In Nada by Carmen Laforet, the orphan Andrea arrives in Barcelona full of optimism about her new life in the city. Many critics claim that the novel is a "bildungsroman", a coming-of-age story in which the protagonist, a teenage girl, comes of age and finds her identity. However, surrounded by a family characterized by fragmentation in the decadence of post-war Spain, it is arguable that Andrea is unable to find a stable and secure identity and leaves the city with the same childish naivety with which she has arrived. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay There is a sense of repression of true identity throughout the novel, which changes shape as the plot develops. The book is divided into three distinct parts, the first of which ends with Angustias' departure to the convent. In this first part, it seemed that Andrea's aunt was the main barrier separating her from the possibility of independence and maturity and also the force that inflicted on her feelings of anxiety and guilt. Although Andrea arrived in Barcelona hoping to lead the liberated life of a university student, upon her arrival on Aribau Street she encountered a sort of prison, full of fragmented characters whose repressed desires and impulses had led to darkness, violence and depravity. However, even after Angustias leaves, Andrea realizes that as long as she is on the rue de Aribau, she will never be able to find her independence - she is allowed to have her aunt's old room, but she finds that not only does Romen often enter without warning to rummage through the clutter that fills the room, but the room itself is in the middle of the house and Andrea cannot escape everything that is happening around her, especially to the arguments between Gloria and Juan. Aribau's expressionist and Gothic descriptions are often linked to a kind of suffocation, implying that the true identities of the characters have been suppressed and distorted: "en el piso un calor sofocante como si el aire estuviera estancado y podrido"[1] . This contrasts sharply with impressionist descriptions of the beach, where time spent is associated with light and nature: “Toda la semana parecia alboreada por ellos… me hizo ella ver un Nuevo sentido de la Naturaleza en el que ni siquiera habia . thoughtful'[2]. The traditional connection between light and dark, the natural and the Gothic could result in the stifling of any identity that Andrea might have hoped to find during her time in Aribau, and that the possibility of developing a mature identity would not be possible. is possible only during the time spent without his family and, more importantly, with Ena. Furthermore, it is paradoxical that Andrea is particularly enthusiastic about coming to Barcelona, ​​a bustling and bustling city, and yet it is especially when she leaves the city to go to the beach or the countryside that she she feels the happiest and liberated. . Thus, it is clear, both from the language of oppression and suffocation of Aribau Street and from the semantic fields of light and darkness, that if Andrea has any hope of becoming a young woman and of assuming the identity she so desperately desires cannot happen in the filth and ghostliness of Aribau. The fragmentation of the self is very closely linked to the notion of identity in Nada. Throughout the novel, until the final pages, Andrea shows a distinct and crucial division between the inner and the outer, a division that fundamentally prevents her from realizing her desire to be an attractive, desired woman.and mature. From the first meeting with Ena, she desperately tries to separate her two worlds; indeed, she is ashamed of her family in Aribau, especially after seeing the upper-bourgeois life led by Ena in V?a Layetana. Andrea's household represents a family in crisis after the upheaval and destruction of the Spanish Civil War, missing a male head of household. The household and members of his family scrape together just enough money to survive, Juan as a poorly paid night watchman and Gloria while secretly gambling. On the other hand, Andrea's family represents the model family of Franco's new order who lead a comfortable and liberal life among the new Spanish business elite.[3] Perhaps it is here, in the deep-rooted social fragmentation of post-war Spain, that Andrea's inability to realize her dreams and desires finds its source. In her mind, Andrea wants to be the sophisticated woman that Ena embodies and Román wants as a companion. For a time, she maintains the appearance of a refined young woman, “yo daba cuenta de que el me creea una persona distinctta; mucho mes formada, y tal vez me inteligente'[4], but her feelings of inferiority and inadequacy shine through and Romen soon refers to her as a child. Although these feelings resurface several times in the novel, they are never as strong as at Pon's ball where Andrea leaves because of her dirty, cheap shoes and the feeling of estrangement she feels from being surrounded of a bourgeois social class. For Andrea, part of the identity she wants to achieve is overcoming the class boundary between herself and people like Pons and Ena. Thus, it is undoubtedly social fragmentation that hinders the transition between childhood and femininity. However, Andrea's remarkable childish passivity is also important and is arguably what means that she is incapable of assuming the identity she desires. She very rarely takes an active role in things that may concern her development, such as at Pon's ball where she makes no effort to mingle with the other guests or dance with Pons. Even Andrea, the mature woman who narrates the story, shows the childish trait of constantly trying to avoid taking responsibility for the role of "spectadora" in which she has found herself. She seems to blame the social and family fragmentation that surrounds her as well as the fact of seeing her position as predetermined and immutable: 'unos seres nacen para vivir, otros para trabajar, otros para mirar la vida. You have a small one and you ruin the spectator's paper. Impossible to get it dirty. Impossible libertarian. However, as a reader we get a sense of her childish passivity and even when she is given the opportunity to come out of her shell and become an active agent in influencing events, she lacks the courage to do so. TO DO. She is given two mediator roles in the novel, one from her grandmother to mediate between Gloria and Juan in one of their disputes, and another from Margarita to protect Ena from Romen. In these two roles, she fails to adopt the mature identity she desires and her childish side dominates her. Additionally, there is a sense that any progress made in the novel toward a stable and secure identity is the result not of her actions but of Ena, who acts as a sort of fairy godmother[5] to save Andrea from situations that she can't handle. and offer him a better future. When Andrea runs away from Romen's room, it is Ena's phone call that saves her from her fear and her insomnia, then at the end of the book it is Ena's letter that allows her to escaping the “chillidos histericos”[6] of the house. on Airbau. So, even though at the end of the novel Andrea's fortunes seem to have changed and she seems to have passed therigid social boundary in which she felt trapped earlier in the novel, it is not her own fault and, as a child again, she was helped out of her miserable situation by someone who is capable of assume the identity of a young, mature woman. The idea of ​​self-fragmentation is reinforced by looking at how Andrea takes the traits of others, primarily Ena but also Romen, to a higher level. degree and sees characteristics in it that she would like to have herself. Ena is a projection of the identity that Andrea lacks, she embodies the courage, attractiveness and sensuality that the protagonist wishes she could have. Likewise, Romen, although imperfect, represents the cultured and sophisticated personality that Andrea desires for herself. The narrator, by elevating these other characters to the status of semi-divinity and presenting them openly as her dream self, highlights her own lack of identity and reveals yet another layer of fragmentation. More than the simple divide between her thoughts and her actions, Andrea actually demonstrates a desire to live through others and to embody other identities. His own personality recedes into "nada", while his notion of self is fragmented, projected onto others and lacks presence and stability. She is so consumed by her deep sense of inferiority that she is incapable of forming a coherent, secure self. There is, however, evidence that Andrea found some sort of identity during the year she lived in Aribau. In many ways, she is a mother figure to the people of Aribau. From the first meeting with her grandmother, she mentions that “Sente palpitar su corazon como un animalillo contra mi pecho”[7]. It ensures the psychological integrity of a fragmented family, devoid of a male head of the family and whose current maternal figure has been reduced to a “mancha blanquinegra de una viejicita decr?pita”[8]. She sees through Angustias' attempts to assume the role of authoritarian mother and she offers refuge and comfort to Gloria after her arguments with her husband. Furthermore, when she runs after Juan in the barrio getico, she says “corre en su persecucion como si en ello me fuera la vida”[9]. She helps him escape the police and then takes care of him: “Le saque un panuelo del bolsillo para que limpiara la sangre que le goteaba sobre el ojo. Se lo ate y luego se apoyo en mi hombro'[10]. She may not have saved anyone in Aribau, but she brings a certain force of stability to their fragmented lives, and although Andrea doesn't find an adult identity in sexual terms, she shows those maternal traits that show stages towards taking responsibility for herself and others and leaving childhood behind. It can even be argued that Andrea actively turns away from any attempts at predatory male sexuality, as her encounter with Gerado shows, she still finds sexual contact repulsive and embraces pre-adolescent innocence. Moreover, she finds her unique place in the fragmented post-war society by turning to female friendship instead of one of the "dos caminos honrosos"[11], marriage or the convent, as prescribed Angustias. Thus, Andrea arguably found an identity to some extent during her time in Aribau, even if it is not the one she had in mind, and in this sense, Nada is legitimized as a bildungsroman. Although Andrea somehow finds a place for herself, within the social fragmentation that surrounds her, she in no way finds a stable and secure identity or sense of self. This is due in part to the repression of desires and natural identity she finds in Aribau's house, as well as the complete break from the disjointed and violent life led by a family shattered by the effects of civil war and the.. 1 (1992)