Reading “The Time of the Doves” by Marcè Rodoreda made me feel lots of big girl feelings, I was intrigued, disgusted, confused, furious, and most of all just straight up sad. I think this book speaks a lot to generational trauma, especially in women. It reminds me of the type of generational trauma that is brought up a lot today, female rage.
A quote that really stuck with me was from page 39, “I’ll (Father Joan from the church) marry you, and I think it’s better if you do it calmly. I know young people are high-spirited. They want to live and live fast…but a life, if it’s really going to be a life, has to be lived slowly.” I resonated with this quote because often I feel that I go through life, especially in university, fast because I always am stressed and live my life by checklists and just getting the next thing done. But when the year end always get sad at how fast it went.
I noticed as well, though I’m not quite sure what it means, that colours were brought up many times throughout the novel. Noticeably the colour blue. In fact when I word searched “blue” apparently it comes up 61 times. Like I said I don’t know what this means, maybe it wasn’t intentional, maybe Rodoreda like the colour blue, maybe it’s because blue is associated with sadness.
Quimet was, I feel, the embodiment of a women’s worst nightmare. From the beginning I was practically screaming (in my head) at Natalia to RUN. He was a true gaslighter, not supportive or kind ever, and did not respect Natalia in any way right up until his death. I have a feeling she was attracted to the adventure he seemed to bring, and her poor ex, I guess nice guys do finish last. I think there is something to be said about Natalia’s character as she faces all the bad things that happen to her
I also had a bit of a laugh because of Quimet’s mother and her obsession with bows. There is a very prevalent trend right now where girls and putting bows on everything as a way to express femininity and girlhood, inspired by the trend of “coquette” and the uprising of “girl”. Bows will get tied around mens biceps or sports items and saying “im just a girl” or “this is me if you even care”. I know that the author could have never know this would be a trend today as her book was read but it gave me a good little chuckle as I find the trend cute and funny.
Question: Why do you think colour (especially blue) was brought up so much? Coincidence or meaning?
Speaking of colors, for me this capacity for detail in the description of spaces has to do with Natalia’s ability to see what surrounds her in ways that are “unknown” to us. There is an intensity to the perception that is unique. And that extends to smells, flavors, noises. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about this in class.
Just like you, I too believe that the colour blue represents sadness. For me, the entire setting and theme of the book was based on the hardships natalia had to go through so the colour blue could represent the sadness she felt or the coldness of the people she was surrounded with, just like when she was working as a maid and would come back to her home and emerge into the role of a housewife and how tired she would be but no one around her would notice the misery that she was in.
Hi Avery! I too was screaming for Natalia to get the hell out of the relationship she was in with Quimet. However, what interests me is that throughout the book she still yearns for his presence. She wishes that he would come back alive from war, and even carves the name he gave her (Colometa) permanently. I think this is something really interesting to think about.
– Ava Hamid-Nejad
Nice post Avery! I also thought that Natalia’s marriage was shitty! I think that colour is brought up a lot to match the mood of the environment. Some examples include the black bow on the door of The Mother’s door when she dies, and Natalia’s white aprons at the beginning of the story that symbolize her purity and innocence to the stuff that is about to happen to her.
hi!
love your blog title. For me I feel like the colour blue can represent both sadness, but also a sense of content. I feel like maybe the blue could have started as a representation of sadness that Natalia was feeling in her life, then ended up as a feeling of content with her new marriage and life – kind of relating to the last word of the book (which i think is actually content in spanish)
Hi, I throughly enjoyed reading your post your enthusiasm is infectious 🙂 and I think it’s very interesting to see how your not only relating the content to modern conversations such as with the topic of gaslighting but its also nice to see you drawing connections to current themes(trends) in order to make the readings more personal and entertaining.