The Safekeep Literary Elements

Historical Fiction

The novel is set in the early 1960s in the Netherlands.

The story is narrated in the third person, primarily from Isabel’s point of view.

The tone is somber and introspective. The mood is tense and claustrophobic.

The protagonist is Isabel. The antagonist is Eva’s presence.

The central conflict is Isabel’s internal battle with her suppressed desires, obsession with control, and the trauma of the past. Externally, this manifests in her tense relationship with Eva, who disrupts the carefully ordered life Isabel has built for herself. The novel’s psychological tension builds as Isabel becomes more fixated on Eva.

The climax occurs when Isabel finally confronts her feelings for Eva after Johan’s advances.

"She found it under a cabinet: as though it had been placed on the table and had then fallen and rolled out of sight. Who would do that, Isabel wondered, and felt that she knew already."

This small incident hints at Isabel’s increasing paranoia and the tension that will escalate between the two women.

When Eva dismisses the significance of their kiss. She asserts, “Kisses are just—things, and they happen.”

The novel contains allusions to the trauma of World War II.

"The first bite spilled on Isabel’s skirt. It wouldn’t show: the fabric was brown, checkered. There was no way of eating it in silence—the sounds it made, the wet. Isabel ate through the whole thing: the flesh and stick and pits and core and all."

This vivid description of the physical act of consuming the pear is laden with emotional weight.

The paradox lies in Isabel’s simultaneous desire for control and freedom. She yearns for release from her obsessive need to maintain order but cannot bring herself to relinquish that control.

Isabel’s relationship with her brother mirrors her interactions with Eva, where distance and repression create constant tension.

N.A

The house itself is personified as if it has a life and presence of its own.