Isabelle Allende's The House of the Spirits is often compared to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. The obvious similarities are that both novels relate the saga of a family, both make liberal use of magic and fantasy, and both established their authors' literary reputations. But where García Márquez's words create a poetic picture of Latin-American life, Allende's words offers an explicit commentary on the political situation in Chile. On the surface, Allende's novel is the story of Esteban Trueba, his wife, his children, and his granddaughter. But The House of the Spirits is also the story of political corruption, patriarchal authority, feminine oppression, and the movement from the old world into the new. The action in the novel spans four generations and covers more than fifty years of history. During those fifty years, the country changes, first through technology and modern communications, and later through the desire to find a better life. Nivea and Clara become suffragettes, and Jaime works to improve people's lives, while Alba becomes involved in a protest movement that will ultimately ask great sacrifices of her. Throughout all these events, Esteban will be little more than an angry observer. But by the end of the novel, he will have undergone a significant change, having grown from a selfish, self-centered man into a fair, loving grandfather. The House of the Spirits is filled with violence and corruption, but it is also filled with love and magic.