{"id":14,"date":"2026-02-01T22:43:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T05:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/?p=14"},"modified":"2026-02-01T22:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T05:43:45","slug":"nada-silence-and-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/2026\/02\/01\/nada-silence-and-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Nada – Silence and Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the book, I was immediately hit by the environment and emotions of Andrea who was arriving in Barcelona with lots of hope. Soon after arriving the harsh atmosphere of the home created by her relatives became clear. The home was small, but was heavy with tension that I found myself finding it hard to feel comfortable (this was also true for some of the other characters’ experiences as well).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What surprised me is how little \u201caction\u201d there is in the book, but there is still a powerful emotional experience, even though Laforet doesn\u2019t put any major events in there at all. The emotional tension resides in the arguments, silence and awkward physical contact between family members and when there is so much conflict between family members, the apartment itself feels as if nobody can actually breathe. Throughout my reading, I kept thinking about the role of the environment in shaping people\u2019s characters (especially for young people such as Andrea).<\/span><\/p>\n

At times Andrea really frustrated me because she was very observant and passive. I would\u2019ve liked to see her react but she would remain silent. As I kept reading, I realised this silence could be her strength in a home of cruelty and bitterness where she could have become lost in the chaos. Rather than being weak in her ability to endure the struggles, it is more of a quiet refusal to become like those around her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roman was an interesting character because I could not decide if he was someone who you would want to spend time with or not. He has a magnetic personality, but also has a mysterious quality about him and it made me question whether he was kind to others as a genuine expression of caring or if he was just exerting power and control over them each time he showed kindness to others. This is why I was uncomfortable every time he appeared.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time I finished reading Nada, I was left feeling empty and I wondered if that is what the author intended to convey. There are parts of the story that are not necessarily comforting. However, the honesty is what is comforting about the author\u2019s message. It also got me thinking about the concepts of survival and whether just simply getting through something can count as growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

A question I\u2019d like us to discuss is whether or not you think Andrea\u2019s silence is a strength or does her silence hinder her from knowing who she is as well as the world around her?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the book, I was immediately hit by the environment and emotions of Andrea who was arriving in Barcelona with lots of hope. Soon after arriving the harsh atmosphere of the home created by her relatives became clear. The home was small, but was heavy with tension that I found myself finding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107695,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-nada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107695"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jasminermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}