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Chapter 66
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sarah’s Key, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Remembrance and History
The Power of Silence
Guilt
Identity
Bravery
The Limits of Love
Summary
Analysis
A few weeks later, Julia is back in Paris on bed rest. Edouard visits every Friday. He is as distressed as Julia over how the visit with William played out. Julia gets her doctor’s approval to host a dinner party, to which she invites Edouard, Gaspard, Nicolas, and Nathalie Dufaure. The dinner is a “moving, magical moment” as Julia observes the conversation of “three elderly men who [have] an unforgettable little girl in common.” Julia wishes that William were present, thinking that only he has the answers she craves to her lingering questions about Sarah.
Julia’s dinner party shows clearly how cathartic it is to openly discuss the past. The joy of the three older men is evident as Julia observes them, and underscores the fact that pain can, perhaps, be lessened by being shared. Julia’s continued thoughts of William and Sarah show that she still does not feel the type of closure that she seems to be witnessing in Edouard’s meeting with the Dufaure brothers.
Themes
