"The Shadow of the Wind" Reading Response

“The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon tells the story of one boy, one book, and one complex mystery. The story follows Daniel Sempre, a boy growing up in Barcelona in the 1940’s. 10-year old Daniel discovers a special book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, which he loves as soon he lays eyes on. The book is by an author named Julian Carax, who Daniel immediately tries to find out more about. As Daniel attempts to discover more about the enigmatic Carax, a whole story of love, loss, and horror is slowly uncovered. While Daniel is discovering Carax’s story, he is also weaving his own. He finds love, friendship, and cruelty in his own life along the way. Throughout “The Shadow of the Wind” the author emphasized Daniel’s coming of age in many ways.

The author emphasizes Daniels maturing by showing his attitude towards women as a child, and then as an adult. When 11-year old Daniel takes The Shadow of the Wind to his father’s college, Gustavo Barceló, to talk about it, he is introduced to Barceló’s 20-year old niece, Clara. He is immediately smitten.  Daniel goes to her house at least twice a week to talk, take walks, and read with her. Even when his father and Barceló tell him they are concerned he’s not spending time with other kids his age, he continues to try and see her, still convinced he could make something more out of their relationship, despite that she is nearly twice his age. It is only when Clara stops wanting to see him that he gives up and leaves them alone. This shows how young and naïve he was in his years with Clara. This is compared to later on in the story when Clara and Daniel meet again, but Daniel is now 18 and has a girl friend. Daniel now acts coolly to Clara, and avoids talking to her about what happens, except to apologize. He is now more mature and accepts what he did was wrong and has realized Clara is not for him.

Another way the author shows Daniels growing up is him finding friendship in unexpected places. Daniel learns to let go of and accept new friendships. At first he only has one friend, Thomas Agulair, but their relationship begins to fall apart when Daniel begins to see Thomas’s sister, Bea. Thomas does cannot tolerate this, and their friendship ends roughly and not on a good not. Despite this, Daniel is able to deal with it, and accepts it instead of trying to win Thomas back over. This shows that he is now more mature and can now accept loss when it comes. He makes up for the loss by finding a new friendship. Daniel convinces his father to employ a homeless man he met on the street, Fermin Romero de Torres, in the bookshop they own. As Daniel spends more time with Fermin, he opens up to him. He tells him all about his quest to find Carax, and Fermin begins to help him. They become very good friend, and confide in each other. Daniel is mature enough to open up to other now and meet new people.

In conclusion, a large part of “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is about Daniel growing older and maturing. The author shows readers he does this by comparing how Daniel feels about Clara when he is a kid versus when he gets older. The author also shows that he is coming of age by including Fermin to show that as he gets older, Daniel is more mature and open to new things and people. “The Shadow of the Wind” shows readers that it is important to become more mature and grow into a better person throughout your life, through things like love, friendships, and learning.