As a fictionalized version of Mila’s life story, The Diamond Eye is fundamentally a narrative about coming to terms with past losses and integrating them into a new sense of self. When the work opens, Mila is terrified of Alexei and the power he represents. She castigates herself for her poor choice of partner, saying, “I’d already made one colossal error when I fell into the arms of the wrong man” (20). She does not recognize until later that she was far too young to understand the consequences of sexual intimacy and that he should not have pursued her. As Eleanor Roosevelt tells her, her quest for perfection “made [her] a brave soldier, but a frightened woman” (330). Mila’s discovery of her shooting skills marks a turning point for her when “[she] realize[s] who and how [she] could be” (30).

War reveals Mila’s skills but also exposes her to more suffering and loss, and her wartime struggle requires its own efforts to face the past by embracing both grief and anger. Mila is stunned by the story of Maria Kabachenko’s survival of a violent sexual assault by German troops, saying to her imaginary detractors, “[Y]ou didn’t hold her clutching hands in yours as she begged you, kill them all” (98).