Significance of Citizenship Papers

Citizenship papers symbolize the dream of a peaceful life that Eleanor strives for throughout the novel. In the beginning, the narrator notes that Eleanor works for the SOE in hopes of attaining citizenship papers and thus being able to enjoy the full benefits of British life. However, after discovering the actions of the SOE cost her agents their lives, she becomes disillusioned and, when finally offered the citizenship papers, turns them away, noting that “[t]hey now seemed a sorry consolation prize for the girls she had lost” (269).