Characters and Settings in a Chilean Novel
Characters and Settings
Santiago, born in Chile in 1924, came from a family of doctors and lawyers. He interrupted his studies to work for a year as a pastor in Magellan and then returned to finish his studies at the University of Chile and Princeton. He was a professor of English literature at the Catholic University of Chile, editor of the journal Ercilla for four years, and for two years a teacher at the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. He has twice received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1979 was awarded the prize of criticism for his novel Casa de Campo. He currently resides in Madrid.
Key Characters
- Literary Period: Baroque German.
- Princial: Japanese: The brothel owner, respected woman, hardworking and strong.
Manuela
She was a polka dancer in a Spanish gown in the Japanese brothel. She did not want to be identified as the father of the Japanese girl, but she was his beloved daughter. She was always teased about being mad. She was skinny and had hairy legs.
Japonesita
Young 18-year-old daughter of Manuela, skinny, black, toothy, with stiff hair (like Manuela).
Pancho Vega
Don Alejo’s great-grandson and son of a cooper, violent, ungrateful, strong, with hard hands, drunk, big, with a mustache, black eyebrows, and a bull neck. He had a truck and founded El Olivo but left and got married. Before that, he worked as a tractor driver.
Don Alejo
His name was Alejandro Cruz, the old owner of vineyards. He had blue eyes, white whiskers, and eyebrows. He had his wife, Misia Blanca, and several other women, even in the capital.
Ludo
A forgetful old woman who was always warm.
Octavio
Norma’s godfather, brother, and friend of Pancho.
Don Céspedes
An old educated man who drank all the wine he wanted, with a wrinkled and scarred face.
Lucy
A female prostitute who works in the house of the Japanese dancer, with white thighs, and was a good hostess.
Clotilde
A prostitute working in the Japanese house, with skinny arms, a stupid face, and was old.
Misia Blanca
Wife of Don Alejo, with half-gray hair, wore a long braid.
Other Characters
- The Farias Sisters: Three overweight women who wore silk dresses, played musical instruments, and sang.
- Moniquita: Daughter of Don Alejo.
- Emma: Pancho’s wife.
- Normita: Daughter of Emma and Pancho.
- Grandchildren of Don Alejo: Spectacled, quiet, and young people.
- Melchor: The butcher.
- Nelly: A woman who was always crying in the morning.
Physical Environment
- Talca and the station
- House of the Japan: A place where most of the events develop.
- Wooden Heart: A place where Manuela, Pancho, and Octavio wanted to go when they finished the party at the home of the Japanese.
- The Olive Tree: A place where the house of Japan was located, and the vineyards of Don Alejo.
- The house of Don Alejo: A place where Pancho was to return what was left of the outstanding debt.
- Mail and the chapel where they went to Mass (Don Alejo and Misia Blanca) and the place where Don Alejo met Pancho.
- Capital: The place where Don Alejo had another woman.
- Saint Alphonsus: The place where they voted for the election.
Psychological Environment
Pancho’s violence and the fear people felt when he was there. Manuela enduring what their customers, ridicule, discomfort, etc. The scoundrel that Pancho was by not paying the debt he had with Don Alejo. How Don Alejo died, as everyone knew he was going to die but nobody knew why, although they said it was because he was sick, old, and his failures.