A Long Petal of the Sea

“I realized it back in March, when they bombed Barcelona. Those were Italian and German planes. Reason is on our side, but that won’t stave off defeat. We’re on our own, Victor.” 

Victor’s father, Marcel, speaks these on his deathbed, urging Victor to take his mother and Roser out of Spain. He highlights the significance of the aid that fascist countries have provided to Franco. The democratic countries will not come to aid the resistance, and the war is lost. Being on the side of justice is no guarantee of victory.

“The daily rituals of caring for Guillem through the miseries of typhus […] only strengthened Roser’s conviction that he was the only man she could love. She was sure there could be nobody else.” 

Roser’s love for Guillem is ardent; the attraction is intense. In the thick of this love, it is impossible for Roser to imagine any other kind of love or ever loving someone else. It is a love of passion, of the heart, but it will never have the chance to develop into something that is stronger and borne from will. Despite her conviction that Guillem is her one true love, Roser later recognizes that humans must find new love in the aftermath of loss.

“Nothing was certain; the future did not exist; all they had was this moment to savor before the war snatched it from them.” 

Describing the moment when Roser surrenders her virginity to Guillem, Allende emphasizes the fleeting nature of life and all relationships in war. There can be no such thing as commitment in these uncertain times, but people still feel a deep need to cling to one another. Love necessarily manifests itself passionately in such circumstances.

“It was then they decided to desert as soon as they got the chance: democracy, the Republic, and the war no longer meant anything; they no longer knew what they were fighting for.” 

After learning their father and younger brother were killed by Franco’s firing squad, these soldiers took to the mountains. Having taking refuge there, they aid Aitor and Roser in their escape from Spain. They are giving voice to the pointlessness of war, the emptiness of ideals when so much blood must be spilled.

“Soon afterward, a van full of gardes mobiles, the French rural police, pulled up alongside them. They gave themselves up cheerfully: they were in the France of solidarity, of liberty, equality, and fraternity, the France with a left-wing government presided over by a socialist.” 

How wrong Roser and Aitor were to assume that the French would uphold their nation’s ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and provide refuge to those who fought for such values in Spain. Instead, the French police bring them and others fleeing Franco’s persecution to concentration camps. France does not want the refugees and considers them foreigners.

“My heart is broken, [Victor] told himself. It was at that moment he understood the profound meaning of that common phrase: he thought he heard the sound of glass breaking and felt that the essence of his being was pouring out until he was empty, with no memory of the past, no awareness of the present, no hope for the future.” 

Working to transport the wounded out of Spain and care for them in the last days of the war, Victor has an adolescent die in his arms. Doctors have had to leave behind some who would die in the process of transport. Conditions are so horrific that Victor is simply numb; his heart cannot process the enormity of this tragedy.

“In the DEL SOLAR house on Calle Mar del Plata back in Santiago, a sense of perpetual vacation floated in the air. The master and mistress had been away for four weeks, and not even the dog was missing them.” 

Isidoro and Laura have not formed the types of attachments that cause their children or staff to miss them. Isidoro is a bully of sorts, focused on the fulfillment of his own needs. His wife Laura is self-absorbed in another way, more concerned with her spiritual well-being than the practical needs of those in her care. Despite their material wealth, the couple is not rich in love.

“None of them knew anything about Chile. Years later, Neruda was to define it as a long petal of the sea and wine and snow […] with a belt of black and white foam, but that would not have left the migrants any wiser.” 

Pablo Neruda’s poetic description of Chile inspired the book’s title. One of the text’s strongest messages is about the identity of Chileans and its strength. While these refugees have no knowledge of Chile and would have gone anywhere to escape Europe, they will ultimately become Chilean.

“The Chileans explained that the doors to their country had been opened thanks to the Popular Front government led by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda, who had defied the opposition parties and the terror campaign by the Right and Catholic Church. ‘In other words, we’re going to find the same enemies we had in Spain,’ sighed Victor.” 

Highlighting the universality of the fight between reactionary and progressive forces, the text also foreshadows political problems in Chile. For now, progressive forces have the upper hand. However, the enemies of equality and freedom are constantly on the offensive. Maintaining such values requires constant vigilance.

“Nobody went to sleep that night: they all stayed out on deck admiring the magical spectacle and counting the hours. In years to come, Victor would always remember the night as one of the most beautiful in his life.” 

This first sight of Chile marks a new beginning in Victor and Roser’s lives. Finally, after war, deprivation, and grueling travel, the end of their suffering seems to be in sight. Awaiting them on land is the promise of a new life built on peace, hope, and possibility. The strength of Victor’s initial reaction to this new country foreshadows how powerfully he will come to identify with that place and its people.

“Felipe warned them that in his parents’ house they would be observed like wild animals in a circus by people who were conservative, religious, and intolerant, but once that initial curiosity had been satisfied they would be welcomed with the obligatory Chilean hospitality.” 

The curiosity about the Spanish refugees is genuine, but the del Solars’ hospitality is superficial, according to Felipe. The upper classes did not want to allow refugees like Victor and Roser into Chile, considering them to be communists, anarchists, and atheists. In their view, the refugees are not Chilean but so foreign as to be worthy of interest.

“To stay a spinster meant depending on the generosity of her father and Felipe, and becoming a social pariah. The possibility of working to earn a living was a dream as absurd as that of going to Paris to paint in a Montmartre attic.” 

Ofelia expresses the dilemma of women at this time in her culture. She does not want to marry but feels obligated to do so. If she does not marry, she will not be able to support herself and will be forced to rely upon the good will of her father and brother. In contrast, her brother has options and autonomy, and need not marry to secure his future.

“[Victor] came from a different reality, a revolution that had abolished social differences, old-fashioned habits, and religious authority. In Republican Spain, virginity was obsolete.”

It does not occur to Victor that Ofelia is a virgin the first time he sleeps with her. His world is so very different from hers. Raised in an upper-class, conservative Catholic family, Ofelia is overprotected and taught to guard her reputation at all costs. Their divergent experiences of the world hint at the impossibility of an enduring relationship between them.

“Roser indicated from the start, it was a plant without roots that was bound to wither. Nothing can grow in the shade of secrets, she would say, love needs light and space to flourish.” 

Referring to Victor and Ofelia’s relationship, Roser observes that true love can only survive with public commitment. When secretive, it is doomed to be fleeting. There must be openness and acceptance of one another in a long-term relationship.

“[A]fter witnessing yet again this misguided young woman’s stubbornness, [Father Urbina] took Laura del Solar out into the garden under an umbrella while a rain as fine as dew fell on them. Neither of them ever repeated the subject of their conversation.” 

Unbeknownst to Ofelia, Father Urbina takes her mother into his confidence in his plan to take Ofelia’s baby against her wishes and give it to a couple of his choosing. Laura will feel guilty about this for the rest of her life. Told her baby boy died in childbirth, Ofelia does not learn until much later that she had a girl. Instead, she must mourn her lost baby for years to come.

“Roser had become more Chilean than anyone born in that country. The same was true of the majority of the Spanish refugees, who were not only citizens, but many of whom fulfilled Pablo Neruda’s dream of rousing Chilean society from its slumbers.”

The Spanish immigrants make a home in Chile and give back to that country in the form of hard work and enrichment. A talented musician, Roser performs and teaches music to Chileans. So many other refugees—including Victor, who is a gifted cardiologist—also contribute to the public good, demonstrating the value that immigrants can bring to their new home and community.

“The pair planned to watch the spectacle of the Left’s electoral victory on television. […] ‘We’ve already lived this in Spain, Jordi. You weren’t there in ’36, but I can tell you it’s the same thing. I just hope it doesn’t end badly like it did over there,’ was Carme’s only commentary.” 

About to watch the celebrations for Allende’s victory in 1970, Carme recalls what happened in Spain when the Left won. Of course, her fears are justified, as the right wing in Chile is already mobilizing to depose the elected government. History will indeed repeat itself in Chile.

“And yet it wasn’t simply a joke, it was the anguish of divided love, separation, of living and dying far from one’s loved ones.” 

Carme joked that if she died in Spain, she wanted to be buried in Chile and vice versa. The jest exposes her divided loyalties, which reflects her divided family. Victor, Roser, and her grandson Marcel are in Chile, but Carme’s husband and other son are buried in Spain. She will always be torn, connected to both lands.

“The deep Chile of the Fascists had always been there, beneath the surface, just waiting to emerge.” 

Always, there are those willing to sacrifice human rights and democracy to ensure their own privileges. In Chile, even when the refugees were welcomed at the outset of World War II, a substantial minority did not want to accept them. Ready to label any initiative aimed at helping the poor as “communist” and “atheist,” those with money wielded a rhetorical weapon with which to gain the support of traditionalists.

“Victor was certain Roser had returned to Chile to look for him, because that is what he would have done for her.” 

While in a concentration camp in Chile, Victor knows Roser is searching for him and doing everything in her power to bring him home. He can count on her love and commitment to him, just as she can count on his devotion to her. When they are finally reunited, their love will grow even stronger.

“The degree of inequality was staggering: three-quarters of the wealth was in the hands of twenty families. The middle class survived on credit; there was poverty for the many and opulence for the few.” 

When Marcel returns to Chile toward the end of the Pinochet regime, he gives this report to Victor and Roser. The vast majority of people are struggling to survive and they are hidden from sight. On the surface, the country looks prosperous, but only the very wealthy reap the benefits.

Defeated at last, Victor had to accept his own powerlessness. He couldn’t save [Roser], and he couldn’t imagine life without her. He realized in horror that the half century they had spent together had galloped by.” 

While Roser quickly accepts her imminent death, Victor struggles with his grief. For his sake, Roser prolongs her life via chemotherapy and radiation. When Victor finally has to let her go, the magnitude of that loss is overwhelming.

“It was ironic he was linked in this way to the del Solar family, who had been so against the immigration of the Spanish refugees on the Winnipeg. Ofelia had offered him an amazing gift: she had opened up the future for him.” 

Speaking about his biological daughter Ingrid, Victor ponders the irony of the conservative del Solar family strengthening his ties to Chile despite resenting the refugees’ presence in the country. He already has Chilean grandchildren. Ofelia’s child has expanded his family, deepening his roots in his adopted home.