RJ Frampton writes

Walimai as Allende's Oedipus Fantasy: A Psychoanalytical Perspective

On the surface, "Walimai" is a dramatic story of how one South American tribesman copes with the intrusion of white civilization.  It deals with the many adjustments and compromises Walimai, the main character of the story, has had to make to survive in his diminishing world.  However, this story also contains an equally dramatic sub-text in which the author, Isabel Allende, subconsciously expresses a fantasy she has experienced since her childhood - a fantasy resulting from her fixation within one of her psychosexual stages of development.
 

Allende's subconscious expression of this fixation appears in the first paragraph where she writes, 

". . . not like the mighty warriors and gods who inhabited these lands in days of old" (45).  The "warriors and gods" symbolize the strength of Allende's Id in early childhood in that, like warriors and gods, the Id has the freedom to do whatever it pleases without having to consider the consequences.  Their presence in "days of old" suggests that Allende, as an adult, is striving to resolve a conflict that began in her childhood.  Further reading of the story reveals that she never passed from the Phallic Stage of psychosexual development.

An intense interest in the not yet functional sex organs characterizes the Phallic Stage.  The stage usually begins at age three and in a normal child lasts until he or she is about six years old.  During this time, the child undergoes a conflict known as the Oedipus Syndrome.  In this conflict, the child sexually desires the opposite sex parent while wishing to destroy his or her same sex parent.

Sometimes the child does not pass through the psychosexual phases.  Due to unhealthy psychological development, the child can become trapped - or fixated - in one of the stages.  When this happens, the child continues to exhibit the subconscious childhood fantasies throughout adulthood.  In other words, as she wrote "Walimai," Allende fantasized about killing her mother so she could become the sex partner of her father.

To perform the violent act of taking her mother's life, Allende must resolve the instinctual conflict within her Id, the metaphorical storehouse of her primal desires.  This conflict revolves around the life instinct and the death instinct.  The life instinct is the basis of sexual urges and the death instinct involves a person's aggressive tendencies.  Life constantly vies with death within the Id.

In "Walimai," Allende's jungle represents protection, strength, and her father - life.  Death, to Allende, is the white man and his civilization.  The story's conflict between the jungle and the white man is actually the struggle within Allende's Id between her life and death instincts.  To kill her mother, Allende must allow her death instinct to assume control of her Id.

The setting is appropriate to Allende's strong Id in that the forest is dark, representing the Id's primal wisdom - libido.  The "canopies of the tall trees" (46) represent the womb - probably Allende's own womb - with the trunks of the trees symbolizing her father's penis extending into her canopy.  The trees block out the light of the sun, which embodies law in nature, thinking, and enlightenment - qualities that do not exist in the Id.  Allende is subconsciously declaring the weakness of her Ego as the mediator of her Id.

Allende's life/death conflict explodes in the fourth paragraph where her life instinct, through Walimai, declares "war with all traditional ceremonies" (46) on the white man -- the death instinct.  The life instinct initially controls the death instinct, but since Allende is trapped in the Phallic Stage, her desire to kill her mother is constant.  This continued suppression of her superior death instinct wearies Allende until she finally, passively allows the death instinct to assume control.  "Instead of turning back when I glimpsed the strangers, I lay down to rest.  The [white] soldiers caught me" (47).  The death instinct now controls the Id.  Allende is now emotionally prepared to murder her mother.

Allende's death instinct intensifies her Oedipal desires by allowing subconscious representations of her father in more obvious phallic symbols such as maize (corn) and bananas.  Walimai is also given a cup of alcohol (Allende called it "water") which the character is supposed to drink (47).  Walimai empties the contents of the cup onto the ground, thus removing life from the womb symbol.  The dumping of the "water" is Allende's first step toward her idea of womanhood -- her first step toward destroying her mother.

Since Walimai actually symbolizes Allende's subconscious self, the woman Walimai sees as he enters the hut cannot represent Allende.  The story's woman is in truth the image of Allende's mother (47).  This woman must die so Allende may take further steps toward fulfilling her fantasy.

When Walimai kills the woman, the woman's spirit leaves her dying body and enters Walimai's body (48).  This means that by killing her mother, Allende believes that she will inherit the spirit of womanhood.  She will be a grown, sexual being and will only then be able to return to her father and take her mother's place as his sex partner.

But before she can return to her father, Allende must once again quell her death instinct.  For this, she uses fire - the symbol of creative energy.  Walimai builds a fire and then escapes from the white man's camp into the forest (48).  Because the task of eliminating her mother is complete, Allende's life instinct easily regains control of her Id.

Walimai's return to the jungle - which represents Allende's father - marks the end of Allende's fantasy.  She has destroyed her mother to become her father's sex partner.  Thus Allende has sublimated her unacceptable Oedipus fantasy into a poignant story of the sacrifices a South American tribesman must make to survive in his world which is being invaded by white civilization.  Her psychologically unhealthy desires have been successfully channeled into her writing talent.

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Work Cited

Allende, Isabel.  "Walimai."  "Fictions," 3rd ed.  Eds. Joseph F. Trimmer and C. Wade Jennings.  Orlando.  Harcourt Brace, 1994.  45 - 49.