Previous
The Commandant
A badchan is a professional or semi-professional wedding entertainer, similar to a jester. The badchan at Shmuel and Fayge’s wedding immediately senses that the Nazis are trouble, saying that he feels the presence of the Angel of Death. He chooses to go to his own death in the concentration camp, believing it is his best option under the circumstances.
The Badchan Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic
The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by The Badchan or refer to The Badchan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7 Quotes
Pretty girl, with faraway eyes,
Why do you look with such surprise?
How did you get to be so wise,
Old girl in young-girl disguise.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Devil’s Arithmetic LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Badchan Character Timeline in The Devil’s Arithmetic
The timeline below shows where the character The Badchan appears in The Devil’s Arithmetic. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
The badchan (professional entertainer, like a jester) comes over to Hannah and sings her a song about...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...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...
(full context)
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...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...a while before finally admitting that he was chosen the previous day, along with the badchan, and a couple dozen others. Gitl begins to say a mourning prayer called the Kaddish.
(full context)
