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
The Szubanskis had gone to church when they lived in England, but they stopped the habit when they moved to Australia. Magda missed Mass; but Margaret remembers that, when Magda was three, she repeatedly yelled “shut up” to a priest during his service.
Magda’s attitude toward the priest symbolizes her dissatisfaction with religion’s answers to moral dilemmas. Later, Magda will fail to find a religion or a God that accepts Peter’s decision to be an assassin during the war.
Themes
Magda’s second experience with religion came from the Vincents, who had recently become Jehovah’s Witnesses. Trying to convert the Szubanskis, the Vincents hosted a Bible study in their plastic-covered sitting room, but Peter decided it was nonsense. Once, Magda asked the Vincent kids what would happen to her family during Armageddon. Jodie Vincent replied that they would not be saved because they are “Catholic idolators”; however, people from the olden days would be resurrected. Tempted to live in the same world as Daniel Boone, Magda considered converting, and she counted down the days to Doomsday on a calendar.
Although marks Doomsday on her calendar, she doesn’t believe in it and therefore is not afraid of it. Much more than this hypothetical future day, Magda fears the fearlessness in her father that came from his traumatic past. In this way, Magda reveals that the unknown past is more frightening to her than the unknown future.
Themes
True to her Catholic roots, Magda judged her conscience harshly. Margaret and Peter considered sending Magda to Catholic convent school along with her friend Izabella Kobylański, the daughter of a Polish family who survived Auschwitz and migrated to Australia. The Kobylańskis exposed Magda to Polish food and culture; she longed to speak Polish so she could understand Adam Kobylański’s stories.
Although Magda was born in England and spent the bulk of her childhood in Australia, she connects most with a family from Poland. This suggests that, for Magda, lineage exerts a greater influence on her identity than her present surroundings.
Themes
