The House of the Spirits - Television Tropes & Idioms

The House of Spirits is an 1982 novel, Isabel Allende’s first and most famous novel.

The book deals with the members of the Trueba family, their growth, their rise and eventually their downfall. Esteban Trueba, an ultra-conservative landowner, marries the Cloudcuckoolander Clara del Valle, with who they have three kids, Blanca and the twins Nicolás and Jaime. Trueba builds his fortune through his farm Las Tres Marías, but this, coupled with his political views, throw a few wrenches in the wheels of his family. Drama ensues.

It sounds like your usual family drama. Well, that’s because it is. Of course, all this is analyzed through three generations of Truebas, all this laced with political unrest, an earthquake and a coup d’tat, between other stuff that happen on Chile... er, I mean, some nameless Latin American country.

It spawned a film, but we might as well not talk about it.

This novel provides examples of:

Adaptation Distillation: The movie cuts A LOT of characters (justified, since they’re so many, but still).
All Men Are Perverts: Esteban Trueba is the main culprit here, but other male characters have their moments too.
Armies Are Evil
Author Tract
Babies Ever After: Subverted. Alba ends pregnant, but she doesn’t know if the baby is of her boyfriend or his bastard cousin, who raped her repeatedly. She thinks of it and it's her baby after all, so it'll work somehow..
Badass Grandpa: Pedro Primero.
Berserk Button: Don’t talk to Esteban about communist ideals.
Big Screwed-Up Family
Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the book, almost the whole family is dead (Jaime, Clara, Esteban Trueba himself) or in exile (Blanca, Pedro Tercero, Nicolas). And so are their friends (Amanda). But at least Alba is free from the military and has hopes for a good future as she rests from her ordeals waits for Miguel's return.
Book Ends
Break the Haughty: The second part of the book completely smashes Esteban Trueba's whole world, as punishment for all of his sins. Taken to extremes when he goes to his old friend Transito Soto and actually weeps when begging her to save Alba.
Broken Bird: Amanda. Oh, Amanda.
Bury Your Gays: The two most prominent gay characters die way before the end of the novel.
Cerebus Syndrome: Though it’s not outright comedy, the book starts with fairly happy episodes. After the coup d’etat, the country starts to look like Mordor, and everything becomes Darker and Edgier.
Chekhov's Army
Chekhov's Gunman: Tránsito Soto, Miguel, Esteban García, etc.
Cloudcuckoolander: Clara del Valle.
- Her older sister Rosa also was pretty off. Nivea was seriously worried that the girl wouldn't ever do anything but sewing.
Crapsack World: After the coup.
Cute Mute: Clara, from her sister's death until Esteban proposes to her.
Cycle of Revenge
Dating What Daddy Hates: The worst of all scum, a Dirty Communist!
Dead Little Sister: Rosa to Clara, though technically she's the older sister.
Different as Night and Day: Jaime is a serious academic and Nicolás is a crackpot hippie.
Dirty Communist: You will hear Esteban rambling a lot about this.
The Dutiful Son: Ferula is a genderflipped version. And boy, does she resent it.
Dying Alone: Férula damns Esteban to die like a dog. Averted, because he dies in company of his granddaughter.
- Ferula herself dies alone; her family only finds out that she's dead after her spirit visits them during a family dinner.
Earn Your Happy Ending: The FEW who get a happy ending have to work for it, really hard.
Earthquakes Cause Fissures: And worse things. It's actually based on the Chilean 1960 earthquake, complete with the pandemonium that followed.
Eccentric Mentor: Pedro Primero. He seems to be just a rambling old man, but he can get rid of an ants plague and mend all the broken bones of Esteban without any problem. Oh, and did I mention he’s blind?
Esperanto, the Universal Language: Clara believes it's the ideal language.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: The Poet and The Candidate/The President.
Fallen Princess: Alba, as a prisioner.
Fingore: Esteban cuts three of Pedro Tercero's fingers. He doesn't take it well, but later works it out and learns to play the guitar with less fingers than usual.
For the Evulz: According to the author, the military regime.
Freudian Excuse: Esteban García.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Esteban García.
Generation Xerox: Seen it From a Certain Point of View, Esteban Trueba and his grandson, Esteban García, are Not so Different.
Grave Robbing: Esteban and his sons exhume Clara’s corpse from the Del Valle’s crypt to put it in the Trueba’s crypt.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Esteban.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Esteban Trueba’s bastard son, product of the rape of Pedro Primero's daughter Pancha, has a son who eventually turns Esteban’s life into a hell. To add insult to injury, he's the one that gets him a job on the police just to shake him off.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Tránsito Soto, who consoles Esteban when he’s down and eventually helps him set Alba free from the military.
Impoverished Patrician: The Trueba family. The mother, Ester, was a Fallen Princess disinherited after marrying "beneath her station".
I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Esteban Trueba towards Clara.
It Has Been an Honor: The President bids farewell to all his followers during the coup. Truth in Television, regarding the person on whom he's based.
Jerkass: Again, Esteban.
Kiss of Death
Loads and Loads of Characters: Actually justified, as the action spans several decades and depicts three generations of family.
Magic Realism
Meaningful Name: A lot of names reflect the characters’ personalities, especially the women’s.
Mind Over Matter: Clara moves a table only with his mind.
Miniature Senior Citizens
Miss Kitty: Tránsito Soto, towards the end of the book.
My Hair Came Out Green: This happens to Rosa, in an event inspired by something similar that happened to the author.
New Age Retro Hippie: Nicolás.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Poet is a thinly-veiled Pablo Neruda. Ditto with The Candidate, later The President, is the former Chilean president Salvador Allende.
No Indoor Voice: When Esteban loses his temper, he starts shouting very loudly.
Not so Different: Esteban Trueba and his namesake grandson.
Off With Her Head: Nívea del Valle.
One Degree of Separation
One Steve Limit: Averted. The García family has three Pedros; Primero, Segundo and Tercero (First, Second and Third, respectively). Esteban shares his name with his bastard grandson and he wished to name one of his kids Esteban.
Plucky Girl: Alba
Police Brutality
Poster Gallery Bedroom: a non-traditional one: Alba's bedroom is a full mural painted by herself since she was a little girl, despicting her most important moments of her life. This is foreshadowing of The Reveal that she has been The Narrator all along
Promotion to Parent: Amanda had to raise her much younger brother Miguel.
Put On Abus: Nicolas, after his eccentricities embarrass the Truebas way too much. Pedro Tercero and Blanca, when he becomes a fugitive.
Psychic Powers: Clara talks with spirits and moves objects with her mind.
Roman à Clef: The novel began as a letter Ms. Allende was writing to her agonizing grandfather, albeit she didn't finish it until way after his death. At some point she had to change the name of a character because she inadvertently gave him the last name of its real live inspiration/counterpart.
Sheis All Grown Up: Blanca grew into her Tall, Dark and Bishoujo looks, and was depicted as genuinely ugly when she was born.
- Similarly, Esteban only recalled Clara as an average-looking little girl. Cue him being almost dumbstruck when he meets her at age 18.
Sibling Triangle: Nicolás, Jaime and Amanda.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Falling to the cynical side.
The Speechless: Clara loses her ability to speak due to a traumatic event ( Rosa's murder). She only regains it when she announces that Esteban w8ill ask her parents for permission to marry her.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Subverted with Blanca and Pedro Tercero. They at least have some sort of happy ending.
Straight Gay: Jean de Satigny and Férula are supposed to be this.
Tangled Family Tree
Theme Naming: The women of the Trueba family: Clara (Clear), Blanca (White) and Alba (Dawn). Also the mother of Clara, Nívea (snow-white), folllows the theme. Blanca lampshades the fact they don’t have more names to keep the tradition; she only points out her they can use foreign names.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The military wasn’t happy with just filling poor Jaime’s body with bullets, they also had to dynamite it.
Tell Him I'm Not Speaking To Him
Victorious Childhood Friend: Somehow, six year old Miguel was there when Alba was born.
Villainous Incest: Esteban García, step-grandson of Esteban Trueba, rapes his step-cousin Alba. Many times .
What Do You Mean It's Not Political?
What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic?
What Happened to the Mouse?: Some characters, like Pedro Segundo, stop appearing. Basically because they stop being part of the Trueba life.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Rosa del Valle had a practically unearthly beauty.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Rosa is described as having had green hair. The very first edition cover allegedly portrait her.
- Alba inherits said green hair. She's not amused by that since she didn't inherit Rosa's beauty alongside it, thus it doesn't look good on her.
You Make Me Sic: Nicolás sends love poems to his girlfriend Amanda.... and she sends them back, with corrections.