Eva Luna Essay, Research Paper

Eva Luna is based on the life of the protagonist of the novel, Eva Luna. The

story begins with the tale of how Eva Luna was concieved by her mother trying to

save the life of a snake bitten indian. It takes place in an unnamed South

American country because the characters speak Spanish. Eva’s mother dies when

she is only 7 years old and is forced to work as a servant in different houses.

One thing she inheirited from her mother was the gift of story telling. Wherever

she would go everyone loved to hear her improvised stories. At the age of 17 she

worked in the house of a Turkish immigrant named Riad Halabi whom she falls in

love with but he is twice her age. She is then forced to move to the city were

she is reunited with her transexual friend, Mimi. At first Eva works at a

military warehouse but Mimi insists that Eva make a living from her stories.

After an attempted suduction by one of the military generals, Eva decides to

quit her job at the warehouse and write stories for a living. Her and Mimi live

successful lives without the help of men. Mimi is a well known soap opera

actress and Eva writes the plots for them. Along with the story of Eva Luna is

the story of the European immigrant Rolf Carle. He comes from a broken family

and migrates to the South American country and lives with his aunt and uncle in

the countryside. As he gets older he decides he wants to become a journalist and

soon enough he is known as one of the most prominant journalists in the country.

Rolf and Eva meet and thier separate stories become one. The important theme in

this book is feminism. None of the females in this story are dependent on any

man and they all seem fine without them. Some men are mentioned and come and go

but the women still move on without them and live thier lives. The only sign of

dependency is Zulema. Zulema becomes dependent on a man she falls in love with

but she undergoes depression and commits suicide. This shows how week it is to

be anti-feminist and how strong and successful it is to be independent. I think

this book is mainly aimed towards the adult and mature teen audience. I would

definitely recommend this book. However, I enjoyed Allende’s House of the

Spirits more than this novel. Eva Luna is faster reading than House of the

Spirits and the plot is not as extended.