Rodoreda’s The Time of the Doves is a story about Natalia, set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil war. Rodoreda tells the story through the lens of Natalia, the main character, providing readers with the insight to the everyday life of people amid the chaos created by war. Additionally, this story also revolves around Natalia’s marriages: the first with Quimet who ends up dying in war, and the second with Antoni. 

After reading this book, I noticed that the story evoked a sense of sadness. For me, it was Natalia’s marriage with Quimet that aroused this unhappiness and sometimes depressed feeling. The two characters first met while dancing, where Quimet had asked to dance with Natalia. Without even knowing much about each other, Quimet declares that Natalia would be his wife and gives her the nickname “Colometa”. This part made me feel quite uncomfortable. Despite the main character repeating multiple times to Quimet saying her name is Natalia, Quimet completely disregards this and continues calling her “Colometa”. For me, it indicated that Quimet showed no respect to Natalia and was also quite forceful as his controlling nature was revealed. Quimet’s possessive behavior is also shown when he accused Natalia of talking with her ex-fiance, Pere. Despite Natalia claiming that she had not met with Pere, Quimet forced her to kneel down and apologize which, as she described herself, led her to almost believe that she did meet with Pere. The part where Quimet threw Natalia onto the floor, pushed her onto the bed, and hit her head while calling her “bad girl” revealed his physically abusive character. This made me feel uncomfortable because Natalia was not even being treated as a human-being. Quimet treated her almost as if she were an object that was in his possession. These parts left me a deep impression of feeling quite sad particularly because I was able to sympathize with Natalia and her experiences. 

One aspect I found very interesting about this book is the recurrence of doves, both physically and symbolically. Quimet and Natalia kept multiple pairs of doves in their house, and Natalia’s nickname Colometa also translates to “dove”. Interestingly, the name “Colometa” in a way does reflect Natalia’s character. Doves also symbolize freedom and peace in literature, however, the symbolism in this story seems to be contradicting. In the novel, the depiction of doves flying freely in the sky serves as a stark contrast to the chaos created by the Spanish Civil war. 

What are your feelings after reading this book?