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
The next morning, Isabelle wakes up and sparks a conversation with Gaëtan. She asks him why he was in jail, but he doesn’t provide a direct answer. Instead, Gaëtan asks Isabelle what she thinks about communists. This question makes Isabelle assume Gaëtan was a political prisoner. Again, Gaëtan doesn’t explicitly state why he was in jail. Instead, he tells Isabelle that someone like her could never understand what he’s been through. Isabelle disagrees, telling Gaëtan that prisons come in more forms than one. Eventually, Gaëtan reveals that he was imprisoned for stealing. However, he doesn’t elaborate on what he stole.
The French communist party was banned at the start of World War I, and its members were threatened with incarceration and execution. Evidently, Gaëtan was involved with the party and went to jail because of it. Again, although Isabelle has suffered herself, her decision to compare her suffering to Gaëtan’s does show her naivete somewhat—she’s yet to realize the extent to which human beings can suffer under extreme conditions.
Themes
As their conversation ends, Isabelle and Gaëtan get up and begin their journey. Before long, they encounter a group of French soldiers who are in rough shape and traveling away from Paris. Gaëtan approaches the men and demands to know why they are retreating. The men reveal that no one is still fighting the Germans; instead, everyone is retreating. This news sends Gaëtan into a rage and Isabelle has to move him away from the French soldiers. Together, Isabelle and Gaëtan continue their journey, but Gaëtan’s mood takes a turn for the worse. He barely speaks and is clearly upset by what he’s heard.
Notoriously, France quickly crumbled and surrendered after the Germans broke through the Maginot Line. Gaëtan is enraged that his country has already seemingly surrendered to the enemy before he even had a chance to fight.
Themes
By the third day of their journey, Isabelle is exhausted and in pain to the point that she can barely stay on her feet. As Isabelle and Gaëtan are walking, they hear planes flying over them. Moments later, the crowd they are walking amongst is bombed and machine gun fire roars all around them. Gaëtan shoves Isabelle to the ground and positions his body over hers to shield her. As Isabelle lays on the ground, she sees chaos everywhere. There are old people who are gravely wounded and children crying next to their dead mothers. In attempt to escape the carnage, Isabelle and Gaëtan run into a nearby church for cover.
Here, Gaëtan proves his bravery by potentially sacrificing his life for Isabelle. This is the first true horror that Isabelle and Gaëtan experience together. No one is safe in this war—including women and children.
Themes
