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
In February of 1945, Isabelle is still working in a concentration camp. The weather is brutal, and on this particular day, she and Madame Babineau are put on a road crew. The road crew is perhaps the most brutal job in the camp, as the women are strapped up to a steel wheel and whipped as they move through the snow. Isabelle forces herself to just keep moving, even though every step is an exercise in pain. After their work is done, Madame Babineau tells Isabelle not to cry—if she does, she will give up hope and die. But Isabelle is already ill and doesn’t know how much longer she can last. However, she knows that the war is coming to an end, and she sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
Although the Germans left France by the end of 1944, the war wouldn’t end until 1945. This means that many of the prisoners held in Nazi labor camps were still enslaved there for several months after the liberation of France. Prisoners endured wretched conditions; the Nazis barely fed their prisoners, nor did they give them medical attention.
Themes
Shortly after their work on the road crew, Isabelle and Madame Babineau are moved to another concentration camp. When Isabelle gets off of the train, she sees Anouk, who calls out to her. Anouk explains that the Germans are executing everyone in the camps to cover up their tracks. She also tells Isabelle that Gaëtan, Henri, and Paul were arrested, and that Henri was executed. Before she can learn anymore, the authorities separate Isabelle from Anouk. They both goodbye to each other as the authorities pull them apart.
Here, Isabelle learns of the tragic fates that her friends and loved ones have met. However, at least it is possible that Gaëtan is still alive, which gives Isabelle some hope.
Themes
