to Indians)
Characterization (Marcia) Her instincts were steering her to go along with El Benefactor. "She had the impression... that she belonged there, that until that moment she had been a stranger in the world, and that her instinct had dictated every step she had taken, including that of leaving her husband's house to follow a trembling old man, for the sole purpose of leading her here."
Social Awareness (Spanish take Indian's land)
Initially, this land belonged to the indians who were powerless against the Spanish conquistadors.
"The conquistadors announced with heralds and banners the 'discovery' of a new land, declared it a possession of a remote emperor, set in place the first cross, and named the place San Jeronimo, a name unpronounceable to the natives" (240).
"Soon, nevertheless, they comprehended the magnitude of the enemy and they understood the futility of attempting to ignore them; their presence was overpowering, like a heavy stone bound to every back" (240).
Mixture of Reality and Fantasy (Ghosts of Indians)
“They had survived the passage of history, adapting to changes when they were inevitable, and when necessary taking refuge in a dimensional of their own” (246)
"The first signs were so subtle that no one paid attention to them; footsteps and whispers, fleeting silhouettes among the columns, the print of a hand on the clean surface of a table. Gradually food began to disappear
Obsession (El Benefactor)
Marcia did not reciprocate El Benefactor's love that was forced on her.
"Instead she could not refuse him when a few days later he knocked at he door, dress in civilian clothes and without his guards, looking like a dreary great-grandfather, to tell her that he hda not touched a women for ten year and that he was passed temptations of that sort but, with all respect, he was asking her to accompany him that afternoon to a private place where he could rest his head in her queenly lap and tell her how the world had been when he was still a fine figure of a macho and she had not yet been born" (307)
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Characterization (El Benefactor)
“He believed that love was a dangerous weakness. He was convinced that all women, except his own mother, were potentially perverse and that the most prudent way to treat them was to keep them at arm’s length” (243).
At first, El Benefactor was a strong dictator, a respected man that didn't believe he was capable of loving anyone as love made people weak. However, when he met Marcia, he completely lost control of things and became weak
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There were many magical realism components in this story, mainly the Indians that were like fantoms. They were spirits that were only whispered about; there was no real proof of them and yet they existed and took over the palace. Also, the palace was a physical representation of El Benefactor. While El Benefactor began to fall in love his strength began to be inhibited with weakness.
Characterization
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Magic Realism
Linearity and non-linearity
Her instincts were steering her to go along with El Benefactor"She had the impression... that she belonged there, that until that moment she had been a stranger in the world, and that her instinct had dictated every step she had taken, including that of leaving her husband's house to follow a trembling old man, for the sole purpose of leading her here."
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Elements of fiction
Setting (Mud avalanche) Setting directly influences characterization. Rolf was able to connect with Marcia on another level. "They discovered the girls head protruding from the mud pit, eyes wide open, calling soundlessly" (319).
Characterization (Rolf's past) Seeing Azucena resurfaced horrifying memories from his childhood-- things he couldn't control, just as she couldn't control her situation. "He took excessive risks as an exercise of courage, training by day to conquer the monsters that tormented him by night. But he had come face to face with the moment of truth; he could not continue to escape his past. He was Azucena; he was buried in the clayey mud; his terror was not he distant emotion of an almost forgotten childhood, it was the claw sunk in his throat' (267)
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Point of view Through Eva's point of view, we are able to see Rolf's. "The screen reduced the disaster to a single plane and accentuated the tremendous distance that separated me from Rolf Carle; nonetheless, I was there with him; I felt his frustration, his impotence" (324).
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Metafiction (news story within Eva telling it) "Many miles away, I watched Rolf Carlé and the girl on a television screen. I could not bear the wait at home, so I went to National Television, where I often spent entire nights with Rolf editing programs"
Social Awareness (waiting for the pump) Azucena is at the mercy of the government as they wait for the pump. "I called all the important people in the city, senators, commanders of the armed forced, the North American ambassador, and the resident of the National Petroleum, begging them for a pump to remove the silt, but obtained only vague promises. I began to ask for urgent help on radio and television, to see if there wasn't someone who could help us" (324).
Discreet Miracle
Magical realism
Elements of fiction
Characterization (round character) At first, he didn’t believe in Juana of Liros, but after he is healed he does.
When the idea of going to Junana of Liros comes up at first, the preist says, “ ‘If it were not for her family’s willingness to spend a fortune to have a saint of their own, no one would know of its existence’ “(100).
“... his voice broken by gratitude he referred to Juana de los Lirios, without whose interventon all the articificies of science and technology would have been unsucessful… And now, put yourselves all in line, because you are going to sign me a letter for the Pope!” (103).
Social Awareness "In his long life he had accumulated so much suffering from others that eh was unable to think of his own pain, which, added to the certainty of acting in the name of God, made him reckless," (99).
"María was born to be a great lady, this as what the other women deduced from her aristocratic manner of peaking and her unique behavior, and, if any doubt remained, it was dissipated at her death.She died with her dignity intact. She stuttered no recognizable illness, she was not frightened, nor did she breathe through her ears as ordinary people.." (152)
"Maria's life was marked by sudden misfortunes, like a train that had claimed her mind and flung her back into an irreversible childhood. She was arranging her dresses in the stateroom closet when her son peered into the opened trunk. At that moment the ship lurched and the heavy metal-edged lid slammed shut, breaking the child's neck."(157)
"Soon other men came, drawn by the gossip that there was a woman who was able, even if briefly, to sell the illusion of love. All her clients were satisfied. And so María became the most famous prostitute in the port, sailors tatted her name on their arm and told her story on other seas, until the legend had circled the globe." (161)
Point of View
Clarisa is portrayed in a very positive and almost perfect light. Most of the time she acts “saintly.” For example, “Clarisa gave everything she needed to give to the needy.” Also, the buds on her back are described as angel wings. However, to Clarisa she had a sin that she couldn't forgive herself for. In the reader's point of view in this story sin becomes relative. Clarisa cheated on her husband and had two healthy children, but her husband was a cruel man who wanted nothing to do with her. Also, the two healthy children she had helped her take care of her sick children.
'"Don Diego was your great sin, wasn't he? I murmured." "That wasn't a sin, child, just a little boost to help God balance the scales of destiny"' (40)
"when he saw the buds of wings; santliness, proclaimed the throngs bearing candles and flowers; astonishment, say I, because I was with her when the Pope came to vist." (40)
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The story begins with Eva telling the story of Maria's funeral. However, then the story "goes back in time", explaining several events in Maria's life, including all the tragedies she faced as a young woman. Then, at the end of the story, it comes back to the present, continuing the story of her funeral. This shows how there is a story within a story.
Social Awareness
This is portrayed in the book as Maria didn't have a lot of power when she grew up. Her parents were constantly making her decisions, even as an adult. However, she then gains power as she grows up. She becomes the most famous prostitute in her town.
“He had been arrested so often, had joined in so many hunger strikes in solidarity with the prisoners, had sheltered so many persecuted, that according to the law of probabilities he should have died many times over” 203).
“Back in the car Miguel lectured his brother and sister, and the chauffeur, on how the Opus Dei was a nefarious organization more concerned with soothing the conscience of the upper class than with feeding the starving and on how it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (209).
"Simple Maria believed in love. That was what made her a living legend. All her neighbors came to the funeral, even the police and the blind man from the kiosk who almost never abandoned his business"
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Examples:
She couldn't marry anyone she wanted, her parents arranged her marriage.
Her parents sent her to her aunt's house, causing her to enter the boat, where her son died.
When she is older, she becomes a prostitute and sleeps with anyone that is willing to pay her.