That is a good example, and the funeral flowers make the point well. They are supposed to be temporary, but they end up teaching the room how to hold sadness, which is a very house-like trick.
That sounds about right to me, although I would still separate durability from meaning. A cheap object can survive almost by accident and then acquire significance later, which is probably part of what Allende is doing here.
I think the novel mostly avoids softening the violence because the domestic objects keep the damage close at hand, which is one reason it can feel almost rude in places. The ghosts are not decorative, they are just another kind of evidence, and the respectable explanations the family prefers become a little absurd. Funny how people will believe in mildew before they believe in politics.
