The Mine Symbol Analysis

During the Italian occupation, Lemoni discovers a Turkish mine from World War One that Corelli believes likely contained enough explosive material to blow up at least one warship. He and Carlo—who loves explosives from the bottom of his heart—decide to blow up the mine for the safety of the villagers, and the event is treated like a fun and entertaining diversion from both mundane day-to-day proceedings and the horrors of the war. However, when the mine explodes, it causes a great deal of damage: Corelli is deaf for two days, an engineer is decapitated by a flying piece of metal, and all the gathered soldiers and villagers are cut, bruised, and covered in hot sand. With this, the mine illustrates that even those parts of war that can be beautiful and exciting are, in actuality, dangerous and destructive.