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  • Essay / Conflicts and power struggles between different social classes

    The German philosopher Friedrich Engels once said: “All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated classes at different stages of social development.” In all societies, each social class has unique characteristics and distinctions, particularly in terms of lifestyles and privileges within their respective cultures; However, when the differences between social classes become too great, problems begin to arise. Despite the different settings of Allende's The House of the Spirits and Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the distinctions between social classes in each novel produce the same problematic results for the characters; the problematic results demonstrate the negative effect of broad distinctions between social classes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayAllende describes the differences between social classes well in The House of the Spirits through the interaction between the inhabitants of Tres Marias. Tres Marias includes two main social classes: the landowner class and the peasant class. The landowning class is made up of the Trueba family, because Esteban Trueba is the boss of the hacienda, while the peasant class is made up of the hacienda workers, including the Garcia family. Allende presents the two classes as agents of each other. While Allende depicts the wealth of the landowning class through their fine clothing, she depicts the peasant class as poor through their dirty rags. From a relational point of view, the landowning class exercises total control over the peasant class; the Truebas control what happens on the hacienda and the people who work there. While the peasants work hard on the land, all the rewards go to the Truebas. The distinctions between the two social classes make them too different to live in harmony, causing big problems for the characters. Due to his title as boss of Tres Marias, Esteban Trueba feels superior to the peasants and expects the rest of his family to feel the same. However, the fact that other family members belong to the lower social class causes tensions within the family. To circumvent her father's ban, Blanca hides her relationship with Pedro Tercero. “Without anyone telling them, they realized they couldn't act so freely in front of others… they started hiding when they wanted to play. They stopped walking hand in hand when they saw the adults and ignored each other so as not to attract attention” (Allende 147). Once Esteban Trueba discovers Blanca's secret, he becomes furious with her. Blanca's brothers, Jaime and Nicolas, also interact with the peasant class. Both feel sympathetic and charitable toward the Tres Marias workers and other less fortunate people. Their involvement with the peasants causes tension between them and their father because Esteban Trueba does not want them to ruin the family's reputation by getting involved with people below them. Due to the great differences between the two classes, jealousy arises. Esteban Garcia provides a perfect example; Esteban Garcia envies the luxurious life of the Truebas and thinks that if Esteban Trueba realizes and accepts that Trueba blood also flows in his veins, he too will be able to live this life. However, Esteban Trueba does not recognize Esteban Garcia as his illegitimate grandson, leading to growing hatred within Esteban Garcia. This hatred fuels Esteban Garcia's desire for revenge. In MadameBovary by Flaubert, the differences between social classes also pose problems for the characters. As a member of the bourgeoisie, protagonist Emma Bovary is bored with the lifestyle of her social class and desires the elegant life of aristocrats. Emma takes advantage of her liaisons with Rodolphe and the new cosmopolitan Léon to feel like she belongs to high society. As the story continues, his desire to be accepted by the aristocrats grows out of control and his efforts do not meet his expectations. Ironically, as Emma tries to work her way up to a higher class, she ends up falling down one class. “The men were whispering in the corner, probably discussing expenses. There was an employee, two medical students and a salesman. What company for her! As for the women, Emma quickly realized from their voices that they were almost all from the dregs of society. Then she became frightened, pushed back her chair and looked down” (Flaubert 273). Flaubert uses irony to show how Emma realizes that she has failed to live the social lifestyle she originally envisioned. The difference and isolation of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy lead Emma to concoct ideal visions of the lives of aristocrats, which do not reflect reality. This leads Emma to attempt to fulfill her ideal expectations of the upper class, which ultimately leads to her death. The House of Spirits and Madame Bovary incorporate the dangers of vast social class differences in similar ways. For example, both authors make social class cause tragedies in the plot of their novels. In The House of Spirits, Esteban Garcia personifies the struggle between social classes. As a child, Esteban Garcia aspired to become a recognized member of the Trueba family and the landowning class. However, his illegitimate grandfather does not recognize him as part of the family, sparking hatred within Esteban Garcia which intensifies as he ages. This hatred fuels his desire for revenge against the Trueba family, which he unleashes on Alba Trueba, whom he keeps as a personal prisoner. In Madame Bovary, Emma's desire to change social class leads to her ultimate downfall. Eager to improve her social class, she buys extravagant gifts for her lovers. However, his expenses put him even further into debt. Taking desperate measures to get out of debt, she commits suicide. Furthermore, Esteban Garcia and Emma Bovary, the characters involved in the tragedies caused by social classes, aspire to rise in the social classes; In the end, Esteban Garcia succeeds, but Emma does not. Allende and Flaubert use different distinctions between the social classes of their cultures in order to create conflict in their respective novels. In The House of Spirits, Allende describes the peasant class as less elegant than the landowning class. In fact, Allende describes them in a negative way. “They were very sorry. He saw various women of indecipherable age, their skin dry and cracked, some apparently pregnant, all barefoot and dressed in faded rags” (49). The landowning class, the Trueba family, owns a large estate, exercises great power over the other class, and benefits from the labor of the peasants. In Madame Bovary, Flaubert uses the protagonist's influence on the reader to characterize the two classes. Emma finds her bourgeois life boring and mediocre. The reader perceives the aristocratic class as superior because Emma believes so. Additionally, the two novels have different settings. Allende's novel takes place in a Latin American country while Flaubert's novel takes place in France. The novels, which present similar conflicts around..