Carmen Laforet, Nada——WEEK5

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This week I read Carmen Laforet's work Nada, and here are some of my post-reading feelings. 

Through this week's reading of Nada, I learned about the desolate landscape of post-war Barcelona. Through the subjective and objective perspective of the protagonist, the author takes the protagonist's family as the main object of description, creating a microcosm of the miserable post-war society at that time. The author's expression is very delicate. The article contains a lot of reports of the scenery, which highlights the eerie atmosphere of the family and shows the protagonist's rejection and fear of living here. The words of the article are straightforward, but the emotions revealed are meticulous and accurate. It's easier to understand how the author feels and how things have gone.

The protagonist comes to Barcelona to complete her studies and seeks refuge from her relatives. Still, when she lives here, she gradually gets to know everyone who lives in the family and the unusual relationships between relatives. During the time she lived here, every day she spent seemed painful and unbearable, and the family members seemed to be ghosts lacking the vitality of life under her description. As a bystander, she observes the family's disputes, the old grandmother, the terrible aunt, the grumpy uncle, and the aunt. She is entangled with her husband's brother. The constant torture of the family makes the house's atmosphere very depressing. Her campus life is not as good as imagined. However, she met a good friend, just the exchange on campus it difficult to dispel the loneliness in her heart. The relationship with a boy also ended without beginning because of his family conditions. Fortunately, In the end, Andrea had the opportunity to leave the city that had tormented her and embark on a new journey.

As I read this book, I also searched the context of the times. I can see that Bartholome was very depressed after the war. Most of the literary works advocated the existence of women in the family. The protagonist of Nada observes the flaws of this family model from the perspective of a bystander; she describes the involuntary nature of women living in such a family. This straightforward reality may awaken many women who have suffered in the family, making them aware of their situation. The protagonist's courage to embark on a new path to pursue their dreams also gave people the courage to pursue their true selves.

My question for this article is: Do you think the friendship between the protagonist and his popular college classmate is equal? It looked as if she was in a state of escort.


地点: Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4加拿大

评论

  1. Mackenzie Dewar-Pratt2022年2月5日 21:33

    Hi Xiang, I think the word you used in your first sentence "desolate" perfectly captures the essence of this book and the environment its set in. I like that you pointed out Andrea's rejection and fear of Barcelona, I picked up on that too. I wonder if Barcelona was truly horrible or if it was more so just a let down of her expectations. Given Andrea's upbringing, I imagine she had very high exceptions of the big city that were largely let down when she saw how impoverished her extended family was and the struggles they encountered as a result of the war. Thanks for sharing some of the content of the time in which this novel took place! It was very insightful and helped me gain a better understanding. When reading novels, understanding the context in which it is written is almost always necessary to extracting the bigger ideas/messages that the author aims to convey without overtly describing it within the novel.
    -Mackenzie Dewar-Pratt

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  2. Jennifer Nagtegaal2022年2月6日 13:46

    "The words of the article are straightforward, but the emotions revealed are meticulous and accurate". - Interesting! I wonder if any specific examples of this comes to mind.

    For me, I see this in the description of the active weather and nature as the events of the story also gain speed and near the climax: first, the expression of true friendship between Andrea and Ena, and then the death of Roman:
    "looked at the thick air, crushed against the earth, which was beginning to make the dust and leaves fly around in a macabre dance of dead things. I felt the pain of solitude, more unbearable, because repeated, than the one that had assailed me when I left Pons’s house the other day" (214).

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  3. Jennifer Nagtegaal2022年2月6日 14:06

    I am also wondering if you have a question that you want to post to your classmates! A reminder that each blog post should also include one question that you want us to discuss collectively.

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