Two Words

“She journeyed through the country from the high cold mountains to the burning coasts.”

This sentence begins to describe the first of many journeys the protagonist takes. Isabel Allende conveys the extremes of her journey by contrasting images of cold and fire. The “burning coasts” evoke danger but also images of the sunset, echoing her chosen last name.

“To anyone who paid her fifty centavos in trade, she gave the gift of a secret word to drive away melancholy.”

This is the first time the narrator indicates that Belisa uses secret words and words with magical properties. However, this also reflects the Power of Words to generate healing.

“That was the day Bella Crepusculario found out that words make their way in the world without a master, and that anyone with a little cleverness can appropriate them and do business with them.”

This sentence describes Belisa’s discovery of the Power of Words, a critical theme that recurs throughout the story. Words have freedom; no one can own them, but anyone with “cleverness” can use them to earn an income. This line can also be read as ironic commentary by Allende on the writing career.

“The Colonel stood up and turned straight toward her. She saw dark skin and the eyes of a ferocious puma, and she knew immediately that she was standing before the loneliest man in the world.”

This sentence is an example of Allende’s use of simile to conjure an image of power and beauty. Despite the Colonel’s menacing appearance, Belisa recognizes his loneliness in a man.

“He longed to ride into a town beneath a triumphal Arch with bright flags and flowers everywhere; he wanted to be cheered and be given newly laid eggs and freshly baked bread.”

This sentence uses images of celebration and victory to encapsulate the Colonel’s desire for peace and happiness. Despite his reputation as a fierce warrior who strikes terror when he enters a town, the Colonel longs to be welcomed as an honored guest.

“That was more to it however she felt the urge to help him because she felt a throbbing warmth beneath her skin, a powerful desire to touch that man, to fondle him, to pass him in her arms.”

Allende reveals the intensely passionate feelings that arise when Belisa first meets the Colonel. These feelings will be mutual when the Colonel develops an obsession with Belisa after she whispers two secret words to him.

“She read the speech aloud. She read it three times, so her client could engrave it on his memory. When she finished, she saw the emotion in the faces of the soldiers who had gathered around to listen, and saw that the colonel’s eyes glittered with enthusiasm, convinced that with those words the presidential chair would be his.”

This passage illustrates the impact of Belisa’s words on the soldiers and the Colonel. The narrator does not describe or reveal El Mulato’s reaction. The words she produced for the speech will win the hearts of the people and permit the Colonel to fulfill his dream of abandoning violence and achieving the victory he seeks by peaceful means.

“No one paid the least attention to those advertising ploys; they were dazzled by the clarity of the Colonel's proposals and the poetic lucidity of his arguments, infected by his powerful wish to right the wrongs of history, happy for the first time in their lives. When the candidate had finished his speech, his soldiers would fire their pistols into the air and set off firecrackers, and when finally, they rode off, they left behind a wake of hope that lingered for days in the air, like the splendid memory of a comet's tail.”

This passage describes the joyous reaction and celebration that erupts when villagers hear the Colonel's speech. Allende paints a vivid picture of celebration and uses a comet’s tail as a simile to describe the delight that lingers after the Colonel and his soldiers leave. This rapturous joy is the result of the words Belisa sold to the Colonel.

“And every time he thought of those two words, he thought of Belisa Crepusculario, and his senses were inflamed with the memory of her feral scent, her fiery heat, the whisper of her hair, and her sweet mint breath in his ear, until he began to go around like a sleepwalker, and his men realized that he might die before he ever sat in the presidential chair.”

This passage describes the obsession that the Colonel is experiencing. Despite the strategic political success of his campaign, he is now preoccupied with thoughts of Belisa and her two words, and his soldiers begin to realize the extent of his obsession with her.

“[T]hose two words that were buried like two daggers in his gut.”

The obsession the Colonel is experiencing affects him as if he has been stabbed by daggers that remain lodged in his body. This demonstrates the extent of his emotional trauma.

“Saddened by watching his chief decline like a man with a death sentence on his head, El Mulatto slung his rifle over his shoulder and set out to find Belisa Crepusculario.”

This passage conveys the seriousness of the Colonel’s emotional state. El Mulato thinks his commander may die, so he sets out to find Belisa in the hopes of rescuing him. El Mulato is known for his loyalty to his commander, which he demonstrates by seeking to save him.

“I brought this witch here so you can give her back her words, colonel […] And then she can give you back your manhood.”

This passage demonstrates the anger and vitriol El Mulato has for Belisa; he describes her as a witch and later refers to her profession as witchcraft. The word choice also suggests that El Mulato believes the colonel has been emasculated by Belisa, as he wants her to return his “manhood.”

“The colonel and Belisa Crepusculario stared at each other, measuring one another from a distance.”

Upon their reunion, Belisa and the Colonel assess each other from afar. There is a physical distance between them, which builds suspense as they stop briefly to prepare to be reunited.