Thought’s on Rodoreda’s “The Time of the Doves”
by aliyah
I found this text to be enlightening and thought-provoking. For me, Rodoreda’s writing style was sometimes over-descriptive, but often it made the story more sensual and poetic. Overall, this text was a fairly simple read; I didn’t have to try hard to understand the meaning behind the scenes as I did in some of the previous texts in this course. Another aspect of this book that I appreciated was that I didn’t feel like I was lacking any background or contextual information of the setting of the story. The story was set in Barcelona in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War, but it revolved more around how ordinary people were impacted by the war, so it felt a bit more relatable in that sense – it could’ve been a civil war in my country and its impact on me.
We get to follow a woman’s journey before, during, and after the war and see how she experiences the life she’s been given under her poor circumstances from the very beginning. It wasn’t as if Natalia’s life was perfect or even near ideal before the war started; she was already motherless and a bit too naive for her own good. Furthermore, she was in a relationship where she was seen as beneath her partner. The unequal power dynamic between Natalia and Quimet was far from unusual (during a time in which patriarchy was even more prominent than it is now), but their relationship grows gradually to be more equal. Natalia didn’t really care for politics either, but the war was wearing everyone down, including her. She had to care and provide for her children as well as work, all on her own. Natalia is not only physically strained by the impact of the war, but we also see how she is fighting for her sanity.
My question is, how Natalia’s life, and other victims of the war for that matter, would’ve been different if mental health awareness and resources were more prominent. Even with modern wars today, during a time where mental health awareness is likely at its highest than it has been in history, I wonder how accessible mental health resources are to the victims and how much it is prioritized. As we witness through the text, the war may be over but the healing has only just begun. Survivors must come to terms with the reality of the situation and what has been done to get them to this point in order to look towards their future.
“their relationship grows gradually to be more equal.”
I wonder if you could say a bit more about this. For some, though war is obviously very much a “male” activity on the whole (it’s mainly men who fight), it can also be a point at which women have to take on new responsibilities while the men are absent, and so can expand the sense of what women are capable of. Is this what happens here?
More broadly, I wonder whether you think this is a feminist text or not?