Life before the war
In the beginning of the novel, the narrator talks about the life she and her parents used to have before the war started. She describes an idyllic image, a perfect life where she had everything she needed to be happy. She lived in a tight knit family and could afford to go on holidays. This image created in the beginning of the novel is important because it will be used to compare the life the characters ended up having after the beginning of the war.
Dogs walking the streets
An important image for the narrator is the image of the dogs walking in the streets, alone and lost. The narrator notices how all the dogs seem to be pedigree dogs, meaning that at one point they belonged to someone and were loved by their owners. When the war came, the owners either died or could not afford to feed their dogs so they had to let them go. The image of the scared dogs on the streets is thus important because it shows how war affected every aspect of a person's life and that every living being was affected by it.
The bridge
Another important sight which the narrator has to see every day is the bridge connecting one part of the city with the other. The bridge becomes dangerous a few months into the war and crossing it becomes extremely dangerous. Many people were killed on the bridge and the narrator witnessed many of those deaths from her room. The bridge becomes an image associated by the narrator with the idea of death and danger. Thus, the bridge becomes always associated with the war inside the narrator’s mind.
In the living room
Another important image is that of the whole family seeking out refuge in the living room. After the snipers took their places near the building where the family was living, the narrator and her parents were no longer safe in various rooms in their house. As a result, they started all living in the living room. This image shows that the people who lived in war torn cities were not safe not even in their own homes and that they were constantly fearing for their lives.
