Then she looks straight at me and says one of her riddles: “You will see them before they come back, but only after you are free.”
The central theme of the novel is the theme of freedom, freedom from the oppression of the dictatorship. After her cousins leave the compound, Anita feels sad, but Chucha comforts her with one of her visions. All of Chucha’s visions are foreshadowing of the future, and at the end, Anita reunites with her family in the US, after the dictatorship of the Dominican Republic is brought down.
And I don’t want to be señorita now that I know what El Jefe does to señoritas.
The novel reveals the glimpses of the oppression and horrors of Trujillo’s dictatorship. In this particular example, it is revealed that he picks out and takes young, underage girls for his advantage. Anita’s realization of what it means that the dictator has set eyes on her sister, and her childlike, innocent reaction to it, emphasizes the terror of it.
To be free inside, like an uncaged bird. Then nothing, not even dictatorship, can take away your liberty.
The novel concludes with the lesson about freedom and the true meaning of it. Close people around her kept reminding Anita to remember her wings, to fly to be free. She learns at the end, that freedom means the freedom of heart, to be brave and face the fears and grief head on.
