Nada by Carmen Laforet really captured my attention as the book was filled with drama, relationships and betrayal surrounding a young university student. Laforet did an excellent job in portraying the characters as somewhat delusional as I often found myself questioning many of their actions. Although this book has a lot to unpack, this blog post will focus on the relationship between Andrea, and her friend Ena.
Ena and Andrea met through school as they both attended the same university. They seemed to really get along right off the bat considering they came from two widely different backgrounds. Andrea’s family lived in poverty while Ena lived within the middle to upper class. I feel that this also attracted Andrea towards Ena as she was curious to know what it was like to live such a lavish lifestyle in comparison to her own. As Andrea spent more time with Ena and her family and less time with her own, I think she had grown to idolize the life Ena and her family lived. Andrea longed for that sense of family, stability and normalcy within her family that she could never quite find as they often fought and betrayed one another. Looking at Ena’s family from an outsider perspective, it was all Andrea had ever wanted.
As for Ena, before reading the entire story, I almost felt that she was wanting to be a part of Andrea’s family to a certain extent. She seemed fascinated by how much incentive Andrea’s family had towards their goals in life. She was not used to seeing that as her family had already gone through that stage in their life, and were now satisfied with the life they had created. Ena was also fascinated by the constant energy that was in Andrea’s family. It seemed as though there was always something going on. I don’t think she realized the extent to how much of the energy in that house was toxic and violent. However, as we learned, Ena was just using Ramon to get back at what he did to her mother many years ago.
Even though both characters came from vastly different backgrounds, it was nice to see how they could come together to support one another. I enjoyed the end of the story when Ena’s family welcomed Andrea into their family as they invited her to move to Madrid.
Questions:
If you were Andrea, knowing what Ena did to your uncle, would you still befriend her? And would you consider Ena a good friend?