Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Reckoning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Legacy
Morality, Survival, and Perspective
Sexuality and Shame
Body Image and Publicity
Indifference vs. Feeling
Summary
Analysis
An hour later, Andrzej picks Magda up in his car. Anticipating the hero who had joined the resistance during the war, Magda is surprised by Andrzej’s thin stature; however, he still has some debonair flair left over from the family’s pre-war high status. As they drive through Warsaw, the nation’s “war wound,” Magda cries with horror. Andrzej scoffs when they pass the Palace of Culture and Science—the Soviet Union’s “gift” to Poland. At Andrzej’s flat, Danuta embraces Magda, exclaiming over how much she looks like Peter. Since Danuta refused to speak German after the war, Magda mimes her travel stories. Andrzej states that Magda is an actress.
Even though the war ended a long time ago, Warsaw’s present state makes it look like the war was yesterday. Used to only the emotional “wounds” left in Peter, Magda is stunned by the woundedness of the actual place—the destruction that still hasn’t been repaired. The Szubanskis in Warsaw do not have the opportunity of getting away from memories of the war or taunts from their former enemies: even the new infrastructure—the Palace of Culture and Science—is an insult and a painful reminder of the losses the city incurred during the war.
Themes
Andrzej and Danuta’s tiny flat is filled with objects from Andrzej’s naval post in Shanghai. Danuta says that, for economic reasons, most Polish people live with family until marriage. Magda wonders what lesbians do if they’re unable to express their sexuality at home.
In contrast to the limited freedom of expression that Poland’s economic climate allows, the freedom that Magda had in Australia—which seemed limiting to her before—appears like a privilege.
Themes
The following morning, Magda’s cousin, Magda Zawadzka, visits. Magda is in awe of her cousin’s kindness and sophistication; cousin Magda’s husband, Gustaw, is a famous Shakespearean actor. After breakfast, cousin Magda takes Magda to Pawiak, a Gestapo-run prison which is now a museum. Magda and Magda sit on a bench inside the thick walls and listen to a voice on an intercom read messages of love; Polish prisoners wrote these messages to their families and stuffed them into the walls of the prison. Cousin Magda holds Magda’s hand as Magda weeps.
In closely recreating the prison, the museum impresses on Magda—in an emotional rather than rational way—the horrors of the war. Magda’s intense emotional response suggests a kind of catharsis: for the last several years, she has kept her own feelings in check. Her weeping suggests that her and her ancestors’ feelings are continuations of one another and come out in a joint expression.
Themes
Magda feels that history separates her from her cousin; after the war, four decades of a communist regime oppressed Poland; Andrzej, as a former member of the Underground Army was under heavy scrutiny. Often, Magda overhears Andrzej discuss risky communism rebellions with relatives. In a response to Magda’s letters, Jane writes that Magda seems hysterical. Magda, who believes in socialism, is shaken to see her family persecuted in the name of progress and equality—ideals she herself holds. Magda still hopes that Karl Marx’s vision is right, but her family wants nothing short of free-market capitalism.
Visiting her ancestors tests Magda’s beliefs. Experience separates the generations of the Szubanskis so that certain bases of connection are unavailable. Emerging from different societies, the Polish Szubanskis and Australian Magda long for different things—they long for whatever is lacking from their own cultures. While Magda’s connection to her ancestors defies place and history, she also struggles to understand her similarity to people so different from her and with such different pasts.
Themes
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After Pawiak, Magda cries every day; she writes to Jane that she can hear Polish people howling to avenge their lost city. In retrospect, Magda recognizes her feelings as survivor’s guilt: because of Peter’s escape, Magda and her immediate family did not suffer like the rest of the family did. Not even shopping can soothe Magda, as there is no consumer culture in Poland: stores are empty, everything is rationed, and you have to stand in line for hours to get anything.
In Warsaw, Magda is in a world that could nearly have been hers. If Peter had not left Poland, he would have lived like Andrzej and Danuta, and Magda like Magda Zawadzka. Magda has escaped, but she does not feel worthy of her escape. Because of this, she is not only moved by her ancestors’ suffering, but feels irrationally responsible for it, ashamed of her other life.
Themes
The Iron Curtain would rise eventually, but the broken family ties could not be repaired. When Magda asks, cousin Magda says that she can’t believe Magda never met the kind Jadwiga. Magda struggles to understand love for someone one has never met. To make up for what Magda has missed, Danuta and Andrzej shower her with affection and introduce her to old friends.
As Magda delves into her past, she finds forms of connection that she has never encountered before. She has often struggled to fit in socially, but here she discovers a bond of love that exists through the barriers of the past. This discovery of ancestral connection lessens Magda’s loneliness.
Themes
One day when they are alone, Danuta shows Magda photos of her ancestors. After staring at Jadwiga, who looks just like her, Magda starts to cry. Danuta gives Magda copies of the photos, which Magda tucks into her money belt. Andrzej returns and turns on the TV; footage of Israel invading Lebanon plays. Outraged, Andrzej asks Magda what Peter says about all this anti-Jewish propaganda. Magda, who condemns Israel’s actions, reflects that Poland’s huge Jewish population was killed during World War II. Here, where the Holocaust is no abstraction, Magda is no longer sure what she believes; moral certainty slips through her fingers.
Magda discovers that when one weighs current events against history, a clear view of right and wrong becomes impossible to keep: a good action today might have caused evil in the past, and the past lends a context for the present that absolves or condemns what seems bad or good in the abstract. In this way, Magda’s reconnection with her ancestry opens her mind to the complexity of moral matters. At first, this is destabilizing, but it will give Magda greater perspective in the future.
Themes
When Magda’s two-week visa expires, she says goodbye to her family and gets on a train to West Berlin. Although she aches for the beauty of the West, her heart feels like it is tearing; she understands how Peter must feel. At the East German border, a woman checks Magda’s passport, ignoring Magda when she says that she is Australian. Searching Magda’s money belt, the woman finds Polish money (which is illegal to take out of Poland) between the photos. To Magda’s relief, the woman returns the money and the photos.
Not only is Magda’s life far away from Poland, but the political situation in Poland makes keeping up connections with her Polish ancestors nearly impossible. There are efforts to close Poland off from the rest of the world. Visits must be brief and can be made only by train; any heirlooms are heavily monitored upon exit. These policies make it difficult for Magda to keep her family history close to her.
Themes
In West Berlin, Magda stays at a women’s hostel decorated with vagina imagery. The next day, several feminists shave one another’s heads. Perversely, Magda prefers Germany to Poland; as victims, the people of Poland live with a sadness that saps youth.
The glorification of the body and freedom of expression at the hostel contrasts with Poland’s sterility. Magda shares a bond with her ancestors, but she feels more herself in the hostel’s social setting.
Themes
Magda travels to Italy; she goes shopping and makes friends, but depression soon spoils her time there; having received no letters from Jane, she worries that her departure broke their relationship irreparably. In Malaysia (her layover on her way back to Australia), Magda sees a child playing with a dead rat; she rushes to her hotel where she stays for two days, recounting the horrors of the world. On the second flight, she tells a woman that she wants to be an actress; she vows that, when she gets home, she will finish her degree, start acting, and win Jane back.
Magda’s Europe trip ultimately improves her mental and emotional health by showing her the “horrors of the world.” From the depths of despair, Magda grasps onto the things that she wants from her future, and she vows to pursue her dreams with no more delay or distraction. Now that she has seen the worst of the worst, Magda has new appreciation for all her opportunities
Themes
