A psychological study of rural life on the Venezuelan plains, Doña Bárbara depicts the struggle for control of an estate, symbolizing the battle between opposing forces. Santos Luzardo defends the law and progress while Doña Bárbara represents the darkness behind violence and passion. The confrontation between civilized life outside of the plains and the barbaric aspects of rural society accurately portrays early 20th-century Venezuelan life. This regionalist novel inspired the magic realism of modern Latin American literature.
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