The following diagram shows a general MVC architecture and timeline. These are not necessarily normative, the important thing is that the Model, View and Controller concerns are separated. Remember also that although just one View and Controller are shown in the picture, one Model can have many observer Views, and one View can have many Controllers listening to its events. Screen Shot 2018-02-03 at 14.10.03.png

The overall program (or the general state controller) initializes the model. The model is not necessarily constructed at this stage, it may be e.g. a cloud service connection that is initialized
View is initialized (with the model as parameter). Note: in another variant, the view could also be constructed and initialized by its controller.
As part of its initialization, the view adds itself as model observer
The view reads the model to build its graphical representation (component tree)
Controller is initialized (with model and view as parameters)
As part of its initialization, the controller adds listeners to interaction events of interest
The view is shown to the user

Initialization is over and interaction can begin. The following steps can repeat

User interacts and the events are produced, event listener is called in controller
Controller interprets the user action and changes (updates) the model accordingly
The model notifies its observers. the view gets notified and updates
If needed, the view reads the model during the update

At some point, one of the events detected at step (8) can mean that the view has done its job.

Controller calls the General State Controller telling that the view has done its job
State controller hides the view
As part of its hiding process, the view removes itself as model observer