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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sarah’s Key, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Remembrance and History
The Power of Silence
Guilt
Identity
Bravery
The Limits of Love
Summary
Analysis
When they finally stop to rest, Rachel and Sarah remember the policeman’s parting words: “Take off your stars.” They both do so and Rachel buries the yellow stars, saying, “They’re dead. In their grave. Forever and ever.” Instead of heading toward the village (which they finally learn is called Beaune-la-Rolande, thanks to a nearby signpost), Rachel and Sarah head away from town. They eventually reach a forest, where they stop to drink, bathe, and rest. Sarah sleeps soundly for the first time in many days.
Rachel’s burial of the stars is a complex and powerful moment for Sarah, who can’t help but guiltily recall her mother’s advice that she should wear her yellow star with pride. This moment shows yet again how complicated Sarah’s relationship to her identity as a Jewish person is. If a single person can have such a multilayered experience of only one aspect of her identity, it is outrageous to judge an entire group of people based on a single, shared identity marker.
Themes
