February 2024 – franny’s room ♡

When I first read Mercè Rodoreda’s novel The Time of the Doves, I initially thought it would be somewhat wholesome and heartfelt — based on the name and love story presented. However, I was thoroughly mistaken. Similar to the other texts in this class, it made me feel many overwhelming emotions: sadness, shock, and anger. The main character — Natalia — suffered loss after loss and horror after horror. It seemed like the story would never reach a happy ending, and fittingly, the ending was bittersweet. Although this text is admittedly not a happy read, it is notably very illuminating. Many themes can be seen throughout the story; from war, grief, anxiety, domestic violence, manipulation, and more.

Amazingly, while the text is simply written, it is still very complex and intricate. Mercè Rodoreda does a fantastic job detailing scenes and metaphors. Additionally, I was able to sympathize and connect with Natalia as the story progressed. Which added an interesting and challenging layer when she committed questionable or downright concerning actions.

The characters surrounding her also made me feel annoyed and conflicted, especially with Quimet. Here, we can find a solid connection to doves mentioned in the story, as his character is seemingly (and unhealthy) obsessed with birds and Natalia.

Natalia meets Quimet while all dressed in white and is identified as the bird by him. This can appear charming, based on the notion that doves represent love and peace. But it is notable to account that they can also represent a quiet innocence and purity. The moment I read that scene, I felt wary. I was unsure if Natalia felt the same or encaptured by his words, but I was praying she’d run away from this man. This may be because of my own personal bias, but any person who is interested in another because of their “innocent” appearance and is bold enough to tell them is a red flag. STAY CLEAR OF THESE PEOPLE, TRUST ME.

I felt that there were many warning signs for Natalia at the beginning of the story. Particularly the scene where Quimet and Natalia see and discuss blackbirds. Quimet himself notions the bad luck attached to them as they fly near them. This does help explain plot points in a literary sense, but also sneakily tells the readers his later of his true deposition.

I could be reading into the text too much, but Mercè Rodoreda does make an effort to expand doves and birds into her text (not just in a literal sense). Particularly, Natalia thinks of her children as eggs, delicate and vulnerable enough to shake and invoke a fury of doves and war while deciding to kill them. Furthermore, Natalia recalls a time when she was happy, represented by the memory of a free and careless bird in the sky at the end of the story.

Notably, each mention of these doves or birds is significant. The title should indicate this plainly. However, it is more profound than just peace or freedom, as vulnerability, bad omens, pain and sentimentality are notable.

Question: Do you see any warning signs for Natalia at the beginning of the story? What are other correlations to the characters or events you can connect to doves?

(Please response in the leave your thought section)

Joseph Zobel’s Black Shack Alley is a story encompassed with true raw human emotion and the brutalities of life. It was an amazing read, albeit there were heartbreaking moments of inequalities where I felt genuinely sad; Zobel does an incredible job of engaging the reader and evoking emotions. From the very first line, “Whenever the day had been without incident or misfortune, the evening arrived with a smile of tenderness,” I was hooked to the story. The text is easy to understand, which allows readers to become smoothly immersed and connected to the storyline.

The more I read, the more I felt growing up with José and correspondingly, the pain he experienced I felt as well. The hard work, perseverance, loneliness, and despair were apparent and written in a bittersweetly precise way. The complexity and morals in human behaviour were displayed throughout José’s childhood. This spotlighted the cruelty of racism embedded into his environment and the repercussions on following generations. It was genuinely frightening to read the moments of blatant discrimination, from José being isolated in his class to his teacher accusing him of plagiarism and more. Especially if we correlate this to our “modern” time now, these biases still linger and significantly affect others.

It was disheartening to see his optimism and childlike innocence continuously crushed as the story progressed. It was almost as if it was foreshadowed at the beginning of the story: “The truth was, innocence and reason had possessed me all the time that M’man Tine had been gone.” José’s age is more apparent in times of adversity. The first scene depicting his beating had me heartbroken, especially reading the line, “I felt almost nothing, save a confusion which overpowered me despite the stake of stoic stiffness I kept myself in.”

This scene with M’man Tine beating José while yelling about the burden of taking care of him stood out for me. It reminds me of behaviour connected to generational trauma, which aligns with the storyline, given the long history of racism, discrimination, and inequality. This may seem absurd to you, but growing up with immigrant parents and friends with the same dynamics, this form of punishment is normalized. Maybe it is not the extreme José was experiencing, but it is notable to account that many families deem spanking or hitting as justified forms of punishment. The children’s fear after making a mistake was not unfamiliar: “Our parents would soon be arriving. We would be beaten. We could sense that from the very manner in which our anxiety increased.” Furthermore, after hearing M’man Tine speak about her childhood, we can see the passed-down behaviours and morals: “When I was small, I wasn’t a bother to anybody…When my mother died nobody wanted me.” Knowing the adversities the whole family had experienced, this thought is not too outlandish.

Question for you: Do you see any other moments or behaviours throughout the story where generational trauma can be connected?

Memorable quote: “As for us, all the obstacles cluttering up our plans could not keep us from pursuing our adventure to its end.”

(Please leave your comments in the thoughts section below)

franny’s room ♡

Monthly Archives: February 2024

Red Flag Since Day One ~ Time of the Doves

Heartbreaking Emotions and Generational Trauma