Wednesday, May 25, 2011
7: The Brothers
When you respond to this chapter, DO NOT simply repeat the thoughts of others. Add something new to a previous comment. Comment or critique on a previous posting. BUT YOUR ULTIMATE goal is to add something new to the discussion. Also...don't forget to use as many direct quotes as possible!!!!
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16 comments:
I am really sure that Esteban thinks too much of his name and how he looks to the public than what his family thinks and feels. For example "He knew the scandal would be the same whether she gave birth to a bastard child or married the son of a peasant: society would condemn her in either case" (212). I am glad that the brothers developed separate interests and pursuits. The different paths they chose were very contrasting. Nicolas wanted to find a way to help himself financially, while Jaime wanted to help the poor and needy. Two very different ends of the spectrum and very contrasting. The addition of unrequited love between Amanda and Nicolas made the chapter a little more interesting to me. It is very present here "He fell to his knees beside the bed, begging Amanda not to leave him to forgive him, to let them go on as if nothing had happened, because this was simply an unfortunate accident that could not affect the untouchable essence of their relationship. But she seemed not to listen. She was caressing his hair with a maternal, distracted air. "It's no use, Nicolas," she said. "Can't you see my soul is very old and you're still a child? You'll always be a child"" (234). Near the end of this chapter I thought for sure that Amanda was going to die of some infection just from the description of the hospital that she was operated on. Just after the abortion when "she wavered between sleep, nausea, anxiety, and the pain that was beginning to grip her womb" I thought that she had internal bleeding and wasn't going to make it (242).
Yes, it's truly fascinating the very different type of children that results from the Estebab and Clara union...
And what is so fascinating about Amanda's quote? Is she an old soul? What does she mean by calling her soul old? WHat makes Nicolas still a child?
She has been through more than Nicholas has been or will be through in his lifetime. She has had to raise her younger brother, Miguel, and sacrifice everything that she wanted for him. She is four years older than Nicholas as stated "he had assumed that she had sufficient experience to avoid making him a father at twenty-one and herself an unwed mother at twenty-five" (232). The way she lived aged her by being in the poor district and saving everything she earned just to keep her brother and herself sustaining life. Amanda has had more lovers than Nicholas has and knows the way that works best for her and Nicholas. For example "She insisted on her unequivocal determination for them to remain together only so long as they were friends, without constraints or promises for the future, just like Sartre and Beauvoir" (232). Nicholas is a child because he acts on impulse and not out of rational and logical thought. After Amanda stated how the rules of their "free love" would be Nicholas slips from keeping things to the terms agreed upon and falls in love with her altering their friendship to something that makes it harder for Nicholas to let go of. He even thought the terms were "a shocking sign of coldness and distance, turned out to be his advantage. Relaxed and happy as he was about everything in life, he let himself fall in love without thinking of the consequences" (232).
I agree with Brenden that Esteban thinks way too much of his name. But he has a right to be ticked. In that day if a woman became pregnant by wedlock then she would became a public scandal and bring her family to shame. But if Esteban was able to make Blanca marry Jean de Satigny then she would have a respectable last name and no one would think less of her family. I really liked the romance in this chapter. Even though Clara and Esteban still weren't on speaking terms, they didn't treat each other with disregard. In the book it says "After that evening, the hostility between them seemed to ebb. Clara still said nothing, but he ignored her silence and spoke normally to her, interpreting her slightest gestures as replies. When it was necessary, Clara used the servants or her children to send him messages. She worried about her husband's well-being, helped him with his work, and accomplanied im when he asked her to. Sometimes she smiled at him" (226). We are also introduced to an unrequited love between Jaime (the lover) and Amanda (the loved). Even though nothing happened between them we learned that Jaime had it bad for Amanda. The book says "Alone on his bed, unable to concentrate on what he was reading, he would imagine how Amanda looked naked, wrapped in her long black hair with all her noisy adornments, like an idol" (222). When Jaime found out that Nicolas got Amanda pregnant his emotions are described as follows; "Jaime closed his eyes and inhaled with difficulty, forcing himself to containthe wild feelings that made him want to kill his brother, to run and marry Amanda himself, to weep in impotence and disappointment" (237). There is also the heartache when Amanda breaks up with Nicolas. Amanda says "It's no use, Nicolas... Can't you see that my soul is very old and you're still a child? You'll always be a child" (234). It's a very chick-flick type of chapter in my opinion.
Interesting you choose the word "romance" to describe the situations between Clara and Esteban and Nicolas and Amanda. Is Clara the loved and Esteban the lover? Are there other similarities between these two couples?
Similarities I can see between the two couples are that the men in both relationships have personalities that eventually push the women away from them (Esteban's anger, and Nicolas' childlike behavior). Amanda and Clara both were devoted to something that was on a higher level than their lovers: Amanda to her brother Miguel, and Clara to her three-legged table and otherworldliness. And in the end of their relationships, the men are the ones who miss the women them most when they're gone. It could also be said that there was a silent third part to each other's love quarrels: Jaime to Amanda and Nicholas' relationship, and Pedro Segundo to Clara and Esteban's relationship (although Jaime had a much bigger role in his love triangle than Pedro Segundo did).
~Julianna Richey
In this chapter you get to really meet the two brothers Nicolas and Jaime. Although they both try to help the needy, they do it in their own way. Like with Nicolas' free spirit, teaching the flamenco and preaching in the nude is his way of doing it. But with Jaime, he loved to help people physically. "We made woolen clothes to keep him warm but he wore them only until someone who needed them more crossed his path." (220). Thats the kind of person he was, literally taking the clothes off his own back to help someone else out. And that's the brothers, going their seperate ways but still with the same cause.
Tania
One thing I noticed in this chapter is the striking difference between the two twins. Even the way they spent their days had immense difference. Nicolas taking up marijuana with Amanda ''Amanda has a very pessimistic view of the world, and to get through her depressions she smoked hashish. Nicolas joined her'' (220). With Nicolas spending his time freely as he enjoys, Jaime is severely self-disciplined and spends nearly every hour of the day absorbed in his studies in the mindset that it was for the greater good ''Any diversionthat took him away from his books or used up his time was a betrayal of the people he had sworn to serve'' (221). With character development being seen in this chapter you see how much contrast Allende provides the reader between two brothers who shared the same womb. One shared a genuine and deep interest with spirituality while the other was a man of science and logic. Nicolas spent many days in front of the three-legged table and tried to become bestowed with mental powers like his mother Clara had. Jaime reserves his one ambition in life to help the people who needed it most as Nicolas swings back and forth from goal to goal, never truly having a meaning in life to accomplish. He once even attempts a similar feat as his great-uncle Marcos did many years ago ''His chief ambition at this point was to cross the cordillera in an unusual form of transportation'' (229). As I had read this chapter I saw more and more how the twins became more black and white, ending with Amanda's abortion. Nicolas couldn't handle so much at once while Jaime remained resolute, only an internal battle of emotion was present with him, even as he performed the operation successfully and still refused himself to take away the woman of his life for respect of his brother, something that Nicolas would have never been capable of.
"We'll have to buy some new birds"(209). When Clara said this it made me realize that animals seem to be around her a lot and also be in cages. Just like Barrabas arrived in a cage, the birds are also caged. I think Clara uses the animals when they are let go to symbolize her new freedom from Esteban.
Autumn
"Please, you've got to help her!" (237), Nicolas pleas to his brother Jaime for help with the love of his life, not knowing its his brothers love too. I think that Jaime is the far better suitor for Amanda, who is the love of both the brothers, because he is more mature and he could help her. The two brothers are the complete opposite of each other, where one is mature the other is a complete child. Jaime interests are in helping the needy and running his hospital where Nicolas wants to preach to people and be the first person to go up in a air balloon in his country, although he does care about the needy its not in the same direction as his brothers.
~SHELBY~
Autumn and Shelby...how are your little joint blog postings working exactly? Are you reading the chapters togethere?
Aaron...good textual analysis of the differences between the two brothers.
Mrs. Matysak- No we didn't read them together but skyped while posting them.
The brothers even contrast on how they care about Amanda. While Amanda was suffering from a fever in their house, they both wanted to know how she was doing. But Jaime was more open with his emotions. "She couldn't fail to notice that Nicolas discreetly asked about her but made no attempt to visit her. Jaime, on the other hand, lent her his favorite books and walked around like someone in a trance, babbling incoherently and crisscrossing the house as he had never done before" (244).
Thomas
Throughout the book I also noticed how hypocritical Esteban is. After he finds out Blanca is pregnant and refuses to marry, he yells "You're getting married. I don't want any bastards in the family" (215). This is almost funny because in his younger days he fathered many bastard children with almost every peasant woman on his ranch.
Thomas
I do agree with Brenden that Esteban thinks too much of his name. Especially when it comes to Blanca and her baby. How does he think the families of the girls that he raped feel? The same way. The twins have a lot of differences just like everyone else has stated. They both have special gifts that could help them out in life. Nicolas' gift being that he has goals that are unusal compared to Jaime's.
This chapter holds my favorite quote from the book. When Jaime was performing the abortion on his love Amanda, who really was the woman of Nicolas, Jaime goes in great detail about the abortion. Jaime reveals his feelings when he says, "For if this child had been his instead of Nicolas's, it would have been born healthy and intact, instead of exiting in bits and pieces in this sewer of a clinic. He would have cradled it and protected it instead of extracting it from its nest with a scoop" (241). Isabel Allende knew exactly how to say what she wanted to in few but good words. The love Jaime had in secret far surpassed what Nicolas could ever want to give Amanda.
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