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The Shadow of the Wind: Chapter 4
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
Daniel spends three weeks in the hospital and even Fermín is convinced he will die. During the ambulance ride, Bea and Palacios cradled him and his heart stopped for over a minute, and Daniel thinks he has died and come back to life.
This episode explains Daniel’s earlier claim that he would be “dead” in a week. His figurative death corresponds to Fumero’s literal death.
Themes
By the time Daniel wakes up a week later, the newspapers are saying Fumero died fighting armed criminals. No other bodies were found in the Aldaya mansion.
While the newspapers are again perpetuating misinformation, this time they inadvertently prevent Daniel from being blamed for Fumero’s death.
Themes
Daniel wakes up in the hospital to find Mr. Sempere, Bea, and Fermín standing guard over him. Barceló, Clara, Tomás, Bernarda, and their neighbors arrive soon after. Mr. Sempere has brought Daniel’s fountain pen to the hospital in case he wants to write, and Fermín has discovered that he won’t have to do military service due to his wounds.
By protecting him from the army and fostering his creative impulses, Mr. Sempere and Fermín are the concerned and supportive father figures that no other characters in the novel are lucky enough to have.
Themes
Later, Daniel wakes up to find the room empty except for Carax. Carax doesn’t say anything, but Daniel looks into his eyes for a long time and feels sure that Carax has never found out that Penélope is his half sister. Daniel tells Carax to take the fountain pen and start writing again. Later Daniel wakes up again, and Bea says that she’s been there the whole time and there was no one else in the room, but the fountain pen is gone.
Daniel’s final gift of the fountain pen reinforces the connection between him and Carax, even after the mystery is solved. Bea’s version of events conflicts with the fact that the pen really is missing; this is one last improbable and inexplicable event before the novel settles into a much more prosaic reality.
Themes
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