I really enjoyed reading Time of the Doves. It felt very mellow and was quite easy to read. The writing style managed to keep me engaged throughout the story. Overall, the novel was very emotional and the author did a fantastic job portraying the frustrating, helpless and suffocating emotion through her simple yet effective writing. This book also reminded me of the previous novels we have read through it’s almost passive main character, which seems to be a recurring theme haha (makes me think about my own life and if I’m really using my free will to the best of my ability or also living passively and just reacting instead of taking action – anyway sorry for short rant).
In the lecture video it is mentioned how the “Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls “bare life,” an animal existence, reduced to nothing more than biological survival”. This term was so interesting to me, because in a way it shows to me how all of us when stripped bare are reduced to the same basic needs. It reminds me of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which at the bottom starts with physiological needs which is similar to this ‘bare life’ where importance is placed on meeting basic needs such as breathing, food, water, shelter etc. The hierarchy then progresses onto safety and security, love and belonging, self esteem, and finally self actualization. This also connects to the story, as it seems to suggest that concepts such as morality are only able to be pursued once other needs such as food, friendship etc are satisfied. This is reflected in how Natalia thinks of killing her children.
Sense of Control; I learned in psychology how important having a perceived sense of control is for mental well being and for feeling less stressed. I think this is seen throughout the novel and for me represented a central theme. Everything in Natalia’s life seems to be outside of her control. For example, her marriage, the doves and even her children. An excerpt that shows an example of this lack of control is “And he said by the end of the year I’d be his wife”. Here Natalia is told what her role is going to be and even her timeline of life is chosen for her by someone else showing a lack of control. This lack of control also gets so much worse as the novel progresses pushing into very serious themes such as murder. This led me to reflect on morality and how a person can sometimes be pushed into situations because they are running out of options. Maybe morality or getting to be able to act morally is a privilege of having control over one’s own life and having that sense of autonomy, as also seen in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Question; what other examples can we think of where people are forced to act immorally due to having a lack of control?