Hopper 4 story because Alba is a symbol of new hope and joy amongst the Trueba and del Valle family, even more so for Esteban Trueba. For Estebean Trueba, Alba is truly “dawn”; for as the sun rises from darkness, Esteban Trueba’s love and admiration for Alba arises from bitter emotions towards all else. Likewise, Rosa is another symbolic name. Rosa is from Spanish origins meaning “Rose”, a flower that has symbolized beauty in almost all cultures and generations.
Rosa in The House of the Spirits is the most beautiful girl that anyone has ever seen. Though rose flowers are admired for their beauty just as Rosa is, they have thorns that can damage the skin; Rosa in The House of the Spirits has her own thorns that eventually damage others. For she dies young and leaves Esteban Trueba heartbroken, and also the events of her autopsy leave Clara traumatized for many years.
Because Chronicle of a Death Foretold uses ordinary names, it adds another asset to the already confusing plot, that of more confusion. Names such as Santiago Nasaar, Angela Vicario, etc. are non-symbolic and are a conflicting addition to the badly ordered chain of events that surround the death of Santiago Nasaar as well as magical realism used throughout the book. The House of the Spirits opposes this style of writing by adding names that are symbolic of that character’s role in the story and thus the plot of the novel.
Names such as Clara, Rosa and Alba foreshadow their roles in the story. The Significance of Names in the Plots of Chronicle of a Death Foretold and The House of the Spirits Zephaniah Hopper IB World Literature 26 May 2009.
Works Cited
1. Allende, Isabel. House of the spirits. New York: Bantam, 1986 2. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. New York: Vintage, 2003.
