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Nuria Monfort: Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shadow of the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Duality and Repetition
Possessive and Obsessive Love
Fathers, Sons, and Masculinity
Reality and the Written Word
Coincidence and Determinism
Summary
Analysis
Meanwhile, the Civil War is beginning and Miquel is dying of tuberculosis. No one knows which side is in charge of the city, and people are assassinated in broad daylight. Irene Marceau writes Miquel to inform them of the duel and Carax’s flight from the city, and they wait anxiously for his arrival. When he doesn’t appear, they start searching the places they think he will look, like The Angel of Mist and San Gabriel’s, where Father Fernando says that Fumero has come around threatening him as well. While they search, most of the streets are deserted and people are locked inside, fearing to leave their houses in case street fighting arises.
The trauma and brutality of the Civil War haunt the 1950s Barcelona in which Daniel grows up. Therefore, it’s fitting that Nuria and Carax’s narrative comes to a climax at the beginning of the war. The novel’s timing underscores the fact that the war makes its effects felt even after it’s long over in reality. Moreover, the many appearances of the war in the background of the novel mirror the repetitions that characterize most characters’ lives.
Themes
In despair one night, Nuria gets drunk and falls asleep on the sofa. When she wakes up, she finds a note saying that Miquel has gone to look for Julian and she should wait in the apartment. She notices that Miquel has cleaned out his desk, and knows she will never see him again.
Nuria and Miquel have had a fairly equal relationship. However, his exclusion of her now shows that he doesn’t consider her as a partner in investigations.
Themes
