Two Words

“She went by the name of Belisa Crepusculario, not because she had been baptized with that name or given it by her mother, but because she herself had searched until she found the poetry of ‘beauty’ and ‘Twilight’ and cloaked herself in it.”

The story opens with this sentence and shares that Belisa chose her own name, indicating that she crafts her own identity. Her love for language is evident in her choice of terms that she finds poetic and wears as if they were a protective garment.

“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.