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Clara’s Notebooks
Birds, especially birds in cages, are mentioned several times in The House of the Spirits, and they represent the oppression of women in patriarchal society. During the mid-20th century, women of the unnamed South American country where the book takes place are confined to a very specific role within the domestic sphere, and they are denied the right to vote or control their own bodies. Furthermore, women are frequently the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and they are completely dependent upon men—often the same men who abuse them. This oppression is reflected in the caged birds that Clara keeps in the courtyard of the big house on the corner. Clara, who resists the oppression of her sexist society in any way she can, meticulously tends to the birds, and when the family goes to Tres Marías, their country hacienda, she refuses to leave them behind. In this vein, Clara’s birds represent the oppression of fellow women, and Clara supports and stands with them in solidarity.
After Esteban is wounded in the massive earthquake that destroys Tres María and it is unclear if he will survive, Clara returns to the big house on the corner with her daughter, Blanca, and releases the birds from their cages. Without her husband, Clara will no longer be subjected to his controlling and abusive behavior, and the flying birds represent her own potential freedom. Esteban does survive and recover, however, and Clara soon replaces the birds, which again reflects her own confinement under his control. At the end of the novel, long after Clara dies, her granddaughter, Alba, survives repeated torture and rape during the military coup d’état. After Alba is released, she buys new birds for the cages and puts a caged canary in Clara’s room, where Alba writes and pieces together her family’s history using her grandmother’s notebooks. The presence of the caged birds at the end of the novel metaphorically represents the continued oppression of women in patriarchal society, which remains widespread even during Alba’s time.
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Caged Birds Symbol Timeline in The House of the Spirits
The timeline below shows where the symbol Caged Birds appears in The House of the Spirits. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: The Time of the Spirits
...Clara thinks the countryside sounds romantic. They pack their bags, including Blanca’s toys and the birds in cages that Clara refuses to leave behind, and the family heads to the country....
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Chapter 5: The Lovers
...servants and close the house. They cover the furniture with sheets and release the caged birds in the courtyard, letting them all fly to freedom. Blanca looks at her mother and...
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Chapter 7: The Brothers
...the furniture and opening drapes and windows. Clara says they will have to get some birds for the empty cages, and Blanca is surprised her mother is worried about birds when...
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...success, and the house is so full of arguments and anxiety that even the caged birds are silent.
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Chapter 9: Little Alba
...days together, Clara tells Alba stories and teaches her to take care of the caged birds in the courtyard. Alba knows that Clara is “the soul of the big house on...
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...her family members and places them in a box beneath her bed, releases the caged birds, and begins to slowly suffocate. Jaime goes to examine his mother, and while he can...
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Epilogue
...bedroom, and she sits writing in a notebook in the middle of the room, a canary in a cage in the corner and Barrabás’s head staring at her from the rug below. When Alba...
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...applied, and even the garden was replanted. Esteban and Alba went together to buy new birds in cages, and Alba put fresh flowers in the vases, just as she did when...
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