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Sarah's Key Character Analysis

Decent Essays

“The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance” (Socrates). In Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay, it is determined that this quote is in fact true. In the novel, Sarah a ten year old girl is introduced. Sarah lived in Paris during 1942 when Hitler demanded that all Jews be arrested and sent to concentration camps. Most of the Jews had no information on what was going on, especially in France where the French police rounded up all the Jews and brought them to concentration camps. Major conflicts arise in the novel because of character’s lack of knowledge. Sarah’s innocence created her lack of knowledge leading to her brother Michel's death additionally, William’s lack of knowledge created a conflict within himself, and finally …show more content…

William, Sarah’s son did not know anything about his mother’s past before her marriage to his father. When Julia went to Lucca to ask William a few questions about her mother she quickly realized that he had no knowledge about her childhood. This is proven when William says “My mother’s maiden name was Daufaure” (De Rosnay 236), he had no idea that her actual maiden name was Starzynski. This is important because it shows the lack of knowledge William had about his mother’s suffering. During the interview “A warning bell went off in my head. Something was wrong. He did not know.” (De Rosnay 236), Julia came to this conclusion quickly and did not want to crush Williams memory that he had of his mother, even if it was not the full story. As time goes on William decides it is a good idea to find out about his mother’s past so he can understand her better. This is shown when William says “I need you to tell me what happened. What happened to my mother as a child. I need to know everything” (De Rosnay 253). As he learned more about his mother he shared Sarah’s notebook with Julia. Julia translated it and something became very clear to William. After Julia translated the note William said “She killed herself. There was no accident. She drove that car straight into the tree.” (De Rosnay 262). This was a turning point for William. He finally was able to understand her mother and have sympathy for her childhood. The problem was he was too late. If his mother would have been honest with him and his father from the start would her death been prevented? Although she had immense guilt for Michel’s death, could William have helped her through it? Could William have sought out help for Sarah? All of these questions are unknown, and will forever be

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