The short story If You Touched My Heart by Isabel Allende exhibits numerous instances of symbolism. I will be discussing the way I interpreted the following issues: plot, character, point of view, setting, and style. The title of the story relates in various ways to the story. By looking at the title you can get a good feel for what this short story is about.
             The word "plot" is defined as: the episodes in a narrative or dramatic work- that is, what happens. In this short story the main plot is that there was a man named Amadeo Peralta that grew up to be a ruffian. His father did not believe that school was for the kids. As he would put it "school is for sissies". The father assigned his kids a task. This task was to have them establish bonds between people that can help them with legal tricks. The father also wanted the children to go out and find "sweethearts". Amadeo was thirty two years old and still had not been married and he never planned to marry. He had no interest in changing his life in this way. However Amadeo was very scared of his father and would never do anything to go against what his father would tell him to do.
             Amadeo went out and started looking for a so called "Sweetheart". This girl had to come from a stable family which basically meant that the family had money. The girl he found did have a good family but Amadeo did not find her very attractive. The two made plans to get married but before that day came Amadeo had to go on a business trip.
             Amadeo went to a place called Agua Santa. This was a small town where people would come for very short periods of time. As the night went on Amadeo decided to go for a walk. As he was walking he heard a few noises and saw a girl. He started talking to this girl and found out that she was fifteen years old and her name was Hortensia. Amadeo could not stop thinking about this girl anybody else did not matter to him but he really liked Hortensia.
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