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Theme Of Remembrance In The Devil's Arithmetic

Decent Essays

In the early 1940s, the Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, wanted world domination. They invaded many countries and sent many citizens to concentration camps. Many of those sent to the camps were Jewish, and were murdered for their religion. Jane Yolen wrote The Devil’s Arithmetic to remember these events, known as the Holocaust. Jane Yolen’s novel, The Devil’s Arithmetic, delivers the message of remembrance more aptly than Donna Deitch’s film because of the character Rivka, the sacrifices made, and the dehumanization.
The novel delivers the message of remembrance through Rivka’s character. To begin, when Rivka is explaining how most of her family is gone, she says, “As long as we can remember, all those gone before us live inside of us.” Throughout …show more content…

For example, at the end of the story Rivka is picked to be sent to the gas chambers, but Chaya decides to switch places with her. She tells Rivka, “Run for your future. Run. Run. And remember.” By telling Rivka to remember, Yolen expresses how Chaya has learned to remember. Deitch may also argue that Hannah’s sacrifice was better portrayed in the film because Rivka tells Hannah, “When all this is over… I’ll call myself Eva.” Chaya then figures out that Rivka will be her Aunt Eva. Therefore, is for her aunt, someone she knows she will see again. This is wrong because in the book, Chaya sacrifices herself to give Rivka a chance, not knowing she will see her again. Additionally, in the lunchroom, Yolen writes that Chaya “saw that Gitl had given the child her own bread—and, half her soup be-sides.” The adults are giving younger children food to keep give them a chance to survive the camp and …show more content…

For instance, when Chaya is getting her number tattooed, the tattoo artist tells her, “You are Chaya no longer, child. Now you are J197241. Remember it.” The people of the camp are their numbers, something they could never forget. The string of numbers on their arm will be a constant reminder of the pain they felt. Deitch could believe that the film dehumanized the Jewish prisoners. She would be incorrect in thinking this because in the film, Commandant Breuer says “I’m surprised at you ladies.” By referring to the group of women as “ladies,” Breuer is humanizing them. In addition, when the group of Jews are being escorted out of the boxcars, Yolen writes that “the dead baby was torn from its mother's arms and cast behind a horse's watering trough.” The disrespect and disregard the Nazis had for a life, even after it’s gone, enforces the need to remember this horrible

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