Chile

Allende depicts her homeland as a backwards nation, built on outdated traditions and restrictive principles, ruled by machismo and the Catholic church. She speaks of a “Chilean prudery” (30) which she understood from an early age needed to be vanquished. As a child, Allende discovered that the method of not praising young ones was ingrained in the Chilean culture, as a way of warding off arrogance, especially in girls. When she joined a feminist magazine as a journalist, she and three other women set out to change Chile’s patriarchal and prudish mentalities, inspired by the writings of European and American novelists and essayists. In describing Chile, Allende also exposes its rampant social inequities. Conceding that these are not as significant as they used to be when she was a child, she considers that much still needs to be done in terms of social justice, especially concerning women...