The Devil's Arithmetic Character Analysis

In November 1988 Jane Yolen wrote and published The Devil’s Arithmetic. The book soon grew to be popular and they soon made a movie. It released on March 28 1999 it gave the story of Chaya just as horrific. The tale goes like this. Hannah (soon to be Chaya) is tired of hearing about her religion’s past. She and her family will soon be getting together to celebrate passover. While she is celebrating she drinks too much wine. She then has a supernatural experience that takes her to Poland in 1941. She is in house with some new family that believed for some reason that she is from Lublin and her parents are dead and she is very sick.. Her family treats her being dysfunctional like nothing. Hannah has to change into a new dress for a wedding. The wedding is taking place in town, which they have to walk to, the husband and wife are supposedly going to be married soon, but the Nazis soon put a stop. While celebrating, they intervene with the Nazis. The Nazis then force them to climb into transportation at a very rapid pace. The new Jews that Hannah had just meant cram into the vehicles. They poorly have to go to one of the most famous death camps, Auschwitz. They are sent to

The guards needed to make more room in the camp for new workers they were receiving that day. The guard decided that Rivkah would be one of the Jews executed. Chaya put on Rivkah’s cap in order to fool the guards. I think that during the Holocaust the Nazi guards were attentive and would have noticed the difference between Chaya and Rivkah and decided to put them both to death. Although, I think this happened in this particular film in order to successfully finish the plot.

The girls are taken in by an older couple, Jules and Genevieve. While under their care, Rachel becomes severely ill and requires medical care. The doctor is a Nazi, and he realizes that Rachel escaped from the camp. He reports Rachel to the officials, causing them to taker her away from Jules and Genevieve. Although she is helpless and near death, the German guards remove her from the home, “[Sarah] heard... Rachel’s thin scream all the way from the top of the house. Rachel torn from the bed by the Germans. Rachel moaning, too feeble to fight back” (129). Rachel is not only denied the right to be cared for by the doctor, but is also mercilessly dragged away from her deathbed to die in a concentration camp, simply because she is Jewish. Having this label, in the Nazi’s minds, equates to being subhuman.

It says in the book, “One day soon this Suzy and her people with stop being nice to us.” She thought everyone was going to turn on the Jews like in Germany, so she didn’t trust anyone. In another part of the story it says,” Did not the Germans say that we were safe in their camps? And there you and baby Natan were killed.” Since she never really communicated with anyone she thought it wasn’t much worse than Germany. So when Leah didn’t eat barely any food she got sick. Since she thought it was like life back in Germany, so she didn’t tell anyone. She didn’t tell anyone because because she thought the conscience would be death because she miss understood what the refugee camp truly was. She suffered and refused to get help until her brother Avi told the guard Leah was sick, and they brought her to the

Hannah has experiences in the story that change her. In chapter three, Hannah drank watered down wine for the first time. Hannah also got drunk. “ Uncle Sam poured another quarter glass of wine into her glass, then filled it the way with water for the next blessing.” this was on page 16. This experience is a huge role in the story because it causes her to fall asleep and have to crazy dream. Another quote is when Hannah says “I'm not Chaya.” On page 34, “I'm from New Rochelle. And I'm not Chaya, I'm Hannah’ When Shmuel’s eyebrows rose up and lines furrowed his brow, he looked so fierce Hannah moved back a step” Rivka explains to Hannah that she was sick and probably forgot. Hannah has many experiences in the story that change her.

When I first met Hannah, she blew me away with her creativity, musical talent, and kindness. However, none of these things were the first thing she taught me. That would have to be my firm belief in patience. I’m the person who dreads standing in line, dealing with other people, and even handling myself. You could say that I am impatient, I prefer the term driven. Hannah is the total opposite. While I highly doubt anyone is likes waiting in lines, she is willing to pick up her phone to help anyone at any time and has so much patience for herself. To top that off, she puts up with me which requires more patience than I will ever have. Hannah teaches me

The men and women are separated, and put to work. There is a Commandant who hates them, and they are slowly killed off(The Devil’s Arithmetic) per commandant’s orders. Working daily, Hannah and her camp companions steal things such as scarves to get warmer during the frigid days and gelid nights. Some young men form a plan to escape, but of no avail, even when they change their course of action. Next, they are caught and killed in a merciless manner, as is expected of the horrendous Nazis, who are currently killing more Jews daily than ever, probably due to the fact that the Allies are winning the war. Soon after, Rivka(Hannah’s friend) is chosen to die, to Hannah responds by taking Rivka’s scarf and going in her place to be killed; when she arrives at the chamber, the mysterious power that has transported Hannah to a seemingly dream past grasps Hannah

Hanneli ‘Hannah’ Pik-Goslar was much like other Jewish children in Germany in the 1930’s, she was shunned, not allowed to go to the movies or ice skate, and was forced to attend a special school. Most of Germany was segregated against the Jewish and against her family. Hannah was born in Germany in 1928 to Ruth Klee and Hans Goslar, by the time she’s 5 years old she and her parents are already on the run from Nazi’s. When she’s 12 her sister Gabi was born. She is already friends with Anne when she hears they’ve fled to Switzerland. This is not true as they have just started their two year hiding period in the Secret Annex. In 1942 Hannah’s mom dies in childbirth with a stillborn baby. While her dad managed to get passport, they were still arrested

Hannah Berkowitz, formally Hannah Kromasz, was born on October 10th, 1919 in Wlodawa (Lublin), Poland. Hannah was raised in an poor house hold that followed orthodox Judaism and attended public school. Prior to the year 1939, Hannah stated her community was all friends with very little anti-semitism or discrimination in general. Then the Germans occupied Poland, including Wlodawa, in 1939 and started to immediately recruit young men for the Gustapo. Many jewish families started to flee to the Soviet Union, however, Hannah’s father did not want to leave. Preceding with normal life, Hannah was then married in 1940 and had a child shortly after. In 1942, her neighbors warned her to flee immediately, saying “they are going to kill all the jews”, just as the Germans started to force people into the ghettos. Having no prior knowledge of the events happening all over Europe, the family fled at night to the Dulcza forest in Radgoszcz, Poland, where they stayed from 1942-44. In the forest, there was multiple jewish families and the men would go into the Polish towns and beg for food, until a resident notified the Germans. When the Germans

This quote shows that as her hair was slowly cut her past was slowly removed from her memories. Hannah couldn’t remember anything other then from being Chaya. Furthemore later in the book she couldn’t remember any food other then the potato soup she ate everyday at the camp. Chaya also realizes that she took her family for granted. As Chaya she also realizes family is important, as well as where you come

First of all, Hannah doesn't want to respect or remember her history, until she sees why it's important to at the end of the story. When Hannah was with her family at the Seder dinner, she got to open the door for the prophet, Elijah. When she opens the door she gets transported back through time and meets Shmuel and Gitl.

These are simple, short lines but, one can perceive the tone of resignation fueled by complete belief in her thoughts as the truth; thoughts that ultimately led to her self-destruction. There is this one funny thing about humans and the world. There are many truths- too many. And no one is capable of discerning whether they are lies or not. Each one has their own beliefs and nobody is given the advantage of having seen the “ultimate truth” because what we think our truths are, are truths merely because we believe them to be so. Hannah’s “truth” was her belief that she could not be saved and that suicide was her only way. So, we are only given the right to believe that what we think is

Jane Yolen wrote The Devil’s Arithmetic with the main theme about remembering what happened,sacrifices, and honoring those who died. Hannah Stern ,a 13 year old girl, is tired of remembering and doesn’t want to go to the Seder. Hannah faces a dream that seems like reality where she learns what happened in Concentration Camps to the Jews. She learns that she must remember what happened to the Jews and she learns about sacrifice and honoring the dead. After waking from her dreams she realizes she must remember the Holocaust, honor the dead Jews, and stay true to her religion. The Devil’s Arithmetic film was made in 1999 based on the book written by Jane Yolen. The movie highlights the horror and dismay the Jews faced in the camps. Hannah the main character faces the disheartening nature of these camps in her dream which feels like reality to her. Hannah learns about the Holocaust and what happens if you were in the camps during the Holocaust while in her dream and she learns to

She looks back to see her family, but nobody is there. Turns out, she teleported into a shtetl or polish village. A woman named Gitl and a man named Shmuel great her. They tell her about her knew past and who she is, Chaya a girl from the 1940’s. Hannah plays along thinking it's just a dream, but Hannah and Chaya are not the same person.

Actually, how we see ourselves does not come from who we really are, but rather from how we believe others see us.” This was true in Hannah’s case. Hannah’s low self-esteem was caused by her peers’ increasingly low opinion of her. She believed that her classmates saw her in a poor light, so she did as well. In the novel, Hannah said, “I have no excuse. I could have stopped it-end of story. But to stop it, I felt like I’d have to stop the entire world from spinning. Like things had been out of control for so long that whatever I did hardly mattered anymore”. She felt that her actions did not matter anymore because no one would see her differently at that point in time. Her reputation had been built up as someone who was “easy” and untrustworthy. Others’ perception of Hannah caused her to doubt and hate herself in the end. This caused severe changes in her self-identity.