Rodoreda- The Time of the Doves

Of all the novels thus far, this one had the most unexpected ending and plot twist. The story starts rather sweetly, and suddenly escalates until the main character, Natalia, makes a horrifying decision. Initially, Natalia gets swept off of her feet and marries a man who ends up not being a good husband or person. Quimet, the husband, is rather lazy and undependable and displays abusive and toxic behaviours consistently. He continuously brings home doves but leaves them in the care of Natalia. In a way, I think that what Natalia was doing to the doves foreshadowed the climax of the story. Her husband had left her with helpless animals when she was unable to adequately care for them. 

The way in which the story was written translates to how frantic Natalia may have been during that time. The author uses run-on sentences to replicate thought processes that Natalia may be having. She exhausts herself emotionally and physically as she develops fears about the war and surrounding world. The story is very tragic and explores how desperation can cause irrational beliefs and ideas. 

The description of the family living a "bare life" is very accurate. Due to her lack of resources, her family is forced to merely survive and they are unable to truly live. This causes Natalia to make the extreme decision to kill herself and her children after her husband is killed. I think part of the reason that Natalia's decision was so shocking was because it was the complete opposite of what one would expect from a mother. Her actions do not fall in line with how we perceive mothers or parents to behave. I feel like the audience would expect Natalia to do everything possible and sacrifice herself in order to protect her children. Perhaps, the reason she made such a radical decision was due to her surroundings at the time. She saw the impact of the war through the chaos and destruction around her, and therefore she decided that she must take extreme action. If her family would have fallen on hard times during a different time period, she may not have decided to act in that way. Her surroundings are a factor when questioning why she would make such a desperate and irrational decision.

My question to the class is, do you think that Natalia's decision to kill herself and her family was brave/strong or cowardly/inhumane? And do you agree that Natalia's decision may not have been so reckless if it were not for the war surrounding her? Or can we see through her other actions that she may have regardless made the same choice? 


Comments

  1. Michael Li23 February 2022 at 22:35

    Hi Madi! Thank you for your post. I agree that Quimet did not take enough family responsibilities and generated some negativity in Natalia’s life. However, I think they both loved each other, and Quimet brought some new perspectives and senses of existence into Natalia’s life. Since her choice to marry Quimet over his original fiance, she determined her relationship and experienced something abstract and new. To answer your question, I think although everyone has the right to die with integrity, Natalia’s survival was a miraculous gift that helped her see a major turning point in her life.

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  2. Jennifer Nagtegaal24 February 2022 at 19:50

    "I think that what Natalia was doing to the doves foreshadowed the climax of the story." - very interesting observation, Madi! I had not thought of this one rather disturbing event in relation to the other...

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