Like with all allegorical works, the story takes us into a particular human setting made up of characters that symbolise elements of general human character, mainly the contrasting emotional qualities of fear and courage. The phrase "How green was my valley.." opens both the sentence that begins and the one that ends the novel. A story seemingly filled with the romance of nostalgia ends with the jolting realism of memory.

"I saw my father as a man, and not, as a man who was my father." - Richard Llewellyn
 

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