Summary

Chapter 7. Valentin receives a letter from his girlfriend which tells of the death of one of his comrades and her new lover; he explains to Molina that the rebels, to keep themselves from getting too attached to any individual, try to keep their relationships casual. Molina recites a bolero, which speaks to Valentin’s current situation, and a footnote discusses O. Feinchel’s psychoanalytic theory that a homosexual orientation is more likely in male children who strongly identify with their mothers, as well as Freud’s theory that that identification eventually grows until the homosexual man identifies himself as a woman.

Valentin, still ill, has another accident, which Molina again helps clean up. Valentin breaks down and admits his great sadness at the loss of his comrade and his lack of contact with his first love, who left the rebel cause because she had found...