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Severo del Valle
Old Pedro’s son, Pedro Tercero’s father, and Pancha García’s brother. Pedro Segundo is a peasant at Tres Marías, and he serves as the hacienda’s unofficial foreman in Esteban Trueba’s absence. Pedro continues as the foreman after Esteban’s arrival, and the two men spend hours together working the land. Pedro is the closet Esteban has to a friend, but Pedro detests Esteban and his cruelty, and Esteban can see the “murderous hatred” in Pedro’s eyes. Still, Pedro is loyal and honest, and he works for Esteban for years, later helping Clara run the hacienda when Esteban is injured in an earthquake. Pedro Segundo loves Clara as much as he hates Esteban, and he leaves Tres Marías for good when Esteban beats Blanca and knocks out Clara’s teeth after Blanca is caught having a secret affair with Pedro Tercero. Pedro Segundo represents the oppression and exploitation of the peasant class by an oligarchic society. He works hard for little pay and no respect, but he is too afraid to revolt against his oppressor and demand equality.
Pedro Segundo García Quotes in The House of the Spirits
The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Pedro Segundo García or refer to Pedro Segundo García. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
In vain, Pedro Segundo García and the old priest from the nuns’ hospital tried to suggest to him that it was not little brick houses or pints of milk that made a man a good employer or an honest Christian, but rather giving his workers a decent salary instead of slips of pink paper, a workload that did not grind their bones to dust, and a little respect and dignity. Trueba would not listen to this sort of thing: it smacked, he said, of Communism.
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Pedro Segundo García Quotes in The House of the Spirits
The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Pedro Segundo García or refer to Pedro Segundo García. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
In vain, Pedro Segundo García and the old priest from the nuns’ hospital tried to suggest to him that it was not little brick houses or pints of milk that made a man a good employer or an honest Christian, but rather giving his workers a decent salary instead of slips of pink paper, a workload that did not grind their bones to dust, and a little respect and dignity. Trueba would not listen to this sort of thing: it smacked, he said, of Communism.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
