‘Why, oh why must a woman’s nature be such that a man has always to be the pivot of her life?’ (p. 226). What a fantastic question! I have yet to quite be able to put that into words. This week’s reading was a great refresh from Proust and Aragon and gave me hope that one can say their peace even after they’ve passed. Conceptually, this work reminded me a lot of ‘A Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ which is another South American piece wherein the story is told through the events leading up to the death and a tale about honour decorated with magical surrealism.

I enjoyed the karmic cycle of Ricardo marrying a foreign-born girl whom he picked over Ana Maria, just for their son and him to be left by her. Whilst he couldn’t marry Ana Maria because of her family’s financial status, Ricardo’s family faces financial depletion as they essentially bribe Sofia to ‘resist the temptation to take her son back to Europe with her’ (p. 222-223). These events paired with Sofia’s curiosity about Ana Maria on page 235 remind me of how the lesson that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Another part that stood out to me was ‘I could only hear your words: “I’m not the one to blame.”‘ (p. 174). This highlights the recurring theme of destiny. What a sad state to live in, wherein it is easier to place blame in the hands of destiny than it is to accept that your love is unreciprocated.

One of my favourite lines is ‘to tear pieces a butterfly, in order to feel themselves masters of their own destiny’ (p. 166). She first says ‘now that I am dead’ and the imagery of the butterfly shows how delicate our fate is and how destructive our actions can be. This line speaks to how one realizes life is out of our control and altering our destiny is like tearing a butterfly, but at the end it doesn’t change when you’re dead. This line can be connected to ‘must we die in order to know certain things?’ (p. 176). This is life’s greatest question. Humans seek comfort in ‘seeing their life flash before their eyes’ and an afterlife, but in reality, death is when we will know the least of all. How do these characters seek comfort in their destructive actions and in the looming eyes of death?