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Chapter 5
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
Gitl tells Hannah it’s time to get dressed. She gives Hannah the dress that she herself wore on the day of Shmuel’s Bar Mitzvah, since all of Hannah’s old clothes in Lublin had to be burned in case they were still carrying disease. When Hannah finally looks at herself in the mirror, she recognizes the shape of her features but sees a different person. She looks like someone from old photographs. She also doesn’t have braces anymore.
A Bar Mitzvah is a coming-of-age ceremony for Jewish boys (with a Bat Mitzvah being for girls). It’s appropriate that Hannah wears a dress that Gitl wore to a Bar Mitzvah because this whole novel is one big coming-of-age journey for her. At this moment, when Hannah is starting her journey toward becoming a new person emotionally, she also becomes a new person physically. The slight physical changes that she notices in the mirror show that her time in the past has already changed her.
Themes
The whole shtetl comes over to Gitl and Shmuel’s place to celebrate before Shmuel’s wedding. Three girls come over to greet Hannah, and one of them introduces herself as Rachel, saying she’s about to become Hannah’s new best friend. The other girls are Shifre and Esther.
Although a shtetl is a small community, it is also a close-knit one, and Shmuel and Fayge’s wedding shows how certain events can bring the whole community together. Despite the closeness of the community, Rachel eagerly welcomes Hannah, showing how shtetls could be welcoming.
Themes
Rachel asks about Lublin, and Hannah realizes that it will be impossible to convince anyone where she’s really from. Hannah wonders if somehow, she actually has become Chaya. When Hannah tries to explain how big her house is and how she usually goes to school, the other girls are amazed, believing Hannah’s family must be extremely wealthy.
Previously, Hannah complained about many aspects of her life in New Rochelle, but when she describes her life to her new friends and they marvel at the details, Hannah begins to realize some of the ways in which she’s led a privileged life.
Themes
