Isabel Allende The Evolution Of A Liberated Women Essay
The Evolution of a Liberated Female Isabel Allende’s novel, Daughter of Fortune is an account of a young female that is forced to confront and overcome her innermost sentiments. Eliza Sommers, Allende’s protagonist of the story, embarks on a quest from her home in Chile to San Francisco; she is demanded to defeat numerous gender obstacles and near death situations. Ultimately, Eliza’s journey symbolizes a woman’s transformation from naïve girlhood to cognizant adulthood while prevailing in a patriarchal society. At this time in South America, feminism was not common; men were, without exception, dominant in these countries. Eliza first encounters the restraints of being a woman in her home. Her adoptive mother, Rose, insists
…show more content…
Eliza wears fancy clothes to impress her friends and maintain a societal stature. Tight corsets and stiff bodices were ideal garments for women of the nineteenth century because they accentuated feminine features. Small waists and pushed up breasts were artificial ideals used to attract men. These constraints imprisoned Eliza, along with the majority of women, both physically and mentally. Though Rose tries to make Eliza fit the ideal feminine mold, she remains unmarried because she is a lot freer as a single woman. In nineteenth century Chile, a married woman could not travel, sign legal documents, go to court, or sell or buy anything without her husband's permission. Rose gave up her love life as well as the possibility of having a child in order to receive these freedoms. From this example, Eliza
develops feminist attitudes and plans to live her life independently, but that predilection dissipates as she becomes pubescent. During Eliza’s puberty, Rose tells Eliza that men will now be able to do whatever they want with her.
This statement distorts Eliza’s understanding of society; she now believes men can, and will control every aspect of her life, including her body. Eliza displays this corrupt feminine definition when she develops sexual feelings for a man named Joaquin. Joaquin epitomizes passion to Eliza. Influenced by her immature zeal, she falls in love with a man who is not in love with her, but rather in love with the idea of socialism. Their “love” affair results in an accidental pregnancy. Joaquin abandons Chile and Eliza for riches in Califonia, and Eliza chases after him. She loses her baby while on the journey to San Francisco. The loss of her baby symbolizes the shedding of her past identity. In California, Eliza decides to embrace a new selfhood - one of a man. She is hopeful and wants to seize new opportunities, yet because of her tainted past, Eliza believes she cannot be free in the new environment unless she espouses a male identity: that of which she feels is the only role in society that is free of restraints. At first, Eliza is aggressive in her pursuit of who she is and what she wants; she soon finds, however, that even though she has accepted a masculine way of life she lacks the physical strength of a man. Discouraged that her gender has again restricted her, she beings to accept that she must define herself as a
female. Eliza’s uncontrollable desires eventually benefit her when she develops intimate feelings for a man named Tao Chi’en. Tao rescues young women who are brought to San Francisco and forced to become prostitutes. It is this new respect for females that gives Eliza the confidence she needs to become a liberated woman. She lives freely with Tao, as his equal:
“I am finding new strength in myself; I may always have had it and just didn’t know because I’d never had to call on it. I don’t know at what turn in the road I shed the person I used to be, Tao.”
Through Tao, Eliza learns that her real quest was not to pursue her desires or to search for love, but to find and define herself as a woman. The course of Daughter of Fortune takes Eliza Sommers on a journey that leads her into becoming a developed and liberated individual. She struggles to quell her desires while living in a tough, male-dominated society that subjects her to various limitations. In the end, Eliza realizes that she neither needs to enhance her physical aspects of femininity through painful and unnatural means nor does she need to strengthen her confidence by means of converting to a masculine lifestyle in order to be respected. Isabel Allende has created her own definition of what it means to be an independent female through her novel, Daughter of Fortune.
Eliza wears fancy clothes to impress her friends and maintain a societal stature. Tight corsets and stiff bodices were ideal garments for women of the nineteenth century because they accentuated feminine features. Small waists and pushed up breasts were artificial ideals used to attract men. These constraints imprisoned Eliza, along with the majority of women, both physically and mentally. Though Rose tries to make Eliza fit the ideal feminine mold, she remains unmarried because she is a lot freer as a single woman. In nineteenth century Chile, a married woman could not travel, sign legal documents, go to court, or sell or buy anything without her husband's permission. Rose gave up her love life as well as the possibility of having a child in order to receive these freedoms. From this example, Eliza
develops feminist attitudes and plans to live her life independently, but that predilection dissipates as she becomes pubescent. During Eliza’s puberty, Rose tells Eliza that men will now be able to do whatever they want with her.
This statement distorts Eliza’s understanding of society; she now believes men can, and will control every aspect of her life, including her body. Eliza displays this corrupt feminine definition when she develops sexual feelings for a man named Joaquin. Joaquin epitomizes passion to Eliza. Influenced by her immature zeal, she falls in love with a man who is not in love with her, but rather in love with the idea of socialism. Their “love” affair results in an accidental pregnancy. Joaquin abandons Chile and Eliza for riches in Califonia, and Eliza chases after him. She loses her baby while on the journey to San Francisco. The loss of her baby symbolizes the shedding of her past identity. In California, Eliza decides to embrace a new selfhood - one of a man. She is hopeful and wants to seize new opportunities, yet because of her tainted past, Eliza believes she cannot be free in the new environment unless she espouses a male identity: that of which she feels is the only role in society that is free of restraints. At first, Eliza is aggressive in her pursuit of who she is and what she wants; she soon finds, however, that even though she has accepted a masculine way of life she lacks the physical strength of a man. Discouraged that her gender has again restricted her, she beings to accept that she must define herself as a
female. Eliza’s uncontrollable desires eventually benefit her when she develops intimate feelings for a man named Tao Chi’en. Tao rescues young women who are brought to San Francisco and forced to become prostitutes. It is this new respect for females that gives Eliza the confidence she needs to become a liberated woman. She lives freely with Tao, as his equal:
“I am finding new strength in myself; I may always have had it and just didn’t know because I’d never had to call on it. I don’t know at what turn in the road I shed the person I used to be, Tao.”
Through Tao, Eliza learns that her real quest was not to pursue her desires or to search for love, but to find and define herself as a woman. The course of Daughter of Fortune takes Eliza Sommers on a journey that leads her into becoming a developed and liberated individual. She struggles to quell her desires while living in a tough, male-dominated society that subjects her to various limitations. In the end, Eliza realizes that she neither needs to enhance her physical aspects of femininity through painful and unnatural means nor does she need to strengthen her confidence by means of converting to a masculine lifestyle in order to be respected. Isabel Allende has created her own definition of what it means to be an independent female through her novel, Daughter of Fortune.