Home and Belonging

Over the course of the novel, the author uses each of Victor’s and Roser’s physical relocations in order to consider the ways in which the individual relies upon her sense of home and belonging for a sense of stability and identity. Because Victor’s and Roser’s lives are backgrounded by nearly constant “political and social chaos,” they are repeatedly forced to part with their homes, their communities, and their families (220). At the start of the novel, the Spanish Civil War is the conflict that upsets their stability in Spain. Once the Nationalist troops begin “advancing down from Tibidabo,” Victor and Roser are forced to flee with their fellow soldiers and citizens “toward the French border” (47). What they do not know is that “a campaign of fear and hatred awaited them” in France (51). The author uses these political and environmental conflicts in...