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City of Shadows: Chapter 30
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shadow of the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Duality and Repetition
Possessive and Obsessive Love
Fathers, Sons, and Masculinity
Reality and the Written Word
Coincidence and Determinism
Summary
Analysis
On the old man’s instructions, Daniel and Fermín finally locate Jacinta. She’s in very bad condition, but still remembers her beloved Penélope. They gain her trust by mentioning Father Fernando. Jacinta says that everyone has conspired to take Penélope away from her.
Although Jacinta is weak, she still has a strong desire to talk about her past. Characters who are willing to explore and analyze history are always helpful in resolving the events of the past and preventing them from repeating.
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Another nested narrative begins, with Jacinta as the narrator. Jacinta grew up in Toledo, and as a child was plagued by nightmares due to a dangerous fever. A recurring figure in her dreams was Zacarías, an angel who smelled like sulfur. Zacarías accurately predicts deaths in her family, that Jacinta will never have children, and that her husband will leave her, which eventually turned out to be true.
Jacinta is the novel’s strongest proponent of the idea that all characters’ fates are predetermined. She asserts that destiny is real and active, anthropomorphized through the character of Zacarías. It’s important that for Jacinta, destiny has elements of good and evil; Zacarías has the appearance of an angel, but he smells like sulfur, a characteristic associated with the devil and hell.
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Jacinta prayed fervently for God to grant her dearest wish, to become a mother. One day in church, Zacarías approached her in real life and whispered the word “Tibidabo,” at which point Jacinta had a vision that she would have a daughter without a man in her life and that she would find her in a city full of fantastica; buildings. Her parish priest listened to her account of the vision and said the city might be Barcelona, so Jacinta set off immediately.
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In Barcelona, Jacinta eventually found work caring for the pregnant Mrs. Aldaya. Soon after, Jorge was born, and Jacinta cared for him, engrossing herself in the life of the family but still waiting expectantly for the promised daughter. Jacinta moved with the Aldayas to the cursed mansion, which she perceived to be inhabited by Zacarías but did not fear. When Penélope was born, Jacinta cared for her fiercely, especially given that Mrs. Aldaya was distant and aloof. Penélope grew up sharing all her secrets and thoughts with her nurse.
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When Penélope became a beautiful teenager, she met Carax, and Jacinta noticed their immediate connection. Even though she recognized that Carax might be dangerous to her charge, Jacinta only desired what Penélope wanted, so she assisted their blossoming affair, passing notes between the young lovers.
In order to see Penélope and be around her in the house, Carax began to feign an interest in banking and to behave exactly as Mr. Aldaya wanted him to. In doing so he felt he was fundamentally changing himself and might not be worthy of Penélope if he could ever obtain her.
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Jacinta also noticed young Javier’s growing obsession with Penélope. One day he stole a photograph of the girl out of her purse, and weeks later he gave Jacinta a disturbing carved figure of Penélope as a gift. Jacinta became close with young Carax, chatting with him when she picked Jorge up from school and even telling him that she saw the licentious Mr. Aldaya chatting up Carax’s mother Sophie once.
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Meanwhile, Sophie disliked Carax’s increasing absorption into the Aldaya family and growing distance from his own. Fortuny was deeply bitter about this as well, and one day presented himself at Mr. Aldaya’s office to reclaim his son and demand the Aldayas relinquish their hold on him, but Mr. Aldaya only laughed scornfully. Afterwards, Mr. Aldaya blacklisted Fortuny’s shop among his wealthy friends and the business declined sharply.
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Mr. Aldaya organized a huge party for Jorge’s eighteenth birthday, to which Carax insisted Javier be invited. Javier declined the invitation, feeling he would be out of place among the wealthy guests, but his status-seeking mother humiliated her son by dressing him up in a sailor suit and dragging him to the party. Skeptical of their appearance, the guards kicked them out of the house while the other guests laughed. At the peak of his humiliation, Javier spied Carax and Penélope kissing against a window.
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The next day, Javier brought a gun to school and attempted to shoot Carax, who was only saved because Miquel jumped on Javier and took away the gun.
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By this time, graduation was approaching. Mr. Aldaya planned to initiate Carax into his firm, while Fortuny plotted to send him to the military out of spite. Carax was too preoccupied with Penélope to think about the future. He was also worried to discover that Sophie sometimes met secretly with Mr. Aldaya, although Mr. Aldaya claimed it was only to consult about Carax’s future.
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Miquel encouraged Carax to elope with Penélope and offered to finance the venture, planning a detailed escape to Paris. After finalizing the plans, Carax hurried to tell Penélope, who agreed immediately. The only problem was that they had to deceive Jacinta, who would be too worried to go along with the plan.
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Afterwards, Penélope and Carax had sex on the floor of Jacinta’s room, only to be discovered by Mrs. Aldaya. Carax had to flee the house and wait for the Aldayas to take action. For days nothing happened, and he believed Mrs. Aldaya may have kept the secret, but one day he was summarily expelled from San Gabriel’s. Returning home, Carax saw Mr. Aldaya’s car leaving his family’s apartment building.
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Inside, Sophie told him that now Mr. Aldaya was cooperating with Fortuny to dispatch Carax to the army, and that he must flee immediately. On Saturday, Carax went to the train station where he’d promised to meet Penélope, but she never arrived. Miquel promised to keep him abreast of any developments and exhorted him to write books in honor of Penélope.
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As it turns out, Mrs. Aldaya had confined Penélope to the house and told her husband everything. Mr. Aldaya was so angry that the servants said he was “possessed by all the devils in hell.” He summarily fired Jacinta, forcing her to leave the house where she had lived for so many years without even saying goodbye to Penélope. Later, Mr. Aldaya pulled some strings to have Jacinta locked in a mental asylum for a few years. By the time she was released, the house was abandoned and the Aldayas had disappeared without a trace. After finishing the story, Jacinta begins to sob, and Fermín comforts her.
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Daniel and Fermín leave the hospice in a hurry, planning to regroup in a café, but they are soon stopped on the road by two thugs and Inspector Fumero. Fumero warns that they are behaving dangerously by poking around the hospice, and threatens to torture Daniel if Fermín doesn’t reveal exactly what they were doing. Fermín taunts the inspector, and then Fumero beats him up while the other policemen “laugh dutifully.” Daniel recognizes one of them as the man he saw days before in the café and on the bus. When Fumero finally departs, Daniel rushes to revive Fermín, who insists on being taken to die in Bernarda’s arms.
