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Your happiness is worth more than society's expectation of you.
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Milena bathes in icy cold mountain lake water to prove to Jaromír that she isn't a "sissy."
This is a turning and character development point in the story because she loses the use of one of her legs. She starts her addiction of morphine, is in the middle stages of pregancy, and everyone sees how worse and addictive she's getting. This relates to the theme statement because she wants to prove to others that she isn't weak, but it costs her one of the most important body parts. -
After her mountain lake incident and the birth of Honza, she decides to break her addiction to morphine.
This is a character development event because Milena knows that the road to keep her leg would be painful without morphine. During this time, her boyfriend gave her a revolver as a silent message. This works with the theme statement because even though the hospital wants her to take the morphine so it's easier to move her leg, she decides not to so that she would not be an addict. -
Honza (Milena's daughter) becomes an intelligent conspirator even though she was young.
This is a turning point in the story because of Honza's determination to stop the many bad events that were happening around her. Milena feels guilty about dragging her into the resistance work. This relates to the theme statement because Honza realizes that she must break rules in order to get change. -
Honza risks her life to send Milena a coded message in one of her gifts.
This is a turning point in the story because this was the last time Milena saw Honza. Honza was confident to go in a motherless world while Milena knew what was going on in the outside world. This relates to the theme statement because Honza was happy to give her mother one last gift, but if the Gestapo found out, she would die. -
The Communists give a choice for Milena to ditch Margarete and keep her status, or to be with Margarete and lose her benefits. This event is a character development event because Milena learns to choose what would make her happier instead of wealth or status. She grows her lasting relationship by doing this and learns that Margarete values her. This supports the theme because she knows that status doesn't make her happy, and she knows fully well what the consequences were.
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Milena's birthday party gave her happiness even though she was dying slowly from an illness.
This is a character development event because Milena thought that all her friends forgot her. She was afraid that she would die alone. She now had strength to fight against the illness. This relates to the theme statement because Milena gave herself more appreciation ever since the Nazi officer's dehumanization, even though it was illegal.
