The foundational elements of the story set up tropes that are fairly common however, even though the concept of displaced lovers isn’t necessarily new, the feminine perspective and unique way in which Rodoreda illustrated Natalia’s thoughts introduced a particularly intriguing angle. Natalia’s character was rather complicated and the ways in which she articulated her thoughts in such a blunt fashion caught my attention. Her attitude really stuck out to me, and I appreciate the way in which she is presented, because she isn’t a typical heroine, her abrasive condensed style of storytelling for me contributes greatly to the severity of the text. Natalia’s portrayal of an ordinary wife and mother is essential in the way that the bitterness of war reverberates deep within her personhood. She is persistent in living a life that seems pointless and the way in which she contests her situation isn’t written as especially courageous, and this allows the tenderness and soul of the novel to feel more authentic contributing overall to the heartbreaking narrative. “Sometime I’d heard people say, “That person’s like a cork,” but I never understood what they meant. To me a cork was like a stopper. If I couldn’t get it back in the bottle after I’d opened it I’d trim it down with a knife…I was like a cork myself. Not because I was born that way but because I had to be. And to make my heart like stone. I had to be like a cork to keep going because if instead of being a cork with a heart of stone I’d been like before, made of flesh that hurts when you pinch it, I’d never have gotten across such a high, narrow, long bridge.”  This passage exemplifies the mesmerizing “matter -of -fact” way in which Natalia recounts her expressions of anguish throughout the novel, the quotation also aligns with the parallel themes of trauma that exist both personally and politically in Natalia’s life. The Metaphor of a cork can be understood on a larger scale, as the effects repression and devastation has on the human spirit  while also on a more intimate level the dwindling cork can be representative of the toll that Natalia’s abusive, controlling relationship had on her identity, almost as if she was shaving down pieces of herself to fit into someone else’s life. Another interesting stylized writing choice that I felt brought the character to life also ushers in my question for this week. I noticed Rodoreda utilizes “And” as a way to construct Natalia’s dizzying character she often begins sentence after sentence with “And” which adds a breathless quality to the narration, due to the fact this is a story told in past tense I feel the “and” motif signifies that in the midst of Natalia’s retelling of events she is confronted by copious amounts of unresolved anxiety from the war.    Q: Did you find Rodoreda’s artistic styles helpful in the ways that her characters were brought to life, or did the choices make the writing feel inaccessible?