Analysis of "Our Secret" by Isabel Allende .
In her short story "Our Secret," Allende writes about a man and a woman who meet one day and spend the entire day together. They go back to the woman's house and they begin to make love. He is unable to go through with it because of nightmares and hallucinations. He tries to make love to her, but feels himself losing it. They stop for a moment and lay side by side. Even though they had spent their lives their country, it says they will forever be foreigners and it is not exactly known what that means. He wants to leave before his nightmares consume him, but he stays because of his desire for her friendship. He sees her as innocent and defenseless, and wants to help her keep fear away. Fear is something he is unable to keep away. He then talks about a "warm, tender feeling, an enormous compassion for himself and for her, made his eyes sting" (pg 185). This feeling hurts or stings him because maybe it reminds him of a feeling he used to have for someone else. .
When the woman gets up to shut the curtain, he asks her to leave it open because he wants to look at her. In actuality he just can't take the dark because it reminds him of his imprisonment and torture. He can't tell her these things because he's never shared them with anyone and it's a wound that lies deep inside him. He then starts experiencing his nightmares of his imprisonment, and the "assault of so many ghosts" (pg 185). The ghosts still haunt him today apparently, and as the girl touches him he starts to lose it and hallucinate. He tries to hold on to reality but starts to feel the straps around his wrists and ankles and sees the other prisoners around him. He thinks about the screams of Ana, and since she is the only prisoner he mentions by name, we can tell she is significant in some way. When the woman he is with tries to talk to him, all he can hear is Ana's voice.
