A prominant difference I'm noticing culturally is the level of comfort with strangers. The protagonist, Daniel Sempere, becomes quite upset one night and decides to take a walk. On his walk he visits a friend's house where he finds an extremely dissapointing sight that he wasn't meant to see. Daniel gets severely beat up that night because of what he saw and is back to wandering around the streets. It's probably around midnight, and Daniel comes across a homeless man who offers him some wine and a shelter form the rain under his cardboard roof.
"'What a minute, at least until the rain eases off,' the beggar suggested. He took me by the arm and led me to a corner under the arches where he kept a bundle of possessions and a bag with old, dirty clothes. 'I have a bit of wine. It's not too bad. Drink a little. It will help you warm up. And disinfect that...' I took a swig from the bottle he offered me. It tasted of diesel oil laced with vinegar, but its heat calmed my stomach and my nerves." (63)
Common sense tells would prevent me from being lead into a place by a strange, degenerate old man, much less drink any of his wine. This novel takes place in Barcelona, close after the war. I wonder if the war is what caused people to be less cautious because there must be quite a few beggars on the street who simply have no where to go. However, this instance is not the only one that displays a certain comfort with strangers which is why it sparked my attention.
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