The Devil’s Arithmetic, a novel by Jane Yolen, is very inspiring to me. It explains the feelings of not only just Hannah, but many others. It lets me know that in any situation, you can always persevere. Although this book can be sad, the sadness is powerful. It takes you to a whole new perspective of the Holocaust, not just through facts, but actually living it. Hannah has to remember anything and everything. Why? Remembering is a huge part of this story and is represented largeley in many different ways.
Devil’s Arithmetic Movie vs Book Death, sickness, and torture among humans. The Germans were extremely cruel people during WW1. Jews were taken from their homes and put into concentration camps where they were forced to do work or die. In The Devil’s Arithmetic the tragedy and harshness of these camps was brought to life.
Many times people take things for granted. For example, we think since food is always provided to us we shouldn’t be thankful for it, or for pure drinking water or even for our freedom. Most of society receive this benefits, and we assume everybody gets them too, unfortunately that is not the case. Not all people can afford these privileges. We may not perceive them as that on the contrary, we think of them as needs, and fortunately for us we can afford to enjoy them. However, in the past this was not the case for most people. Even today people can't afford them. In the Devil’s Arithmetic, Hannah a 13-year-old girl realizes this after a spiritual awakening at the end of the story.
When Hannah gets back home, she is still at the Seder dinner and notices the numbers on Aunt Evas are the same that Rivikas. She then explains what the numbers mean to Aunt Eva remember everything Rivka said to her. “Hannah needed and took her aunt's fingers from her lips. She said in a voice much louder that she had intended, so loud that the entire table hushed at its sound, “I remember. Oh, I remember.”
In the Devil’s Arithmetic--both the book and the movie--Hannah, a young Jewish girl, begins the story by heading off to her Seder Dinner, much to her dismay. She doesn’t care much about her past, and she doesn’t want to remember what happened to the Jews. She greets her favorite aunt, Aunt Eva, at the door, and unenthusiastically goes along with the celebration, drinking too much wine and treating everyone with disrespect. When asked to go open the door for the prophet Elijah, Hannah reluctantly gets up and opens the door. In an instance, she is transported back in time to 1942, the peak of the Holocaust. What follows is a story of hope, terror, and courage. Hannah meets Rivka
Accept what is, let go of what was, have faith in what will be. In the novel The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, is a story of a girl named Hannah who isn’t accepting her Jewish heritage. One day when Hannah was at a seder dinner she opened the door and then she found herself in the past. Although some believe that Hannah is starting to change and appreciate her Jewish heritage, I know she isn’t. Even though hannah is being called Chaya by Gitl, Shmuel, and others, she really isn’t accepting it.
In the intro of the book Hannah says “I am not hungry. I ate a big dinner at Rosemary’s. And I do not want to go to the Seder. Aaron and and I will be the only kids there and everyone will say how much we have grown even though they just saw us last months” (3-4). In the beginning of the book Hannah’s main point in life at this point is to only be happy with herself and not have to do what her
The Devil’s Arithmetic, based on author Jane Yolen’s novel, is a 1999 film that aims to educate viewers about the horror, importance, and impact of the Holocaust. The director, Donna Deitch, depicts the journey of a modern teenager, with an apathetic view of her Jewish heritage, who travels back in time during her family’s Seder feast to a concentration camp in 1941. The protagonist experiences the terror of the Holocaust first hand as she develops a new, appreciative meaning for her existence and family’s history. The film serves as a non-violent and efficient way to inform young viewers, who may be uneducated or disinterested, of the Holocaust. This is especially true when considering the film’s engaging plot, cinematic techniques that recreate the horror of the Holocaust, and the film’s primary purpose.
Children carry the weight of parent’s hopes when they grow up and face emotive paths to create an identity. In Ben Xu’s article titled “Memory and Ethnic Self…” he states that Lena does not who she is, and cannot hold herself together any longer. It’s almost like she is allowing herself to be borne into this commotion of life. Because of her mother’s memory, she needs
During the “New Girl” Era, women in Germany suffered discrimination because of the fact that they were not men. They lived in an era that was almost entirely run by men. Women were given less job opportunities and were finally given women’s rights, but were not able to fully use them because they were still restricted from doing many things. This lead to Hannah’s creations of her photomontages that were inspired by her social and political views on this era.
The author of The Devil’s Arithmetic is Jane Yolen. In this book the author uses excellent words to set the tone of the story, such as fierce, strong, nonsense, and ominously. The author also includes some German words and their translation. Raus, ‘raus, schneller, which means out, out, faster, is one example. There is many tones in this book.
Ellie is dealing with the possible death of her mother who is in the sick ward and has been there for about three and a half weeks. In Auschwitz your life can be taken at any time, many prisoners will disappear without question. Any wrong move and you can be killed on the spot or sent to the gas chambers. Ellie recalls many of her fellow prisoners vanishing during the day or night. If they were lucky they would be sent to the gas chambers.
Hanna has what the narrator describes as the perfect life. Her parents are together, her house is friendly and her dad even visits their fifth-grade class. The two best friends were perfectly content with their life and no matter what they would not be separated nor turn against each other. “We were the girls with the wrong school supplies, and everything we did after that, even the things done just like everyone else, were the wrong things to do” (Horrock 473). Hanna and the narrator did not care whether they were doing the wrong thing socially, as long as they had each other.
Hannah was ignorant about the world around her and was only concentrated on learning the piano and dreaming about becoming a concert pianist. “[Hannah] dreamed of [herself] in flowing dresses with [her] long black hair grown out to [her] waist and a string of pearls at [her] throat”(horton.1). This shows that Hannah is living in her own world with her hopes and dreams. Hannah realized that she has a great talent and she can become a famous concert pianist one day. Hannah believed when Tant Rose said “ If [she] made a few sacrifices and worked hard [she] would be famous’’(1).
Of all the terrible events in history, the Holocaust may be the worst of them all. This tragedy was so terrible, I cannot think of the ones who instigated it as human beings. It was against many morals and standards that the world views today as common ethics. The most terrible part of this is, perhaps, how today’s new and younger generations are not sufficiently educated about this disaster. Although many younger generations do not know about the Holocaust, it’s importance should be emphasised in today’s society to learn from it, to realize that every human life is important, and to appreciate the blessings of the present day. I, like many others, did know about the events of the Holocaust for the longest time and when I did, I gained a feeling of disgust towards everything that occurred at that time. In the movie, The Devil’s Arithmetic, I gained a much larger sense of the hostile feeling that this tragedy brought on and it made me realize that this was something that is very important to know and learn about. For the