“Sometimes you have to escape in order not to die”

The expression “Sometimes you have to escape in order not to die” condenses the narrator’s experience of escape into a declaration of necessity. Spoken to Nina at a moment of leave-taking, it frames flight not as a painless choice but as something that may be required to go on living.

The Moment of Address

Before speaking, the narrator says she was very tired and admits she does not know why she shook her head. She then turns to Nina, who looks at her as if she has never seen her, and offers the sentence as an explanation. The stark contrast between Nina’s unfamiliar gaze and the narrator’s direct appeal makes the line feel both intimate and difficult to absorb: it names a need without recounting its history.

From Principle to Farewell

The narrator smiles, gestures toward Elena, and immediately tells Nina not to buy the child anything, adding that it will not help and that Elena will find the doll. Her farewell links the broad claim about escape to this specific encounter, where the doll remains part of the situation even as the narrator withdraws. The expression therefore resonates beyond a general statement about independence: in this scene, escape is voiced alongside a final, practical remark about a child and her lost object.