Wednesday, May 25, 2011
4: The Time of the Spirits
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15 comments:
I have to say in the beginning of this chapter I found the ant invasion to be very interesting. Just in the start of the onslaught it "began with a humming in the pastures and quickly became a dark shadow that glided everywhere, devouring everything in its path" (109-110). I just find that to be something that I cannot begin to even comprehend the magnitude of the land covered let alone the amount of ants required to do such a thing. But what intrigued me the most was the way that Pedro Garcia got rid of them. Just by collecting a few ants in a handkerchief and then "climbed up onto a horse and ambled slowly, mumbling advice and recommendations, prayers of wisdom and enchanted formulas, to the ants. The others saw him disappearing off the edge of the property" (111). I think that it represents that there are just somethings that science cannot explain or even fix. I think that this event helped build up the chapter a bit and add some meaning to the title. I was hoping that a while after being married to Clara, Esteban would have been tamed and more relaxed, but that was soon crushed when he threw another one of his anger fits and ran off to the Christopher Columbus. I'm surprised that Nana and Ferula couldn't settle things out between them for the affection of Clara's and the children's affection, but I guess that is just the human need of possession and affection. I thought it was a nice that this chapter started and ended with Blanca and Pedro Tercero and the in Tres Marias.
Yes, and who is at the Christopher Columbus?
The ant story is certainly significant...how is Pedro's method of dealing with the problem so antithetical Esteben's approach to life?
Why is Esteban's not tamed by Clara? What is it about her that enrages him?
And yet another important thematic topic: possession
I think that the death of Clara's parents was a significant point in this chapter. I also thought it was weird that Nivea's head had landed so far away from where the accident had happened. Almost as if the police weren't supposed to find it but Clara was. I was a little frightened by the fact that when they found her head they could not shut her eyelids. Then they don't even tell anyone about it and hide it in the basement? We will be seeing that head again, "the hatbox was stowed away in the basement here it awaited a more propitious moment to be given a Christian burial" (124).
Maybe it's just me but when they described Nivea's head, I pictured Medusa for some reason. In a way that's how Esteban treats it. He was afraid that if the people found out how Clara discovered her mother's head it would publicly ruin her. It would kill her position in society. So, Medusa's head killed people by turning them into stone if looked upon, and if the people in this story would have looked upon Nivea's head it would have terminated her popularity and status in society and also affected Estaban's social status. P.(123), "Esteban Trueba ever fearful of public ridicule, opted for a solution that would not provide material for malicious tongues, because he knew that his wife's strange behavior was the target of local gossips." You can see his fear in this passage. That is why I sort of find a link between the two heads.
~Brittany Rowe
Brittany -I think you're absolutely correct and picked up on a nice allusion. Certainly, to Esteban, the head of Nivea is like Medusa's head.
And yes, isn't it funny that in the end, Esteban's wife is Clara...absolute opposite in every way to Esteban.
Yes, Elliot - in connection to Brittany's Medusa observations, it's like Nivea is always "watching."
I also kind of pictured Nivea's head like Medusa, but maybe like a beautifully preserved head to if that makes sense. The eyes were creepy and if it were my house the head would have been out of there in the first second of me knowing about it, and certainly not "stowed away in the basement"(124).
Tania
The Time of the Spirits brought about jealousy between brother and sister. I found it interesting how both Esteban and Ferula wanted Clara's love and compaction. This tells me that perhaps neither of them received much love in their own lives and to receive love from Clara was an addiction. Clara was easy to give love and they both wanted affection, they kept one an other from her. Esteban refused to let Ferula be near Clara and take care of her and Ferula tried to wait on Cara hand and foot trying to keep Clara from Esteban. Her compaction for Clara was almost lesbianism and Esteban refused to tolerate it anymore by kicking Ferula out of the house and threatening to kill her. I think that since Ferula took care of their sick mother for so long bathing, cooking, cleaning and caring for her that Ferula knows how to do nothing more then to nurse people. Clara was Ferula's way to continue caring for someone. The brother and sister's rivals also proceeded throughout the house, "Esteban's and Ferula's hatred for each other took a long time to explode. It began with a concealed uneasiness and a desire to offend each other in small details but it grew until it filled the house" (131) Esteban continues to assault his sister, and permanently bans her from his house. My guess is that the only reason Esteban and Ferula held together so long even after their mother died was because of their love for Clara.
-Janel
After Esteban married Clara i was very surprised that he settled down and "everyone could appreciate that he had stopped going to the Red Lantern. His Nights on the town, his cockfights, his gambling, his violent tantrums, and, above all, his bad habbits of tumbling girls in the wheatfields were a thing of the past."(105) Esteban wasn't the only one to change, Clara did also. "her listlessness had vanished, she had stopped finding everything so lovely and she seemed to have been cured of her habit of speaking with invisible spirits and moving the furniture by supernatural means."(105) For being two very different families they are really becoming together and morphing into one family and they both have changed dramatically.
autumn schlarp
Wasn't the tension between Esteban and Ferula tangible? Even though the movie isn't particulary good, they do an excellent job portraying the complexity of this brother/sister relationship.
The rivalries in this chapter are very strong. It's almost like you can feel the tension and the pressure to overcome the other. Clara seems to be the main focus of everyone's attention. Nana and Ferula are intensely battling her affection. I think that is because Nana always took care of Clara and now Ferula just comes and takes over her job, vise versa for Ferula. She was there when Clara and Esteban first got married. Taking care Clara through her pregnancy and everything else. So now Nana moves in and they are struggling to overcome one another on who will ultimately receive Clara's affection. Clara, however, was completely oblivious to this, "Jealousy, like many other typical human reactions, was simply not part of Clara's vocabulary"(111). The rivalry between Esteban and Ferula was much more intense. Esteban was obsessed with Clara, "He felt a terrible desire boiling up within him, a fire impossible to quench, a thirst for Clara that would never, even on teh longest and most passionate nights, be satisfied"(111). It says that his love for Clara was "without a doubt the most powerful emotion of his life" (111), and this is very apparent throughout the chapter. Their rivalry is much more intense because all of their life they had no one to love them. Sure they had their mother, but she never had the affection and compassion that Clara showed them. So getting used to the affection that Clara gave to both of them their hunger grew for more and more. They craved the love and were jealous of each other until it became too much to handle and Esteban kicked Ferula out of the house.
In this chapter, Ferula becomes more abnormal than I thought she originally was. Her obsession with Clara is over the top and quite odd. Ferula is constantly fighting for all of Clara's attention with Nana and Esteban. Ferula even admits that she " had come to love Clara with a jealous passion that resembled that of a demanding husband rather than it did that of a sister-in-law"(126). That confession makes her love for Clara seem less family oriented and more lover. Ferula goes as far as scheming up plots to keep Esteban away from his wife so she can have Clara all to herself. This love makes the whole household uncomfortable, but Clara never realizes it because she is always in another world anyways.
Taylor Quella
During this chapter I did feel just a little bit sorry for Esteban due to Ferula's constant obsession with his wife. But then again I think that maybe Esteban shouldn't have been so mean to her and showed her real sibling affection because she didn't have a real life so of course she acted out so strangely to the first person who showed her affection(Clara).
^^^^^^
Mellisa Crisan
I think this chapter as a whole was a bit odd. From the ant swarm in the beginning to the argument between Esteban and Ferula over Clara. Ferula had an envious passion to always be with Clara at all times. This soon turned into an uncontrollable obsession, which caused the rivalry between her and Esteban in order to gain Clara's love. Another strange part in this chapter is when Clara finds Nivea's head, and they couldn't shut her eyelids. It's like she is still watching over Clara even though she's 6 feet under.
-Connor Carlson
Transito Soto was by far a very interesting point in the book to me. I love that she kept reappearing. Esteban Trueba knew it was her because he said, "and it was then I recognized her, because her voice was the only thing that hadn't changed Transito Soto" (116). She is the one thing that can change in Trueba's life, and he still constantly know her. He is slow and calm with her, not forceful like the girls from The Three Marias. But he is more sensual and loving it seems. He takes time to notice her. I wonder why Esteban Trueba can give all his love to the one girl who doesn't appreciate it. He should have been saving it for Clara. However, I am glad that everytime he turned for a second-hand love it was her. Something about the mysterious Transito Soto made you wonder what she would do next, and what advice and wisdom she would have to share.
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