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36. Joana
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Salt to the Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Agency, Willpower, and Fate
Storytelling and Fantasy
Memory and Survival
Family and Community vs. Selfishness
Summary
Analysis
Eva and Joana come over to Emilia to ask her about her pregnancy. Eva wonders if the Soviet soldiers at Nemmersdorf raped Emilia. Emilia tells her no, she is pregnant with a boy named August’s child. He lived on a farm owned by family friends, where her father sent her for safety. She is on her way to meet him, and begins to fantasize about their wedding, and the stork's nest they will have by their home.
Emilia’s claim that August is the father of her child is part of an elaborate fantasy that helps protect her from the traumatic truth of her situation. Thinking about their future together helps her endure brutality in the present. When she thinks about the storks in her future she is really thinking about a happier past, when her family members were living together peacefully. This is what she hopes her future will look like.
Themes
