The House of the Spirits

by

Isabel Allende

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The House of the Spirits makes teaching easy.

Jaime Trueba/del Valle Character Analysis

Clara and Esteban Trueba’s son, Blanca and Nicolás’s brother, and Alba’s uncle. Jaime is Nicolás’s twin brother, but they couldn’t be more different. While Nicolás is busy chasing girls and talking to ghosts, Jaime is studying medicine so he can become a doctor and serve the poor. He is close friends with Pedro Tercero, and together they talk “of justice, of equality, of the peasant movement and of Socialism.” Esteban wants Jaime to be a lawyer and go into politics, but Jaime won’t hear of it. His own principles are completely at odds with his conservative father, who calls Jaime a “hopeless loser” and claims his “utopian values” don’t exist. Jaime falls in love with Nicolás’s girlfriend, Amanda, but he never acts on his feelings out fear of rejection and respect for his brother. Amanda falls in love with Jaime years later, after he helps her overcome a drug addiction, but by then there is no trace of Jaime’s love left. Jaime is also close friends with the President, whom he meets during a routine medical call; he calls Jaime to the Presidential Palace on the morning of the coup d’état. Jaime is subsequently killed when he refuses to say that the President was an alcoholic who committed suicide, and despite his differences with his father, Esteban greatly mourns Jaime’s death and never quite recovers. Jaime serves as a sort of foil to Miguel. While they both support socialism and Marxist ideals, Jaime is uncomfortable with the violence of revolution. He is a pacifist, and he seeks the equality and freedom of the working and peasant classes through non-violent means.

Jaime Trueba/del Valle Quotes in The House of the Spirits

The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Jaime Trueba/del Valle or refer to Jaime Trueba/del Valle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Class, Politics, and Corruption Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

He was the son of Esteban García, the only bastard offspring of the patrón named for him. No one knew his origin, or the reason he had that name, except himself, because his grandmother, Pancha García, had managed before she died to poison his childhood with the story that if only his father had been born in place of Blanca, Jaime, or Nicolás, he would have inherited Tres Marías, and could even have been President of the Republic if he wanted. In that part of the country, which was littered with illegitimate children and even legitimate ones who had never met their fathers, he was probably the only one to grow up hating his last name. He hated Esteban Trueba, his seduced grandmother, his bastard father, and his own inexorable peasant fate.

Related Characters: Esteban Trueba, Blanca Trueba, Esteban García, Jaime Trueba/del Valle, Nicolás Trueba, Pancha García
Page Number: 210
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“You’re a hopeless loser, son,” Trueba would say, sighing. “You have no sense of reality. You’ve never taken stock of how the world really is. You put your faith in utopian values that don’t even exist.”

“Helping one’s neighbor is a value that exists.”

“No. Charity, like Socialism, is an invention of the weak to exploit the strong and bring them to their knees.”

Related Characters: Esteban Trueba (speaker), Jaime Trueba/del Valle
Page Number: 330
Explanation and Analysis:

When the project was complete, I came up against an unexpected obstacle: I was unable to transfer Rosa to the new tomb because the del Valle family objected. I tried to convince them, using every argument I could think of along with gifts and pressure, even bringing my political power to bear, but it was all in vain. My brothers-in-law were unyielding. I think they must have heard about Nívea’s head and were angry with me for having kept it in the basement all that time. In light of their obstinacy, I called Jaime in and told him to get ready to accompany me to the cemetery to steal Rosa’s body. He didn’t look surprised.

“If they won’t give her to us, we’ll have to take her by force,” I told him.

Related Characters: Esteban Trueba (speaker), Clara del Valle/Trueba, Jaime Trueba/del Valle, Rosa del Valle
Page Number: 337-8
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The House of the Spirits LitChart as a printable PDF.
The House of the Spirits PDF

Jaime Trueba/del Valle Quotes in The House of the Spirits

The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Jaime Trueba/del Valle or refer to Jaime Trueba/del Valle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Class, Politics, and Corruption Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

He was the son of Esteban García, the only bastard offspring of the patrón named for him. No one knew his origin, or the reason he had that name, except himself, because his grandmother, Pancha García, had managed before she died to poison his childhood with the story that if only his father had been born in place of Blanca, Jaime, or Nicolás, he would have inherited Tres Marías, and could even have been President of the Republic if he wanted. In that part of the country, which was littered with illegitimate children and even legitimate ones who had never met their fathers, he was probably the only one to grow up hating his last name. He hated Esteban Trueba, his seduced grandmother, his bastard father, and his own inexorable peasant fate.

Related Characters: Esteban Trueba, Blanca Trueba, Esteban García, Jaime Trueba/del Valle, Nicolás Trueba, Pancha García
Page Number: 210
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“You’re a hopeless loser, son,” Trueba would say, sighing. “You have no sense of reality. You’ve never taken stock of how the world really is. You put your faith in utopian values that don’t even exist.”

“Helping one’s neighbor is a value that exists.”

“No. Charity, like Socialism, is an invention of the weak to exploit the strong and bring them to their knees.”

Related Characters: Esteban Trueba (speaker), Jaime Trueba/del Valle
Page Number: 330
Explanation and Analysis:

When the project was complete, I came up against an unexpected obstacle: I was unable to transfer Rosa to the new tomb because the del Valle family objected. I tried to convince them, using every argument I could think of along with gifts and pressure, even bringing my political power to bear, but it was all in vain. My brothers-in-law were unyielding. I think they must have heard about Nívea’s head and were angry with me for having kept it in the basement all that time. In light of their obstinacy, I called Jaime in and told him to get ready to accompany me to the cemetery to steal Rosa’s body. He didn’t look surprised.

“If they won’t give her to us, we’ll have to take her by force,” I told him.

Related Characters: Esteban Trueba (speaker), Clara del Valle/Trueba, Jaime Trueba/del Valle, Rosa del Valle
Page Number: 337-8
Explanation and Analysis: