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Chapter 1
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
Hannah enters her grandparents’ living room and finds Grandpa Will shouting at footage of the Holocaust on TV, saying “give them this” and showing a tattoo on his left arm. For as long as Hannah can remember, her grandfather has had fits like this. He had his worst fit one time when Hannah was younger and she used a pen to give herself a similar “tattoo.” Hannah’s been afraid of him ever since.
Grandpa Will seems to have trauma from the past that certain events in the present can trigger. His tattoo reveals that he survived a concentration camp, but Hannah’s decision to draw a tattoo on herself suggests that she doesn’t understand the full significance of her grandfather’s tattoo and of how much he must have suffered in the past.
Themes
Hannah’s Aunt Eva had many chances in her youth to get married but turned them all down, preferring instead to help her brother raise Hannah’s father. Hannah never understood this decision and has always found Aunt Eva interesting, but she fears Aunt Eva might actually just lead a boring life.
Although Aunt Eva seems to be more well-adjusted than Grandpa Will, her dead friend hints at tragedy in her past, too, and shows just how mysterious her life is to Hannah. Aunt Eva’s decision to dedicate her life to helping raise Hannah’s father shows how she is willing to make sacrifices and put the good of others above herself.
Themes
