The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

The Devil’s Arithmetic

By Jane Yolen

           

l ‘Prophet Elijah’, she travels back in time to 1942 in a Polish village and everybody calls her Chaya. But it is the time of the Holocaust, and only Hannah knows what’s happening. Recently, I read the book The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. This book is about a modern-day girl, Hannah, who doesn’t like to attend her family Seder celebrations, because she is tired of remembering her past, but of course, this Seder, she is forced to attend. When Hannah is requested to open the apartment door to let in the symbolica

I think that it was a good choice of the author to select her overall setting to be during the Holocaust. I think she did this because the story is about a girl who is tired of remembering her past heritage, which has everything to do with the Holocaust and the fact that six million Jew’s died.

The setting was also important to the theme, which was how heritage is important. I know this because in the end, Hannah was grateful that she was forced to attend her families ‘remembering sessions’ because she was put into a situation where her knowledge was useful. When Hannah was swept back in time, she got to realize that the Holocaust was so much more than what she thought of it. It was worse. This changed the way she saw her past, and she finally understood the importance of remembering her heritage.

The setting also affected the plot. This is true because if the whole story took place in Hannah’s modern day life, she probably wouldn’t have actually realized how bad the Holocaust really was, because she wouldn’t have experienced it. The experience was what really made her understand the importance of heritage. The events and emotions that Hannah went through when she was in 1942 were what really caused her to change.

The setting also just affected Hannah as a character. I think so because of the settings affect on the plot and theme, Hannah’s surroundings caused her to have an emotional change. As I stated before, in the beginning of the story, Hannah didn’t like remembering her past, and the Holocaust. After the setting changed and she was suddenly living her past, she realized the horrible truth of the six million Jews that died long ago. In the end, she grasped the significance of how her heritage past was a huge part of her.

Those are the reasons why I think that the setting affected the overall outcome of the book The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.