The House of the Spirits: Importance of Family

Chilean Family Tradition and Heritage:
Typical Chilean Families, are often every large, and form the basis of the pride of each family member. Family is the main concern in Chile, always trying to uphold the family name and trying to avoid scandals, which is the main reason why many families prefer to keep old traditions alive. In the basic traditional family structure, women are expected to submissive and often are taught to do all house hold duties, as if to prepare them for married life. Men, on the other hand are expected to be hard working, leaders, and are often viewed as the head of the house-hold. However Chilean Families remain close to extended family, and are often found sharing the same house-hold, and will even run family businesses. Although most families are religious, many have a wide based of knowledge of old native traditions and myths that influence each of the families, although natives are often considered inferior, and many families would relate to their Spanish side.
In the book House of the Spirits, family plays an important role. As viewed in the book, the family name is often the pride of each family member, which explains Esteban Trueba’s determination in improving his status, since on his mother’s side he was “heir to the noblest and most highborn surname of the viceroyalty of Lima” but unfortunately for him “Trueba had simply been a regrettable accident in the Life of Dona Ester who… had fallen hopelessly in love with that good-for-nothing immigrant”. However Esteban Trueba had many other problems such as the problem with his children, who according to him was a disgrace to the Family. As for the women in this time period, many were raised with the ideas of the traditional role of women, such as said by the women in Tres Marias, when they ask “since, when have women done the same things as man?” Other ideas expressed are, the unimportance of native women, which Esteban Trueba shows in how he treats them in Tres Marias, also the closeness of extended family , and the great influence of mysticism.