The Shadow of the Wind

“Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget—we will return.” 

One of the most consistent themes throughout the novel is Zafón’s use of books as tools for understanding the world and the people in it. Though Julián’s work contains dark and even evil characters, such as the devil, Laín Coubert, they play an important role in creating the mystical and symbolically real atmosphere of both The Shadow of the Wind by Carax, which the reader only hears about, and The Shadow of the Wind by Zafón, which the reader is currently reading. This doubling effect of realities adds specifically to the elements of magical realism and atmosphere of otherworldliness throughout the novel.

“‘What killed him was loyalty to people who, when their time came, betrayed him. Never trust anyone, Daniel, especially the people you admire. Those are the ones who will make you suffer the worst blows.’"

Clara Barceló gives 10-year-old Daniel advice, telling him about what caused her father’s death during the Civil War. In their relationship, she treats him as an equal, despite their age difference. Clara is about ten years older than Daniel. She knows that Daniel admires and cares for her, and she uses his feelings to manipulate him as he gets older. This quotation foreshadows her manipulation and later betrayal of Daniel’s feelings for her.

“I had grown up convinced that the slow procession of the postwar years, a world of stillness, poverty, and hidden resentment, was as natural as tap water, that the mute sadness that seeped from the walls of the wounded city was the real face of its soul. One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn’t have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep. That evening in early summer, as I walked back through the somber, treacherous twilight of Barcelona, I could not blot out Clara’s story about her father’s disappearance. In my world death was like a nameless and incomprehensible hand, a door-to-door salesman who took away mothers, beggars, or ninety-year-old neighbors, like a hellish lottery.” 

Here, ten-year-old Daniel grows up. Beginning to understand the unfairness and darkness of the world, Daniel finds himself haunted by death. Unfair and untimely deaths form an underlying theme in this novel, centering first around Daniel’s loss of his mother and Clara’s loss of her father: both seemingly victims of the long reach of the Civil War.

“But I couldn’t absorb the idea that death could actually walk by my side, with a human face and a heart that was poisoned with hatred, that death could be dressed in a uniform or a raincoat, queue up at a cinema, laugh in bars, or take his children out for a walk to Ciudadela Park in the morning, and then, in the afternoon, make someone disappear in the dungeons of Monjuïc Castle or in a common grave with no name or ceremony.” 

Daniel cannot grasp the full measure of man’s inherent evil toward his fellowman. His musings also foreshadow the arrival of Inspector Fumero in Daniel’s life.

“Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not for the merits of who receives them.” 

Daniel’s father, called only by his last name, Sempere, in the novel, continually gives Daniel sound life advice. Though they suffer misunderstandings and disagreements, particularly over Clara Barceló, the essential relationship of Daniel and his father remains close, deep, loving, and supportive. In fact, their relationship models the ideal father and son relationship in the novel.

“‘Television, my dear Daniel, is the Antichrist, and I can assure you that after only three or four generations, people will no longer even know how to fart on their own and humans will return to living in caves, to medieval savagery, and to the general state of imbecility that slugs overcame back in the Pleistocene era. Our world will not die as a result of the bomb, as the papers say, it will die of laughter, of banality, of making a joke over everything, and a lousy joke at that.’” 

Here, one of the bookshop regulars decries the decline of intellectual ability in modern society. Zafón’s words, coming from Professor Velazquez’s mouth, speak a truth that applies to the current times. A lack of interest in intellectualism, in fact, marks the post-modern age, according to many scholars and pundits.

“‘People talk too much. Humans aren’t descended from monkeys. They come from parrots.’” 

The apartment administrator, Mr. Molins, remarks to Julián about people’s gossip, specifically the gossip about who Julián’s biological father was. This type of cynical humor is common among the characters in this novel, particularly the adult generation who survived the Civil War. They, like Mr. Molins, have little belief in the goodness of the human race.

“‘All good things must wait. There are yokels out there who think that if they touch a woman’s behind and she doesn’t complain, they’ve hooked her. Amateurs. The female heart is a labyrinth of subtleties, too challenging for the uncouth mind of the male racketeer. If you really want to possess a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is to win over her soul. The rest, that sweet, soft wrapping that steals away your senses and your virtue, is a bonus.’” 

Fermín gives Daniel sage advice about women. Daniel takes all of Fermín’s advice seriously, and the two become best friends. However, Fermín’s role in advising Daniel in love is mirrored by Daniel’s care for Fermín as he protects him from Fumero. Their relationship is that of equals, despite their differences in age and life experience.

“‘Not evil,’ Fermín objected. ‘Moronic, which isn't quite the same thing. Evil presupposes a moral decision, intention, and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn't stop to think or reason. He acts on instinct, like a stable animal, convinced he's doing good, that he's always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around fucking up ... anyone he perceives to be different from himself, be it because of skin color, creed, language, nationality, or ... his leisure habits. What the world needs is more thoroughly evil people and fewer borderline pigheads.’”

When Don Frederico, the watchmaker, is arrested, beaten, and raped, Fermín diagnoses what is wrong with human nature. He argues that evil is easier to fight than stupidity. This belief is shared by many of the characters in the novel: evil exists and must be fought, but unthinking thugs are harder to deal with and eliminate from society. Banal ignorance can be even more dangerous than a purposeful evil.

“The teacher was mumbling under his breath. ‘It’s like the tide, you see?’ he said, beside himself. ‘The savagery, I mean. It goes away, and you feel safe, but it always returns, it always returns . . . and it chokes us. I see it every day at school. My God . . . Apes, that’s what we get in the classrooms. Darwin was a dreamer, I can assure you. No evolution or anything of the sort. For every one who can reason, I have to battle with nine orangutans.’”

Driven to anguish by the arrest and humiliation of his neighbor, Don Frederico, the teacher, Don Anacleto, speaks out against the unthinking masses. Discouraged and deeply troubled, the teacher exposes an underlying theme of the novel: people do not want to think and commit atrocities simply because they do not know any better.

“When I turned around, I realized that Nuria Monfort was gazing at me from the entrance to the corridor. She regarded me in silence, the way one looks at strangers on the street or in the subway. She lit a cigarette and stayed where she was, her face masked by spirals of blue smoke. I suddenly thought that, despite herself, Nuria Monfort exuded a certain air of the femme fatale, like those women in the movies who dazzled Fermín when the materialized out of the mist of a Berlin station, enveloped in halos of improbably light, the sort of beautiful women whose own appearance bored them.”

In his first meeting with Nuria Monfort, Daniel feels her attraction, using both angelic and sexualized language to describe her, such as “halos” of light and “femme fatale.” This description falls in line with Daniel’s descriptions of other women: he frequently sees women, particularly beautiful women, as angels, typically using angelic language to depict their looks and characters.

“‘There are worse prisons than words …’” 

Nuria Monfort explains Julián Carax’s personality to Daniel, including the fact that he seemed to live in a ‘prison’ of words—the world created in his novels. She describes Julián as living only for his work, obsessed with writing and his creative process to the exclusion of all else. Here, she hints that she feels that the world creates worse prisons for people to inhabit.

“‘Someone once said that the moment that you stop to think about whether you love someone, you’ve already stopped loving that person forever.’” 

Daniel here speaks openly and with nothing to lose in his attempts to woo Bea away from her marriage to Pablo. Though he admits to himself that he would say anything to her that he thinks would work, he sticks to honesty and truth in all of his communication with Bea. In return, she is honest, even brutally honest, with him. This honesty between loved ones is a significant factor in the good relationships in the novel. Zafón indicates, through Daniel and Bea’s relationship in particular, that all good relationships are built on honesty and open communication.

“She laughed nervously. ‘I don’t know what came over me. Don’t be offended, but sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?’

I shrugged. ‘Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are.’

‘Is that also from your friend Carax?’

‘No, I’ve just made it up to impress you.’

‘And how do you see me?’

‘Like a mystery.’

‘That’s the strangest compliment anyone has ever paid me.’

‘It’s not a compliment. It’s a threat.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Mysteries must be solved, one must find out what they hide.’

‘You might be disappointed when you see what’s inside.’

'I might be surprised. And you, too.’

‘Tomás never told me you had so much cheek.’

‘That’s because what little I have, I’ve reserved entirely for you.’

‘Why?’

Because I’m afraid of you, I thought.”

This exchange marks the real beginning of Daniel and Bea’s relationship because they start to tell each other the truth and value the honesty each person brings to the relationship. With honesty, there can be trust, and with trust, there can be a solid foundation for an authentic, long-lasting love.

 “I told her how until that moment I had not understood that this was a story about lonely people, about absence and loss, and that that way why I had taken refuge in it until it became confused with my own life, like someone who has escaped into the pages of a novel because those whom he needs to love seem nothing more that ghosts inhabiting the mind of a stranger.” 

To Bea, Julián explains his relationship with The Shadow of the Wind and his detective work into the life and works of Julián Carax, the books’ author. Daniel’s candor with Bea is unlike any other relationship in his life. His relationship with his father is conducted mostly wordlessly, in either a companionable or awkward silence, depending on whether they are getting along. Like his father, Daniel is candid and forthright, but not talkative.

“‘A man with a head, a heart, and a soul. A man capable of listening, of leading and respecting a child, and not of drowning his own defect in him. Someone whom a child will not only love because he’s his father but will also admire for the person he is. Someone he would want to grow up to resemble.’” 

Fermín describes Daniel’s father to explain what he believes he should be as a father. Mr. Sempere is an exemplary father and human being. Daniel, of course, at sixteen years old, takes his father for granted. However, Fermín’s openness, candor, and kindness also exemplify the requirements Zafón lays out in the novel for good relationships.

“‘Look, Daniel, at my age either you begin to see things for what they are or you’re pretty much done for. Only three or four things are worth living for; the rest is manure. I’ve already fooled around a lot, and now I know that the only thing I really want is to make Bernarda happy and die one day in her arms. I want to be a respectable man again, see? Not for my sake—as far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t give a fly’s turd for the respect of this choir of simians we call humanity—but for hers.’” 

Along with several other characters in the novel who hold dim views of humanity, Fermín describes to Daniel what is truly valuable in life. Daniel pays attention to Fermín’s advice, as later events show.

“‘Look, Daniel. Women, with remarkable exceptions like your neighbor Merceditas, are more intelligent than we are, or at least more honest with themselves about what they want or don’t want. Another question is whether they tell you or the world. You’re facing the enigma of nature, Daniel. Womankind is an indecipherable maze. If you give her time to think, you’re lost. Remember: warm heart, cold mind. The seducer’s code.’”

Fermín advises Daniel on how to pursue a relationship with Bea. Of course, his advice is heartfelt but not necessarily helpful to Daniel, who is obvious and honest about his intentions with Bea.

“‘Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.’” 

Julián reveals his belief about books. Specifically, he is talking to Jorge Aldaya about the huge library available to him in his father’s house. Jorge does not like to read, about which his father insults him. However, the lonely rich boy and Julián become close friends, because both are outcasts in different ways. Julián is an outcast because his family Is not rich, and Jorge is an outcast because his family is rich and much is expected of him that he cannot deliver.

“She was seventeen, her entire life shining on her lips.” 

Daniel describes his first time with Bea. It is a magical experience for Daniel; one that the narrator reports that he has tried to recreate many times. Here, the older Daniel’s voice, as narrator of the story, comes through rather than the younger Daniel’s voice. Zafón uses this technique to let the reader know that an older man is looking back on his past in creating this narrative. An adult Daniel’s consciousness filters the young Daniel’s experiences, particularly the romance between Daniel and Bea.

“She gave me a broken smile, full of fear and loneliness. I then saw myself through her eyes: just an innocent boy who thought he had conquered the world in an hour but didn’t yet realize that he could lose it again in an instant.” 

Daniel realizes that Bea has unspoken depths and maturity, which he lacks. This truth—Bea’s superior understanding of what can happen to them—follows Daniel throughout the rest of his search for Julián’s books and exploring Julián’s life. However, Daniel begins to grow up when he begins a relationship with Bea.

“Sometimes we think people are like lottery tickets, that they’re there to make our most absurd dreams come true.”

Isaac Monfort is speaking here about his relationship with his daughter, Nuria. He admits that he, like other people, often has an unrealistic vision of what people can do for one another. Though he intends this comment to apply to himself, he also speaks a larger truth about human relationships and people’s expectations of others’ abilities to meet their emotional needs.

“Julián spoke with the clear, unequivocal lucidity of madmen who have escaped the hypocrisy of having to abide by a reality that makes no sense . . . For some time now, Julián had been wondering whether he’d gone out of his mind. Does the madman know he is mad? Or are the madmen those who insist on convincing him of his unreason in order to safeguard their own idea of reality?” 

Nuria Monfort reveals Julián’s deeply ambivalent feelings about life, particularly as expressed in his books. He burned all of his books because no one was worthy enough to read them; however, he seems to believe that perhaps Daniel, the mirror of his lost son, can redeem him and his work from the doom of despair and loss.