The knight
After Florian saves Emilia from a threatening Soviet soldier, she begins to view him as a knight. She sees him as a conqueror, like in the stories her mother used to tell her. She also associates him with the sleeping knights from a Polish legend. In the legend, the knights would awaken and come to Poland’s rescue if the country was in distress. Similarly, when Emilia was in a moment of distress, Florian appeared out of nowhere to save her. This image continues through the end of the novel, when Florian helps Emilia to form a bond with her baby and ultimately carries Halinka to safety from the sinking ship.
The white snow
The landscape the refugees cross is freezing cold and snow falls constantly. The white snow becomes an important image for Emilia, who reflects that the white snow covered the dark truth. War has destroyed the landscape and its inhabitants. Yet the white snow covers over this destruction and makes everything look pure and clean. The image leads to Emilia’s reflection that war will never be able to destroy or overpower nature.
The sea
As the Wilhelm Gustloff sinks, Emilia describes the sea as a powerful being that swallows the ship in one gulp. The water of the Baltic Sea is freezing cold. The enormous waves draw her raft farther and farther from the other lifeboats. From the raft, she watches “as the beautiful deep began to swallow the massive boat of steel. In one large gulp.” The imagery of the sea emphasizes that it is alive and full of power. More broadly, it underscores the power of nature, which humans cannot overcome. Emilia reflects, “How foolish we are to believe we are more powerful than the sea or the sky.”
Emilia's grave
At the very end of the novel, Clara Christensen writes a letter to Florian. In her letter, she describes the setting in which she buries Emilia: "Near our cottage, where the small creek winds under the old wooden bridge, is the most beautiful bed of roses. And there Emilia rests. She is safe. She is loved." This beautiful natural imagery helps bring home the author's point that those who are gone are not necessarily lost. Throughout the novel, Emilia feels deeply connected to nature. She longs for the herbs, bees, and storks of her hometown in Poland. Though she never makes it back to Poland, she rests in a beautiful natural setting that she surely would have loved. Though Emilia dies, she is surrounded by the ever-renewing life of nature that so inspired her.
