Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Devil’s Arithmetic, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory
Sacrifice
Jewish Culture and Identity
Hope
Summary
Analysis
Hannah panics as she feels her memories of her house in New Rochelle fading. Gitl interrupts her thoughts and introduces her to Fayge, who will soon be Hannah’s aunt. When Hannah meets Fayge, she’s surprised how big and calloused her hands are.
While Hannah once struggled to remember the past, she now struggles to remember her former life in the future. This possibility scares her and helps her understand how truly important—and fragile—memory can be.
Themes
While riding to the center of town on a wedding wagon, Fayge asks Hannah about what it’s like in Lublin. Eventually, Fayge confesses that she’s nervous about marrying Shmuel. Hannah reveals that Shmuel is also nervous. This makes Fayge feel better, and she promises to always be a good friend to Hannah.
Even though Fayge and Shmuel love each other, they are each nervous about getting married. Hannah learns that relationships can be complicated and perhaps begins to better understand why women she knows, like Gitl and Aunt Eva, chose not to get married.
Themes
As Hannah and Fayge approach the central market in town, they notice three black cars and several army trucks parked in front of the shul (synagogue). A man in a black uniform with a lot of medals on his chest steps out of one of the cars. The badchan, who is with the wedding wagon, points at the man in black and says he is the Angel of Death.
The Angel of Death calls back to the Seder at the beginning of the book (since Passover is a celebration of the Angel of Death sparing Jewish families from a plague). In this case, however, the roles are reversed, and now it is the Jewish people who are most vulnerable to this particular Angel of Death that the badchan sees. Like many “fool” characters in stories, the badchan is wiser than he initially seems.
Themes
Hannah asks Shmuel what year it is, and he says 5701. The badchan realizes Hannah is confused and explains that in the Christian calendar it’s 1942, a few days before Passover. Suddenly, Hannah realizes that the men in the vehicles are Nazis. She tries to tell everyone that the Nazis will kill 6 million Jewish people, but the people around her struggle to understand such a large number.
Hannah’s ignorance of the Jewish calendar shows once again her lack of understanding of her own culture. It also illustrates how the Holocaust destroyed so much of that culture. Although Hannah learns the importance of history over the course of this story, here she also learns how knowledge can be a burden: though she knows the Holocaust is coming, she can’t personally do anything to stop it or even to convince the people near her that they are in danger.
Themes
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