Chapter 70: Şaizece Şi Nouă – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Guards push Cristian, Liliana, and several children into a room with long tables and benches. A single guard locks the door and leaves. On the wall hang two framed portraits: one of Mother Elena and one of a one‑eared Ceaușescu. Staring at them, Cristian feels rage—these leaders are responsible for the group’s imprisonment, the constant surveillance, and the loss of trust. He grabs the portraits and tosses them into a corner. Liliana gasps, warning that he is endangering everyone, and instructs the children to claim the pictures were already like that.
The guard returns with buckets and a clipboard. He notices the portraits on the floor and demands to know who did it. The entire group insists the pictures were that way when they arrived. The guard, fatigued and unused to a chorus of children, declares they must pledge obedience to the “hero and Heroine Mother.” Each person must get on hands and knees and kiss the portraits in front of a superior.
Before the ritual, Liliana whispers to Cristian, “Kiss me. Please, Cristian. Before our lips are forced to touch… them.” He pulls her close, kissing her forehead, nose, jaw, neck, and eyes. A single tear falls. The children watch with open mouths. When footsteps approach, they separate quickly.
The guard returns with a higher‑ranking officer. The officer notes that the portraits were not on the floor earlier and points out Cristian as the only one tall enough to reach them. He retrieves the portraits and sets them on the tile floor. Cristian stands quickly despite his injured ribs. The officer taunts Cristian’s nose and punches him, then smacks his back and legs with a club. He orders Cristian to crawl toward the portraits and apologize. Cristian moves forward, trying to preserve the memory of Liliana’s kiss. He quickly touches his lips to Ceaușescu and then to Mother Elena, coating his mouth with dust. Liliana kneels next; her nose touches the portrait, but her lips never do.
The officer kicks the metal pails and announces that the group will not receive buckets. Instead, they must clean with their hands. They are taken to a tiled, windowless room thick with flies. The system has been plugged for a while; a bag sits in the corner beneath a huge pile of feces. A child begins to cry. The guard pokes the child’s belly with his baton, saying that if they are old enough to protest, they are old enough to clean a bathroom. He leaves.
Cristian contemplates Bunu’s question: “What is the cost of self‑worth?” He feels reduced to a pile of excrement—exactly what the regime wants them to believe. He wonders what the outside world thinks of Romanians: do outsiders know of their decades of struggle, or do they believe unfair stereotypes? To restore the children’s dignity, Cristian tells them that Dracula is a fictional character created by an Irish author and has no connection to Romanian history. The children already know that. He adds that Romanians are brilliant, that some have won Nobel Prizes. “We’re not shit,” he insists. “We’re more Romanian than those guards are!”
He then pulls pages from his pants—Amnesty International documents—and uses them as a shovel to clean the waste. Liliana, whispering, asks what the papers are. “A nail in the coffin,” he replies.
Key Events
- Cristian throws the portraits of Ceaușescu and Mother Elena into a corner, triggering a dangerous confrontation.
- Liliana quickly instructs the children to lie, saying the portraits were already on the floor.
- The guard demands each person kiss the portraits under the supervision of an officer.
- Liliana asks Cristian to kiss her before they are forced to kiss the portraits; they share a series of tender kisses.
- An officer strikes Cristian and forces him to crawl and kiss the portraits; Cristian and Liliana both comply (Liliana with her nose only).
- The group is led to a windowless room filled with feces and told to clean it with their bare hands.
- Cristian uses his secret Amnesty International documents as a makeshift shovel, calling them “a nail in the coffin.”
- He comforts the children by teaching them that Dracula is a fictional character and that Romanians are a brilliant people.
Character Development
Cristian Florescu – His physical and emotional resilience grows. He shows impulsive defiance (throwing portraits) but also learns strategic compliance to protect others. The kiss with Liliana reveals his deep vulnerability and love. He prioritizes the children’s psychological well‑being by countering dehumanizing stereotypes, and his willingness to sacrifice the incriminating documents demonstrates his commitment to truth over personal safety.
Liliana – She emerges as a quick‑thinking protector. She immediately instructs the children to maintain the lie about the portraits, and she devises a way to avoid directly kissing the portraits herself. Her request for a kiss shows emotional courage and a desire to preserve humanity in the face of degradation.
The children – Although mostly silent, their presence raises the stakes. Cristian’s speech to them and his use of the documents as a shovel are meant to shield them from the regime’s psychological violence.
The guard and officer – They represent the brutality and casual cruelty of the regime. The guard’s fatigue and the officer’s targeted violence underscore how the state dehumanizes both victims and enforcers.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Dehumanization vs. dignity – The regime reduces prisoners to a “pile of feces,” but Cristian refuses to accept that identity. His lesson about Dracula and Romanian achievements is a deliberate act of reclaiming national and personal worth.
- Love as resistance – The kiss with Liliana is a private act of defiance, a way to assert humanity before forced loyalty to the state. It becomes a talisman Cristian clings to while kissing the portrait.
- Cost of truth – Cristian’s secret documents are “a nail in the coffin” of the regime, but using them as a shovel means he will now be caught without evidence—yet he chooses to use them anyway.
- Portraits – The icons of Ceaușescu and Mother Elena are false idols. Defacing or kissing them is a ritual of subjugation that Cristian tries to subvert.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 70 is a turning point in Cristian’s internal struggle between survival and integrity. The forced kiss of the portraits and the degrading cleaning duty push him to the brink, but his choice to sacrifice the documents—and to inspire the children—shows that he is willing to fight not just for his own life but for the truth. The kiss with Liliana is a rare moment of tenderness that underscores what is at stake: love, humanity, and hope in a system designed to crush them.
Study Questions
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Why does Cristian grab the portraits and throw them into the corner? What does this action reveal about his state of mind?
Answer: Cristian’s frustration boils over as he stares at the faces of those he blames for his imprisonment, the constant surveillance, and the loss of trust. The act is a momentary rebellion, but it also shows his inability to suppress his anger even when it endangers the group. -
How does Liliana’s request for a kiss before the portrait‑kissing ritual function as an act of resistance?
Answer: Liliana asks Cristian to kiss her so that their first and possibly last kiss is an expression of love, not a forced loyalty to the regime. By sharing that intimacy, they reclaim their bodies and mouths before they are forced to touch the portraits, turning a degrading order into a moment of human connection. -
Why does Cristian use the Amnesty International documents as a shovel? What does this decision mean for his mission?
Answer: Cristian realizes he cannot risk being discovered with the incriminating papers, as that would cost him his life and endanger everyone. Using them to clean the waste is a pragmatic sacrifice: he gives up the physical evidence of the regime’s crimes but also declares that he will not let the regime’s filth define him. The act symbolizes that the truth must be lived even when it cannot be carried.