The House of the Spirits

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Epigraph-Chapter 4

Reading Check

1. Who is the oldest del Valle daughter?

2. Who asks Esteban for a loan of 50 pesos?

3. Whom does Clara marry?

4. How many children does Clara have?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Clara stop speaking for nine years?

2. Why does Férula resent Esteban?

3. How does Nívea bond with Clara?

4. Why does Esteban send his sons to boarding school?

Paired Resource

“Encomienda and Hacienda: The Evolution of the Great Estate in the Spanish Indies”

• Scholarly article contextualizing the hacienda system within the history of Spanish colonialism in the Americas (though not Chile specifically)
• Teacher-appropriate (not student-facing)

Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. Who appears as an apparition when the Truebas are having dinner?

2. For whom does Esteban order a grand funeral and internment?

3. Who inherits Marcos’s fascination for flight?

4. What illegal trade does the count begin to indulge in?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Esteban fire Pedro Tercero?

2. Why does Esteban García hate the Truebas?

3. What causes Jaime and Nicolás to grow apart?

4. Why does Blanca feel uncomfortable in her new house with the count?

Paired Resource

“The Great Earthquake of 1960”

• A short video of the damage left in the wake of the earthquake that struck Chile in 1960
• The earthquake in the book is based on the Great Chilean earthquake, also known as the 1960 Valdivian earthquake. Why is this detail important to the setting of the book?

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. What feature does Alba inherit from her great-aunt Rosa?

2. What does Esteban begin to design after Clara passes away?

3. Whom does Alba meet and fall in love with at university?

4. Who helps Blanca free Esteban from Tres Marías?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Alba remain unperturbed by Clara’s death?

2. Which of Clara’s childhood habits does Alba also share?

3. Why does Miguel reject Alba’s offer to join the guerrillas?

4. Why does Esteban begin to buy and hide weapons in the house?

Paired Resource

“Allende, Chilean Marxist, Wins Vote for Presidency”

• A New York Times article reporting on Chilean Marxist candidate Salvador Allende’s election victory in 1970
• Connects to the theme of Politics and Ideology as Content and Context
• Based on the immediate effects of Allende’s victory as detailed in the article (including the rising dollar rate and Allende’s proposed nationalization program), what do you foresee happening in his presidency? How does the novel foreshadow similar events?

“To Some Latin Revolutionaries, It Is Marxism, Si! Castro, No!”

• A New York Times article published before the Chilean presidential elections reporting on the split between the Marxist groups about armed revolution, as well as predicting Dr. Allende’s victory and a possible military coup
• Connects to the theme of Politics and Ideology as Content and Context
• Teacher-appropriate (not student-facing)

Chapters 13-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. Who puts Alba in touch with the priests running the soup kitchens?

2. About whose whereabouts does García question Alba?

3. Where is Alba taken after she is treated at the hospital?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What leads Esteban to finally admit his mistakes to Blanca and Alba?

2. Why does Tránsito Soto help Esteban find Alba?

3. Why does Alba choose not to seek revenge on García?

Recommended Next Reads

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

• A family saga that follows the Buendía family, whose patriarch (José Arcadio Buendía) founds the fictional town of Macondo
• Connections include the theme of Patterns, Cycles, and the Interconnectedness of Life and the use of magical realism
• One Hundred Years of Solitude on SuperSummary

 In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

• A fictionalized depiction of the Mirabel sisters’ resistance to the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic
• Connections include the theme of Politics and Ideology as Content and Context and the examination of bonds between women
• In the Time of the Butterflies on SuperSummary