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?