The protagonist enjoys mental exercises and thinks she would have liked jigsaw puzzles. However, she does not understand the women’s pleasure in playing a board game. Why is this so? Use textual evidence to explain this contrast.

At the end of the narrative, the protagonist refers to herself as both “I […] who have never known men” (206) and “the mistress of silence” (200), which was the first title of the novel’s English translation. Compare the two phrases. Why does the narrator describe herself in these ways? How does the focus of the novel change based on which title is used for the translation?

The narrator says that “fate” has the prisoners escape during a rain shower, which they later learn is rare that time of year. What is the significance of the weather in that scene? In which other scenes does the weather play an important role, and how are they thematically important in the narrative?