Humans Are So Predictable-Rachael Gregson

Upon page 352, The House of the Spirits began to take a sharp political turn, and I was at first not here for it. I am in no way, shape, or form a politician and prefer to read fiction-not anything that resembles nonfiction-because I want to get away from the world, not to be reminded of all of its problems and insanity. Throughout the assignment, I continuously asked myself, "Why does this apply to me? Why should I be concerned?"
Then it hit me: This book was published in 1982 and still we humans are guilty of doing the same things Isabel Allende observed humans doing back then. Old habits don't easy. While the world changes, the ways of humans never change with it. Our politicians are at each other throats even more so than the ones in this novel. High school and university students go on strike for various belief reasons, sometimes even using violence to get their point across. And ironically of all, the paragraph on page 386 I couldn't help but chuckle at it because it is so relevant. 1982 this book was published and its main points are still relevant. Isabel writes, "Shortages of goods, which was soon to be a collective nightmare, had begun. Women woke at dawn to stand in endless lines where they could purchase an emaciated chicken, half a dozen diapers, or a roll of toilet paper." A roll of toilet paper! That sounds too awfully familiar to our recent corona-induced toilet paper absence. The other day I watched on YouTube as three women fought in the aisle over a pack. Needless to say, the police had to be called by the end of it. As a person who hates change myself, I know I am preaching to the choir when I ask why in the heck are we so predictable in certain situations? Everything that will happen has happened before, and our future is pretty much our past.

Commented on posts by Ezra and Clabo.

Comments

Osten said…
That's the crazy part about this book. It's hard to understand the time period that they are in sometimes because the situations could be applied to so many different time periods. If you don't like change you must like people because they never change. that makes sense but it's usually the other way around. Trueba hated change and he typically hated people. He never felt more joyful than when he was burning their houses, all their possessions and threatening them with death if they ever returned. People have a hard time seeing past themselves and this book captures that idea perfectly.
Drew Hedden said…
Rachael, you aren't the only one who was left drawing parallels between House of Spirits' goings on and what happens in today's world. Allende's take decidedly draws on the belief that humans are bound to repeat history over and over. I believe that that individual tenet is reflected in the life and death cycles of main characters such as Clara, Esteban, Alba, etc. It's certainly strange to read about the political happenings in House of Spirits and then watch the country's viral infection reports roll in on every major and minor news channel these days.