THE EAGLE AND THE BRIDE

Written by Josie Peralta

OUTLINE

Chapter 1

The story begins in a small town in Argentina with the autobiographical character, Tere, narrating. Her alcoholic father brutally beats her mother and attempts to kill her with a knife in front of the children. They subsist by harvesting corn while living in tents surrounded by snakes. Tere was five years old when in a drunken rage, her father tries to force a horse inside the bedroom at 3:00 A.M. while his three little children were sleeping.

Chapter 2

The family disintegrates under the pressures of poverty. Tere's mother takes the children to another city where they cope with being placed in different foster homes. They struggle with hunger, neglect and loneliness. At age eleven, Tere contracts tuberculosis. After many attempts, they finally escape from their father.

Chapter 3

Tere is a lonely adolescent, but she is bright, proud and self-educated. She becomes

interested in literature, music and love. At the age of fourteen she is seduced and raped by a local man in the town where she is working as a maid.

As a teenager living during the Peronist years, Tere becomes involved with the Communist party. She meets her first love, which leads to marriage. Rich descriptions of their happiness is a refreshing counterpoint to the underlying seriousness of her story. Tere perceives the options open to her even when she is twice arrested and sent to reformed school, from which she makes a daring escape, but is caught.

Chapter 5

After eleven years, Tere goes to find her father. All her previous ambivalence towards him emerges again as she confronts the unfairness of the Argentine legal system toward women. With her boyfriend she seeks him out in a small town, discovering that he has not changed.

Chapter 6

Tere settles down with her husband's family. She is ambitious and excited by life. After discovering that her husband is having an affair, she leaves him and moves to Buenos Aires.

Chapter 7

After a series of amusing but degrading mishaps as she looks for a job, she falls in love with a brilliant, handicapped intellectual. She moves in with him and they have a daughter. He is abnormally jealous and has a cruel streak. She finds herself fighting for custody of her daughter. She begins psychotherapy for the first time and as a result gains strength to continue her attempt to remove her daughter from a possibly psychotic father.

Chapter 8

The father has claimed paternal rights and begins a campaign of harassment. In order to escape him, she enacts her childhood dream of going to the United States. She saves enough money to return to Argentina.

Chapter 9

Tere arrives at Kennedy Airport and despite not speaking the language, she feels at home. She encounters typical immigrant problems, loneliness, hard work and homesickness. Harlem is described in all its misery, injustice and violence. She is caught in the subway blackout of 1965. She is frightened because she does not speak English to ask what is happening. At the end of the chapter she meets the man who will be the father of her second child, a son.

Chapter 10

After five years in the United States she returns to Argentina, where she is reunited with her family and daughter. She hires a lawyer, bribes a judge, obtains false papers then leaves the country with her daughter. Her daughter becomes an honor student.

Chapter 11

Tere is no longer living with her son's father but she has met a doctor (a psychiatrist), with whom she has started a relationship. Beautiful description of Niagara Falls.

Chapter 12

Tere and the doctor get married. For the first time she is financially secure. But their relationship does not work because he is excessively authoritarian, overpowering and rejects her children.

Chapter 13

The family moves to Fairfax, Virginia and despite all the changes in her life, she is still not happy. Her husband is unwilling to deal with her children and as he persists in ignoring them, the family grows apart. He has a lover, and this causes her much pain. Her daughter is diagnosed with schizophrenia. The entire family is subjected to tremendous pressure. Her son grows into a loving and intelligent young man, but is bewildered by the change in his sister.

Chapter 14

With tremendous effort and the help of a therapist, Tere regains her optimism and becomes stronger and wiser. She takes a vacation alone in Spain, and her traditional beliefs begin to change.

She becomes involved with the women's liberation movement and resumes psychotherapy. Many of the dialogues between her and her therapist are described as she struggles to understand her own behavior and the patterns that have dominated her life. She finishes High School.

Chapter 15

Her husband, realizing that he has lost Tree’s love, now attempts to win her back. She has graduated from the university with a degree in mental health counseling, and her daughter is partially recovered after four years of illness.

Chapter 16

Tree and her husband attempt to save their marriage. She describes the ordeal of a family with a mentally ill member and the ways in which a psychotic person can change the environment. She argues with a priest about the morality of constantly "rescuing" someone who may be able to rescue herself.

Chapter 17

In the final chapter Tree’s marriage has ended. She meets "the Cavalier," a psychoanalyst, at a party and they fall in love. Their relationship, including their first sexual encounter, is described in detail. She is finally proud of her life. Thinking over her experiences and the traumas that led her to this point, she says:

"The Past? The Past is over as soon as you turn the page."

Ó 2006 Josie Peralta