Eva Luna

Eva Luna is set against the backdrop of an unnamed South American country, beginning around 1945. The lack of an explicitly-named setting contributes to the impression that the story is suspended in an alternate reality and enhances the narrative’s magical-realism elements, but the events of the narrative mirror the real-life political turmoil of Venezuela, where Allende spent 13 years of her life (See: Background). This setting provides the basis for the theme of Power and the Inevitability of Corruption. In the first chapter of Eva Luna, the tyrannical dictatorship headed by El Benefactor falls to rebels. The country’s liberation is short-lived, however, and by Chapter 3, a new and crueler dictatorship has been installed. Allende establishes that, while power may change hands at the highest level, the unnamed country remains tightly controlled by cruel and corrupt forces.

Allende also explores power imbalances on an interpersonal level. The patrona and patron of the first house where Eva works demonstrate that even a modicum of power can be abused by a corrupt person. The patrona is an unhappy woman, “angry with the world and with herself” (63), who takes her pain out on her servants. The patron is more amiable on the surface, but he is predatory toward young Eva, attempting to groom the child by making her bathe with him. Both characters have no real power on a societal level, but they abuse the little power they hold over their servants. This pattern would suggest that power corrupts all who attain it if not for the Professor, whose kind heart makes him a foil to the patrona and patron. The Professor proves that people in positions of power are capable of treating less-powerful people with respect and compassion.

Eva’s genetic gift for storytelling is central to the novel. Early on, Allende introduces another of the narrative’s major themes, Reality and the Power of Storytelling. Eva’s mother, Consuelo, is born into adverse circumstances. She navigates the world alone, contending with the dual oppressive forces of misogyny and poverty. However, Consuelo’s life is not unhappy. Using her words, she can reveal “a magical dimension” (25) beyond surface reality, which helps her avoid being dragged down by the unfairness of the world. Her penchant for imagination and storytelling offers both an outlet from grueling workdays and a way to find joy in her everyday routine.

When Eva is born, Consuelo demonstrates how words can shape the world when she assuages Eva’s fear of Professor Jones’s mummies by “[transforming] them into friendly spirits” (26). With only her words, Consuelo makes something fearful into an object of wonder. To Eva, Consuelo passes along the knowledge that “words are free” (25) and can serve as a tool for surviving an unfair world.

After Consuelo’s death, Eva comforts herself with her inherited talent for inventing characters and narratives, always seeing beyond the ordinary. Allende uses lush, evocative diction to demonstrate Eva’s romantic and dramatic vision of the world. Eva’s gift helps her remain positive and hopeful in trying situations.

Allende explores how words can shape reality. This section of the novel is imbued with magical realism. Gaining popularity in 20th-century South American literature, magical realism blends magical elements with a realistic setting. Eva Luna is full of anecdotes which range from unlikely—like the Professor’s house full of mummies—to the seemingly impossible, like Consuelo’s life-saving tryst with the Professor’s gardener. Allende relays both the magical and the ordinary in romantic, dramatic prose and without disclaimer, leaving the reader uncertain whether Eva is embellishing her tales. Eva’s ability to call up her mother’s spirit in times of need suggests that her words can alter the world, or at least change her own perspective convincingly enough that the impossible seems real.

Eva’s strongest relationships in these early chapters are with other female domestic workers, introducing another key theme: The Role of Women in South American Patriarchy. The unnamed country is a patriarchy in which heavy limitations are placed on women’s freedoms. Working-class girls like Eva and Consuelo have few options for advancement. Eva cannot attend school, so it is assumed that she will lead a life of servitude like her mother. In Chapter 3, Elvira tells Eva, “all I have ever done in my life is work, and it looks like that will be your lot too” (62). Eva’s madrina believes that “men [have] it the best” because “even the lowest good-for-nothing [has] a wife to boss around” (51). Her belief is confirmed by Lukas Carlé, who is not particularly powerful or wealthy but who maintains total control over his household by abusing his wife and children.

All of Eva Luna’s female characters are subjugated to differing degrees. The wealthy patronas Eva works for escape servitude because of their class, but their lives are still centered around domestic work and devoid of the pleasures allotted to men of similar status. Across the globe in Austria, Rolf’s mother lacks the power to fight back against her husband and cannot demand a divorce. Instead, she is saved from the abuse by Jochen: Although he is just a teenager, Jochen has more power in their household than her because of his gender and physical strength.

The imbalanced power dynamic between men and women ties closely into themes of power and corruption. The same culture which empowers men to subjugate their wives and female employees enables the continued rule of brutal, emotionless dictators. For this reason, Consuelo and, later, Eva are not particularly concerned with politics, because the switch from one dictatorship to another does nothing to improve their circumstances.

Allende makes heavy use of foreshadowing through Eva’s narration. Since Eva is telling her life story from some point in the future, she has knowledge of events as-yet unknown to the reader and often drops in hints or warnings about what will happen later in the narrative. Rolf’s connection to Eva’s story is, at this part, unknown, but Allende’s foreshadowing suggests that Rolf and Eva will one day become lovers.