The dog in Isabel Allende’s “The House of the Spirits” is named Barrabás.
Barrabás belongs to the del Valle family and is introduced as an enormous, unusual dog whose arrival contributes to the novel’s atmosphere of wonder. He is associated particularly with Clara del Valle, whose clairvoyance, telekinesis, and communication with spirits make the family’s extraordinary experiences seem almost ordinary.
The dog’s name also carries religious and literary resonance: Barabbas is the prisoner released instead of Jesus in the New Testament. Allende’s novel repeatedly gives names symbolic weight, and Barrabás’s imposing presence fits the book’s mixture of domestic life, political history, family memory, and magical realism.
A common mix-up is to choose Cerberus, the three-headed guardian dog from Greek mythology, or Pluto, a famous fictional dog associated with Disney. Argos is also a literary dog, belonging to Odysseus in Homer’s “Odyssey,” but none of those animals is Allende’s Barrabás.