Eva Luna

In Eva Luna, both good and evil people understand the power of words. How is storytelling used for both altruistic and underhanded purposes? How does Eva’s approach to storytelling differ from the government’s approach?

What is the significance of the Palace of the Poor? How does it relate to the experience of the Indigenous tribe described in Chapter 11 and/or the novel’s key themes?

The beginning of Eva Luna is set in the immediate aftermath of WWII. How does this context affect the setting, characters, and/or themes of the novel?

What tropes of magical realism does Allende utilize in Eva Luna? How does magical realism underscore the novel’s key themes? In what ways is Eva Luna different or similar to other works of Latin American magical realism, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude?

How would you characterize Allende’s writing style in Eva Luna? How do stylistic elements such as tone, voice, and diction contribute to elements such as narrative, setting, and/or characterization?

How do ideals of masculinity function both politically and socially in Eva Luna? How do they contrast with ideals of femininity? How do different characters interact with these ideals in the text?

Read up on the history of Chile and Venezuela from the mid- to late-1900s. What parallels to real-life events are present in the novel? Why might Allende have chosen not to identify the unnamed country as either Chile or Venezuela?

Eva Luna is a story about storytelling. How does Allende frame this concept through Eva’s narration? Does Eva’s awareness of her own words change the narrative? Why or why not?