Hi again!<\/p>\n
One of the elements that stood out to me the most in <\/span>Nada<\/span><\/i> was its irony, which is seen from the title itself. <\/span>Nada<\/span><\/i>, which means \u2018nothing\u2019, truly captures the space between the expectations Andrea came to Barcelona with and the reality she lived, learning that what she envisioned was nothing like it. She moves with hopes of this new life, in fact, a better one, only to receive poverty and oppression from her own. The irony here is that what’s meant to be a new journey filled with growth is instead filled with disappointment and frustration. The title largely reflects the emptiness inside of her due to the disappointment of unmet expectations, and I find that to be a very unique and fascinating choice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is also irony that stems from my perspective as a reader. In today’s age, where many of us are encouraged to have new experiences, and as an individual who feels like new experiences are always about growth or learning, Andrea\u2019s experience in Barcelona, which was supposed to expand her life, instead took away from it. So instead of growing, she left feeling empty, and that to me is very ironic as a reader today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As a reader, even though the novel is named <\/span>Nada,<\/span><\/i> which portrays Andrea\u2019s inner feelings, it doesn\u2019t mean that the novel feels like nothing to the reader. In fact, I think the abcscene is meant to be there, making the reading experience feel emotionally draining, to feel what Andrea is feeling, the discomfort and oppression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This novel also made me think about the effect of the Spanish Civil War on people. If this was the result, what are we made to think about the consequences of this war then? The novel shows us that the war\u2019s damage was not only economic but also perhaps psychological and interpersonal. The cruelty and oppression portrayed by family members, forming this toxic environment at home, with each person’s trauma, sounds like a crisis that led to a dysfunctional family and environment. It shows how the war has ruined not just places but humanity as well, with no sense of empathy or warmth towards one another, \u2018nada\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lastly, a thought I had reading this was how Andrea\u2019s experience strongly resembles many of the mindsets and stories I hear of immigrants who leave their home seeking a new life. Similar to Andrea, many come with these high expectations, but instead they are met with struggles, isolation, financial strain and emotional loneliness. Nada<\/em> shows the irony of these narratives of moving to another place for a better life. Here, Andrea’s location does not give her freedom, it captures her in this restriction and emptiness, making the novel somewhat relevant to today’s time and people despite being written so long ago.<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of it, Andrea girl I’m so glad she got out of there. However, this leads me to think about how others in a similar situation. Was the impact similar on them? How does one get out of a situation like this? Is escape the only option?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi again! One of the elements that stood out to me the most in Nada was its irony, which is seen from the title itself. Nada, which means \u2018nothing\u2019, truly captures the space between the expectations Andrea came to Barcelona with and the reality she lived, learning that what she envisioned was nothing like it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laforet","category-nada","category-narration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/tripteasthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}