Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Nightingale, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality and Impossible Choices
Antisemitism and Active Resistance
Gender Roles
Love and War
Summary
Analysis
It’s 1995 on the Oregon Coast. There, the unnamed narrator is sitting and looking at her invitation for the passeurs reunion. Next to her, the phone rings. The narrator picks it up and hears a voice speaking in French. The person on the other end of the line asks if the narrator will be coming to the reunion. The narrator responds by saying that the other passeurs will want to see Juliette Gervais, who has not existed for a long time. Nevertheless, after she hangs up the phone, the narrator decides that she will go to Paris after all. She begins packing her things and then sends a message to Julien letting him know where she will be. The narrator figures that Julien will worry because he thinks she is old and weak.
Again, the book doesn’t reveal the unnamed narrator's identity. The narrator's words are too ambiguous to know if she is Vianne or Isabelle. She says that Juliette Gervais has not existed for a long time. Given that Juliette Gervais was Isabelle’s codename during the war, the narrator’s statement could mean that Isabelle is dead, or it could mean that she no longer uses that name. In the latter case, Juliette would be symbolically dead rather than literally dead.
Themes
