Two Words By Isabel Allende

Two Words Isabel Allende

Background (By Sidra Musharraf ) Until the 1960s, Latin American literature had a small, mostly localized audience. Book publishers typically published only 3,000 copies of a novel. During the 1960s, however, Latin American writers began to reach larger audiences, thanks to the growth of Latin American literacy, advances in book publishing and distribution, and the development of multinational companies. Outstanding authors, such as Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Carlos Fuentes, sold as many as 20,000 copies of their works. Then in 1968 García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude broke entirely new ground, selling about 100,000 copies per year and creating a viable international market for other Latin American authors. Beginning in 1967, a series of Latin American authors won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the 1980s Latin American women writers claimed an international audience, too. Latin America already had several well-known women authors. In the 1980s a feminist literary movement began to develop that its chief proponent, Chilean writer Isabel Allende, said was unified by a common "dimension of emotion, passion, obsession, and dream." Allende, an exemplar of the style of "magic realism," became internationally famous with her best-selling first novel, House of the Spirits (1982; tr. 1985). About the Author Isabel Allende (born August 2, 1942, Lima, Peru),is a Chilean American short story writer, and author of nonfiction in the magic realist tradition, who, with Mexico's Laura Esquivel, has helped create an international audience for Latin America's women writers. Early life: Author Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, to Tomás and Francisca Allende. Her parents, Tomás (a Chilean government representative) and Francisca (Llona Barros) Allende divorced when she was three. She, her siblings and mother then moved in with her grandfather in Chile. Allende remembers herself as a rebellious child during those years living with her grandfather. “We lived in an affluent house – with no money," she said in an interview with The Telegraph. "My grandfather would pay for what was necessary but my mother did not even have the cash to buy us an ice cream. I wanted to be like my grandfather because my mother had a terrible life and he had all the privileges and the power and the freedom and the car – I think that was the moment I started to rebel against all male authority: the police, the church, everything." Her mother remarried to Ramón Huidobro, also a diplomat, and the family moved often as his posts changed. Allende said she was determined to work as a young woman and started her writing career as a journalist. She became a prominent journalist working in television and for magazines in the 1960s and 1970s Personal Life Allende married her first husband, Miguel Frías, in 1962. They had two children, Paula (born in 1963) and Nicolás (born in 1966). After her divorce from Frías in 1987, Allende met and married

her second husband, Willie Gordon, a lawyer and writer, in 1988, but after 27 years together, they too divorced in 2015. During their marriage, the couple endured the heartbreaking death of two of Gordon’s children as well as the passing of Allende's daughter Paula, who died from complications of a rare disease, porphyria, in 1992 at the age of 28. Allende’s first nonfiction work, Paula (1994), was written as a letter to her daughter. Allende established the Isabel Allende Foundation in Paula's honor. The foundation strives for economic and social justice for womer. Start of Allende’s writing career: When Isabel was 31, her uncle, Salvador Allende, who was president of Chile, was assassinated in a military takeover of the government. Allende and her family were forced to flee to Venezuela. A painful divorce as well as the illness and death of her grandfather prompted her to write her first novel, House of the Spirits (1982; tr. 1985), which became an international best seller and a film. As she became more popular, Allende decided to devote all of her time to writing and quit her job Writing style: Allende's work is written in a style called "magic realism" which links myth and fantasy with realistic portrayals of life and often with politics. Previous writers of magic realism include Asturias and Garcia Márquez. Writers of magic realism view Latin America as a many-layered culture in which everyday activities and events are colored by powerful underlying forces, such as religion, superstition, passion, myth, and magic. As Allende's heroine Eva explains it, "reality is not only what we see on the surface; it has a magical dimension as well, and, if we so desire, it is legitimate to enhance it and color it to make our journey through life less trying" In the Foreword to Conversations with Isabel Allende, the author writes that "Most of my writing is an attempt to bring an illusory order to the natural chaos of life, to decode the mysteries of memory, to search for my own identity." Impacts of feminist literary movement: Often referred to as the female Gabriel Garcia Márquez of literature, Allende, is a passionate crusader of women's rights, which is a direct fallout of her political and social observations and experiences through her early years, she is by her own admission constantly and willfully restless in her imagination. Her turbulent childhood, the deep influence of her grandmother in her formative years, the political upheavals in Chile that directly impacted her life and family in her early 20s, her inconstant status as a citizen of Chile, her years of exile in Venezuela, the cloistered role of women in Latin American societies, the death of her daughter... every one of these markers has chiseled Allende's style As a journalist in her early 20s in Chile, she translated Barbara Cartland's novels into Spanish and put words in the mouths of heroines to make them seem more intelligent, an act that got her fired. One in an interview she asked if that Was the first sign of her activism, she replied: ‘Not at all. I think I was a feminist when I was a child, long before the term reached Chile in the late Sixties. I didn't have an articulate language to express my anger against the male-

dominated society in which I lived until my twenties, when I started working on a feministfeminine magazine.’ Legacy: On December 9, 1996, Allende started the Isabel Allende Foundation in honour of her daughter, Paula Frías Allende, who fell into a coma after complications of the disease porphyria led to her hospitalization. Paula was 28 years old when she died in 1992. The foundation is “dedicated to supporting programs that promote and preserve the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected. She has recently been called literary legend by Latino Leaders Magazine, which name Allende as third most influential Latino leader in the world in their article. She wrote over 20 books that have been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 50million copies. Several of her books were made into movies, including the eternal “The House of the Spirits”, starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Antonio Banderas, Glenn Close and Winona Ryder. There are three movies based on her novels currently in production — Aphrodite, Eva Luna and Gift for a Sweetheart. Works: Her work is often based on her personal experience and historical events and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. Some of her famous works are:     

The house of the spirits Of love and shadow Eva Luna Paula Aphrodite etc

Awards: Over the years, Allende has received numerous awards for her work and in 2014, President Barack Obama presented Allende with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She not only won the Chilean National Literature Prize for 2011 but was chosen by Forbes in its list of the top ten most powerful women writers in the world.

Summary (By Riqza Qaisar) Characters

Belisa: Belisa possesses numerous qualities such as being strong-willed, determined,optimistic. However Belisa has been faced with adversity since an early age, (poverty, famish, drought, death of siblings, limited opportunity educationally) but this hasn't affected her curiosity for the immensities that life has to offer. Colonel: The Colonel is a powerful and avaricious man, planning on running for a position within the government. The Colonel possesses an intimidating outer-shell but on the inside he has a soft side that was only revealed by the power of Belisa's words. El Mulato:

El Mulato is the much-feared antagonist in Two Words. He is "a giant known throughout the land for the speed of his knife and his loyalty to his chief", his chief being the Colonel. Story “Two words” is a tale about Belisa Crepusculario's story of creating a life for herself as a writer. She grew up poor and hungry. After four of her younger brothers and sisters died, presumably of hunger, she ''decided to set out across the plains in the direction of the sea, in hopes that she might trick death along the way.'' On her journey, Belisa found a newspaper and quickly decided to learn to write. She figured that selling words would be the best career. She sold memorized verses for five centavos, wrote love letters for nine centavos and, for 12 centavos, invented insults that could be directed toward mortal enemies

One day, she's sitting in her tent when someone named El Mulato sends a group of men to nab her. El Mulato is a soldier and feared by women, men, chickens, and dogs alike. He tells Belisa that his friend, another scary soldier guy, named the Colonel, needs her services. Trembling, she asks what he needs. As it turns out, the Colonel is tired of waging war, eating iguanas in the fields, and most of all, he's tired of being a terrifying figure. He wants people to love him. The Colonel plans to become president, so he needs a good speech. Belisa agrees to write the speech for him. Since he cannot read, she recites it and everyone in the camp loves it. Belisa then whispers two special words in his ear and then leaves. The Colonel goes on the campaign trail repeating the speech again and again to anyone who would listen. As the days pass, the Colonel begins to decline. Eventually, the Colonel admits that the two words whispered to him are behind his emotions. Our narrator tells us ''his senses were inflamed with the memory of her feral scent, her fiery heat, the whisper of her hair, and her sweet mint breath in his ear.'' Fearing this is the work of a witch, El Mulato finds Belisa and brings her to the Colonel. The men realize that Belisa will not be killed as she walks over and takes his hand. The story ends here, leaving us to wonder what the words were and what will happen next. Magical Realism The term ‘magic realism’ is extensively refers to the style of writing or technique which includes magical as well as supernatural events narrated realistically without any doubt about improbability of the events. It questions the nature of reality and draws attention to the act of creation by using a new combination of fact and fancy. The term ‘magical realism’ (Magischer Realismus) had its first use in 1925 in German art critic Franz Roh’s attempt to define a return to a more realistic style after the abstraction of Expressionism (pg. 134). Initially, this movement started with LatinAmerican writers with their representation of reality with extraordinary and magical elements to show that their culture as vibrant and complex. It is said to be originated from 1940s with the Spanish American writers such as Miguel Angel Asturias and Alejo Carpentier with their representative novels Men of Maize and The Kingdom of this World respectively. These writers used many indigenous aspects like folklore, cultural beliefs along with particular geographical as well as political landscape. Most recurrent features of these novels i.e. characters change into animals, slaves are helped by the dead, time moves backward and sometimes it reverses. This movement become popular in English with the publication of Gabrial Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1970. Some women writers also used this technique; they are Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel and Toni Morrison. The male writers who used this technique are Salman Rushdie, Sherman Alexie and others.

Elements of magical realism 1. Situations and Events That Defy Logic: In "Beloved," American author Toni Morrison spins a darker tale: An escaped slave moves into a house haunted by the ghost of an infant who died long ago. These stories are very different, yet both are set in a world where truly anything can happen. 2. Myths and Legends: Much of the strangeness in magic realism derives from folklore, religious parables, allegories, and superstitions. In "A Man Was Going Down The Road," Georgian author Otar Chiladze merges an ancient Greek myth with the devastating events and tumultuous history of his Eurasian homeland near the Black Sea. 3. Historic Context and Societal Concerns: Real-world political events and social movements entwine with fantasy to explore issues such as racism, sexism, intolerance, and other human failings. "Midnight’s Children" by Salman Rushdie is the saga of a man born at the moment of India’s independence. Rushdie’s character is telepathically linked with a thousand magical children born at the same hour and his life mirrors key events of his country. 4. Distorted Time and Sequence: In magical realism, characters may move backward, leap forward, or zigzag between the past and the future. Notice how Gabriel García Márquez treats time in his novel, "Cien Años de Soledad" ("One Hundred Years of Solitude"). Sudden shifts in narrative and the omnipresence of ghosts and premonitions leave the reader with the sense that events cycle through an endless loop. 5. Real-World Settings: Magic realism is not about space explorers or wizards; "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" are not examples of the approach. Writing for "The Telegraph," Salman Rushdie noted that “the magic in magic realism has deep roots in the real.” Despite the extraordinary events in their lives, the characters are ordinary people who live in recognizable places. 6. Matter-of-Fact Tone: The most characteristic feature of magical realism is the dispassionate narrative voice. Bizarre events are described in an offhand manner. Characters do not question the surreal situations they find themselves in. For example, in the short book "Our Lives Became Unmanageable," a narrator plays down the drama of her husband's vanishing 7. Characters accept rather than question the logic of the magical element. 8. Exhibits a richness of sensory details. 9. Uses symbols and imagery extensively 10. Inverts cause and effect, for instance a character may suffer before a tragedy occurs. 11. Incorporates legend or folklore. 12. Mirrors past against present; astral against physical planes; or characters one against another. 13. Open-ended conclusion leaves the reader to determine whether the magical and/or the mundane rendering of the plot is more truthful or in accord with the world as it is. Authors of Magical Realism

Authors who have written in the genre of Magic realism: Isabel Allende (The House of Spirits) Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera) Franz Kafka (Metamorphosis) Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) Yann Martel (The Life of Pi) Difference between fantasy and magical realism. The most common definition of fantasy is “literature in which magical things occur” or, as the Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms defines it, “literature which creates its own coherently organized worlds and myths.” In magic realism, by contrast, the characters react to the magical as though it is ordinary.

Analysis and literary devices (By Zohaib & Nayyar) Setting Hispanic culture is important to understand in this story because of the Spanish names used in it and the currency, pesos and centavos, that Belisa is paid with. There are 100 centavos in every peso. Belisa would charge 5 centavos, or 0.05 pesos for her services . We can infer that this story takes place some time within the last century in a Spanish speaking South American country. This means that there would have been very little communicative technology by today’s standards. Without these technologies the most widely used communication in the sparsely populated areas would have been word of mouth. With Belisa traveling from town to town she gave the people a link to one another. She brought peoples stories of life events to relatives and friends throughout her nation, but it was not the raw details that the town’s people were looking for. Rather it was the hope, joy, wonder, and inspiration that these stories produced. Symbols 1.) The "Two words" themselves represent connection between the protagonist and the Colonel. The two secret words that Belisa gives to the colonel represents the connection between them, which in the end brings them together. 2.) Belisa's name represents her family's lack of wealth in the event that she had to search until she found " the poetry of "beauty and twilight and cloaked herself in it." 3.) Words in the story represents their way of life. Without words Belisa wouldn't have a job. Without her job, she wouldn't have money to pay for food, or a place to sleep. People wouldn't even be able to communicate with each other. Words are one of the most important symbols. Themes Power of words Words can have a deeper meaning then what is perceived. In the story, Belisa gives the Colonel two secret words that to someone in the story mean nothing. But to the Colonel, it means something so much deeper. To him it means love and desire. Words can change someone for the better or for the worst. In this case the two words changed the Colonel for the better by turning him from a greedy man, to a man looking for love. Sometimes you have to go through things that you wouldn’t like to, to be where you are today. In the story, the Colonel had gone almost to the point of insanity to find the love that he found. Belisa indirectly generatd the transformation of not only the Colonel but of an entire nation through her mastery of words. By the words given to him by Belisa allows the Colonel to make his own personal transformation to a caring, compassionate and approachable man. The Colonel ultimately succame to the absolute power that words possesses.

Nature of women Isabel has shown in the story that women are naturally compassionate e.g Belisa’s compassion for the colonel. However, she wants to portray that being compassionate doesn’t make women inferior rather it makes them stronger. She believed women to be strong, independent and capable of making their own choices irrespective of the narrative. Realization Belisa as well as the Colonel portray the theme of realization in the story. Belisa carefully calculate her options and decided in favor of writing as opposed to prostitution and kitchen work. The colonel spent most of his life waging wards until he finally realized that it wasn’t what he truly desired. Irony The story, as a whole, is an example of situational irony. Words are a method of communication and is used to transfer information to one-another. Therefore a woman basing her entire life and wealth on selling words is ironic due to the fact that everyone uses them, at no charge and no restrictions, on an extremely frequent level. “Two words” There are an endless number of possible pairs of words that Belisa could have given to the Colonel. But there is one pair of words that stands out. Te amo, or I love you translated to Spanish. This is logical because the story was translated from Spanish. It is also logical because of the effect the colonel has on Belisa when she first sees him and the impact it has on the colonel when Belisa tells him his two words. (Extensive analysis will be done with the class) References  isabel allende Search. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=isabel+allende&client=safari&hl=enpk&prmd=ibnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjyZLaoYrmAhUC1hoKHeT3AZcQ_AUoAXoECBEQAQ&biw=414&bih=622&dpr=3#im grc=GpVkS5E6Y9CNNM:  https://prezi.com/zmka1oydgddk/two-words-short-story-analysis/  https://simplebooklet.com/publish.php?wpKey=mLmz7DVChjXuwlm9MB59GX#page= 4  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Allende  https://www.biography.com/writer/isabel-allende  https://www.thoughtco.com/magical-realism-definition-and-examples-4153362