"Everything is as it was (...) and everything has changed" (Chapter 2)

The chapter opens with a paradox: "Everything is at it was, I discover when I reach my destination, and everything has changed".  This paradox invites us to wonder what has remained the same and what is different: the appearance of the place, the narrator´s feelings, the people, the atmosphere? In the following paragraphs, the narrator gives us many clues as to how to understand this initial paradox.

On the one hand, the similarities the old narrator notices between the Close of his childhood and the street he has in front of him are the ordinariness of the place and the number of houses. The same 14 houses stand in exactly the same place where they stood 60 years before and the street still looks as ordinary and unremarkable as it used to.

On the other hand, there have been many changes. The houses don´t look the same. Their appearance has changed and they have less vegetation around them. The trees have grown: “The stringy prunus saplings” that where along the verges of the avenue “are now wise and dignified trees”. The main road has now less traffic and the shop names have changed. Even the sky has changed from one full of war, falling flares and searchlights at night to one that was “mild and bland”.

In conclusion, we can say that even though the town has physically changed, the narrator finds it still familiar. In spite of the changes, he is still able to recognise the houses and the dull atmosphere that pervades the place.