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Chapter 16
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
One morning, Gitl tells Hannah that there’s a plan, which involves Yitzchak and Shmuel, but which Hannah must not mention to anyone else. Gitl refuses to say more, so that Hannah won’t accidentally reveal any part of the plan. Hannah asks if the plan is because of Reuven, and Gitl supposes that it is.
Nothing happens in the camp for several days, and Hannah gets impatient. Then, one night, after a seemingly ordinary day, Gitl wakes Hannah up and tells her to move. As they walk, Hannah is distressed to learn that while Shmuel is going, his new wife, Fayge, has decided to stay behind, as she prefers the horror she already knows.
Unlike the other adults, Fayge seems to have lost hope, which is why she isn’t able to imagine even the possibility of returning to life beyond the camp. This passage shows how, in spite of the solidarity and sacrifice that many Jewish prisoners showed, the camps nevertheless sometimes succeeded in their goal of splitting people and communities up.
Themes
Gitl tells Hannah that they’ll meet at the garbage dump and that they should stop talking. All of a sudden, they hear shouting, then shooting. Gitl tells them the plan is ruined, and so they have to get back to safety before the camp lights come on.
Hannah learns that just having hope isn’t enough to guarantee success, as the escape plan seemingly falls apart before it can even begin.
Themes
When Hannah and Gitl get back, the blokova hears them and asks what they were doing. Gitl says she just went out to urinate in her bowl when she heard the shooting and came back inside. The blokova warns Gitl to be more efficient, like a German, and only urinate in the morning or do it in bed.
Once again, the story contains some dark humor as the blokova, who lost two fingers to the German Nazis, nevertheless continues to praise the Nazis and despise the Jewish prisoners, highlighting the irrationality of anti-Semitism.
Themes
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In the barracks, Hannah suddenly worries to Gitl that in her haste to flee, she left her shoes behind. Hannah now worries Nazis will find her shoes and know she was trying to escape. Gitl tells Hannah that she stole the blokova’s shoes so that Hannah would have better shoes to escape—and so it’s only the blokova’s shoes outside.
Shoes are another thing that Hannah took for granted in her present-day life but which have central importance in the camp. Gitl’s growing talent for stealing provides further evidence of her willingness to make sacrifices, as she risks her own life in order to procure things that will help Hannah.
Themes
