Endings play a very important role in reinforcing or challenging certain values depicted in a text. The outcome of the characters and events which occur during the novel tell us much about the values informing the novel. In Isabel Allende's postcolonial novel Eva Luna, the ending both reinforces and subverts traditional ideologies in the Latin American society of that time which spanned from the 1930's through to the 1970's. The ending challenges most of the ideologies which are presented in the text and reflect Allende's own personal values and attitudes. Many people were marginalised because of their gender, class or race, and in Eva Luna these issues are defied through different events and characters, Eva Luna in particular. .
Allende conveys traditional values of a Latin American society such as the subservience and inferiority of marginalised groups like women, people of mixed blood, or mestizos, and lower class persons - all of which characterise Eva herself. Throughout the novel, Eva is constantly moving from one servant job to another. This is something that was passed down to her from her mother, Consuelo. As a mestizo female, Eva is expected to fill a silent subservient role just as her mother did. However, Eva rejects her ascribed subjectivity allowing her to grow beyond the constraints of society's expectations. Her desire to break free from this role is first illustrated at a young age of seven by Eva's sudden angry outburst when the patrona orders her to clean up flowers from the floor: "A monumental "No!" swelled inside me, choking me- (p.55). This can be seen as Eva's initial refusal to follow the orders of someone else, consequently earning the respect she deserved from her patrona who "shrunk to half her size". Eva yearns this freedom despite the fact that she grew up with older female figures teaching her to conform to the patriarchal society in which she lived.
