Symbolism, Shadow of the wind

The World of Books : Carlos Ruiz Zafon manages in this novel to bring books to life by explaining their souls. The importance of a book to its author and the affect it has on its readers is very well portrayed. Whether or not the book is a best seller, it still carries the soul of its author and of each of its readers.

Forbidden Love : This book is replete with love stories. Lots of them have a taste of the "forbidden" to them. Daniel's first school boy crush on Clara is towards someone much older and therefore not acceptable. His hidden love affair with his best friend's sister is also not initially well accepted. Bea was practically engaged to an army soldier (a much more acceptable suitor), when their love story began. This love story is one of the few in the book that has a happy ending. (Bea and Daniel marry and have a child named Julian.)

The Relationship between Father and Son in The Shadow of the wind various father-son relationships, be they legitimate, illegitimate can be analysed. The first is the relationship between Daniel and his father, where there is closeness and much love. Daniel lost his mother when he was 4 years old, so his father had to play both roles. Whereas Daniel knows that he has his father's full support and love, as a typical teenager, he keeps secrets from and leaves his father out of certain aspects of his life. Old man Sempere seems to understand this and patiently accepts and waits for his son to find himself and return to normality.

Jorge Aldaya, on the other hand, seems to recognize himself in Julian Carax, his illegitimate son. As Julian will never know that Aldaya is his father, he is not in fear of him and stands up to him. This attitude is what attracts Aldaya to Julian and makes him take the boy under his wing. The hatter, Fortuny, who brought Julian up as his son, was a cruel father, using many times physical violence against Julian and his mother. But in truth, Fortuny did really love his son and proves so in the end. The physical violence seems to have risen from the hatter's own sense of inadequacy.

Angel of the mist: This mansion was the scene of dramatic events, love stories and tragedies. Supposedly haunted, this huge old house was the home of the Aldaya family. Of course during the lively days as the Aldaya home, it held a magnificent library, which was one of Julian’s favorite haunts. The rooms of this residence served as Julian Carax and Penelope's love tryst. It also served as Penelope's prison and eventually held her tomb and that odd her stillborn child. Years later it was used as Daniel and Bea's love tryst. It was here that Julian hid when he returned to Bacelona. The Angel of the Mist was also stage to the final dramatic scenes of the deadly fight between Carax and Fumero.

Fumero: Fumero is a cruel and bitter man. He was the son of the caretaker at San Gabriel's school. From a young age, Javier seemed to be mentally unstable and even as a child he showed his sadistic tendencies. Though his father was a good and hardworking man, his mother was a loose woman with perverted a relationship toward her son. Javier initiates his bloody career with the murder of his own mother, when he was a young man. Fumereo is the epitome of evil.7

Lain Coubert: A man called Coubert went to the publishing house quite a few years later and made an offer buy all the left over editions of Carax's books, so he could burn them. Coubert was the name of the character of the devil in the Shadow of the Wind. He is a strange character with a disfigured face. At the end, Julian told Nuria that he had turned into Coubert, the devil in his book.

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