Give My Girl a BREAAAAKKK: Rodoreda

         Rodoreda’s “Time of The Doves” is a story of love and loss, and the desperation that ensues when one must carry such a heavy weight for so long. I must say I was shocked when Natalia was about to kill her children and herself, but it goes to show that when we are pushed so far beyond our limits, we change as a person and the beliefs or personality traits that once defined us either become void or heightened in moments of fight or flight. Not even Natalia’s children could keep her desire to live after what she had to endure. Ultimately, this is a story of the tragedies of life and war and the toll it takes on the mind and body. 

One instance where Natalia's desperation truly comes to fruition is when she plans to get rid of the doves as she can no longer take their chaos. This seems like such an extreme way to handle her issue with the doves, killing their young. Natalia could have chosen to talk to Quimet about it (although he probably wouldn’t have heard her complaints as he was a stubborn, stubborn man) but instead she chose to stay quiet and handle it on her own, acting out of frustration and exhaustion. The later introduction of the Spanish civil war and the violence that followed it seemed to point at this kind of human trait to act in anger and violence when presented with a stressor. It seemed as if it was almost this innate instinct to smite the source of stress before it posed too large of a threat to survival. In both cases, Natalia and the war, the outcome is that of a tragedy that could have been avoided. If this wasn’t enough of a strain on Natalia's life, she receives the news that Quimet has died in the war. Despite my dislike of him, I found myself sad for Natalia. If not for his death, then for the loss of a partner to help split the burden in such hard times. Which then leads to her deciding to kill herself and her children in order to escape this bleak life they are living. I actively sighed a sigh of relief when Antonio came to help. I don’t think I would have recovered if the novel ended so tragically. 

Even as Natalia and Antonio’s relationship progresses and they get married, she still has this fear that Quimet isn’t really dead and he is going to show up any minute. It seems like although she has made it past these hardships, she can’t seem to move on from her past with Quimet. She still has this tie to the life she had. Perhaps this is because she is still thinking of the what-ifs, the life her and Quimet could have had if he treated her right or if he returned from the war. Or this could have been a fear response as Quimet was often erratic as shown when we accused Natalia of continuing to see her previous fiancée. I am glad though that she could finally have her reprieve at the end. 

My question for you is: Do you think that Natalia also saw Quimet as controlling and erratic at times or did she have a skewed image of him?