The Devil’s Arithmetic

by

Jane Yolen

Hannah/Chaya Character Analysis

The novel’s protagonist, Hannah is a 12-year-old Jewish girl from New Rochelle, New York. During her family’s Passover Seder, she suddenly gets transported back in time to Poland, 1942. There, all the people in the local Jewish community believe she is Chaya, a recent arrival from Lublin whose parents died of disease. Hannah begins the story feeling reluctant about her Jewish identity, as she finds Jewish traditions boring and her relatives like Grandpa Will strange. But over the course of her time living in a Jewish shtetl and later in a concentration camp, Hannah learns both how much Jewish people like her older relatives have suffered as well as how they made sacrifices for each other so that a Jewish community could endure even after the Holocaust. This inspires Hannah to perform her own sacrifice, giving up her life in the past to die in the gas chamber by the chimneys so that her friend Rivka can live—with Rivka growing up to become Hannah’s Aunt Eva. Hannah’s journey follows the typical path of a coming-of-age story, with her journey toward adulthood teaching her about the dark parts of history but also helping her to grow into a more mature and selfless person.

Hannah/Chaya Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic

The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by Hannah/Chaya or refer to Hannah/Chaya. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Memory Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

“I’m tired of remembering,” said Hannah to her mother as she climbed into the car.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Mother
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

There was a lipstick stain where Aunt Eva had kissed her on the forehead. She ran some water and tried to scrub it off, feeling guilty because Aunt Eva was her favorite aunt, the only one who preferred her over Aaron. Hannah was even named after some friend of Aunt Eva’s. Some dead friend.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Grandpa Will, Aaron
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Give them this!” Grandpa Will shouted at the TV, holding up his left arm to the set. The sleeve of his shirt was rolled up above the elbow.

Related Characters: Grandpa Will (speaker), Hannah/Chaya
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Rosemary gets to eat jellybeans, and I get to eat horseradish.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker)
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Never mind, little Chaya, never mind,” Gitl said. “Shmuel and I—we are your family now.”

Related Characters: Gitl (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shmuel, Mother, Father
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“But if there is no Old Rochelle, how can there be a New?” Shmuel mused out loud. “Perhaps there is a Rochelle all alone, though the child does not know it.”

Related Characters: Shmuel (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Fayge
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Photographs of Grandma’s family but none of Grandpa Will’s, because, Aunt Eva had once explained, no photographs had been saved in the death camps. “We are our own photos. Those pictures are engraved only in our memories. When we are gone, they are gone.”

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Shmuel, Grandpa Will
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Pretty girl, with faraway eyes,
Why do you look with such surprise?
How did you get to be so wise,
Old girl in young-girl disguise.

Related Characters: The Badchan (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Shmuel, Fayge, Shifre, Esther, Rachel
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“The men down there,” she cried out desperately, “they’re not wedding guests. They’re Nazis. Nazis! Do you understand? They kill people. They killed—kill—will kill Jews. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Six million of them! I know. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. We have to turn the wagons around. We have to run!”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Gitl, Shmuel, The Rabbi
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Was knowing—or not knowing—more frightening? She couldn’t decide. A strange awful taste rose in her mouth, more bitter even than the Seder’s bitter herbs. And they were for remembering.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Of course, Jew,” came the officer’s voice. “And then my men will move among you and take your papers and jewelry for safekeeping.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Shmuel
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“You are zugangi, newcomers, the lowest of the low,” the tall, dark-haired woman said to them as they huddled in the stark barracks room. She was in a blue dress with green piping and the short sleeves displayed a long number tattooed on her arm.

Related Characters: The Blokova (speaker), Hannah/Chaya
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“When the man finished the number, he reached out and touched the collar of her dress, smoothing it down gently. “Live,” he whispered. “For my Chaya. For all our Chayas. Live. And remember.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, The Blokova
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Something forced Hannah to bend down and stare into the shelf. Little Tzipporah lay curled in a ball, her finger in her mouth like a stopper in a bottle. There was a fly on her cheek. Hannah reached out to brush it off.

“Do not touch her,” Gitl said.

Related Characters: Gitl (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Yitzchak, Tzipporah
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“God made the Devil, so God is here, too,” Rivka said.

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Wolfe
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:

Organize,” Rivka said. “As I have organized some shoes for you, and not wooden clogs, either. And sweaters. You will need them because the nights are cold still.”

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Suddenly Hannah noticed that one of the camp babies was still cradled in a wash tub. Without stopping to ask, she grabbed it up and ran with the child into the middle of the midden. Garbage slipped along her bare legs.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , The Commandant
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

Part of her revolted against the insanity of the rules. Part of her was grateful. In a world of chaos, any guidelines helped. And she knew that each day she remained alive, she remained alive. One plus one plus one. The Devil’s arithmetic, Gitl called it.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Gitl
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:

The commandant stood up and stared at her, his eyes gray and unreadable. “Are you his sister?”

She shook her head dumbly, afraid to say more.

“That is good. For you.”

Related Characters: The Commandant (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Yitzchak, Reuven
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“If something happens to us, you must remember. Promise me, Chaya, you will remember.”

Hannah’s lips moved but no sound came out.

“Promise.”

“I will remember.” The words forced themselves out through her stiffened lips.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Gitl (speaker), Shmuel, Yitzchak
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

When it was silent at last, the commandant threw the shoes on top of Fayge’s body. “Let them all go up the stack,” he said. “Call the Kommandos. Schnell!”

Related Characters: The Commandant (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shmuel, Fayge, Grandpa Will
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

The memories of Lublin and the shtetl and the camp itself suddenly seemed like the dreams. She lived, had lived, would live in the future—she, or someone with whom she shared memories. But Rivka had only now.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shifre, Esther
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

Then all three of them took deep, ragged breaths and walked in through the door into endless night.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Grandpa Will, Shifre, Esther
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 160
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

“In my village, in the camp . . . in the past,” Eva said, “I was called Rivka.”

Hannah nodded and took her aunt’s fingers from her lips. She said, in a voice much louder than she had intended, so loud that the entire table hushed at its sound, “I remember. Oh, I remember.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker)
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

It later became an adoption agency, the finest in the Mideast. She called it after her young niece, who had died a hero in the camps: CHAYA.

Life.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Gitl, Yitzchak
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Devil’s Arithmetic LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Devil’s Arithmetic PDF

Hannah/Chaya Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic

The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by Hannah/Chaya or refer to Hannah/Chaya. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Memory Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

“I’m tired of remembering,” said Hannah to her mother as she climbed into the car.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Mother
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

There was a lipstick stain where Aunt Eva had kissed her on the forehead. She ran some water and tried to scrub it off, feeling guilty because Aunt Eva was her favorite aunt, the only one who preferred her over Aaron. Hannah was even named after some friend of Aunt Eva’s. Some dead friend.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Grandpa Will, Aaron
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Give them this!” Grandpa Will shouted at the TV, holding up his left arm to the set. The sleeve of his shirt was rolled up above the elbow.

Related Characters: Grandpa Will (speaker), Hannah/Chaya
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Rosemary gets to eat jellybeans, and I get to eat horseradish.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker)
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Never mind, little Chaya, never mind,” Gitl said. “Shmuel and I—we are your family now.”

Related Characters: Gitl (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shmuel, Mother, Father
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“But if there is no Old Rochelle, how can there be a New?” Shmuel mused out loud. “Perhaps there is a Rochelle all alone, though the child does not know it.”

Related Characters: Shmuel (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Fayge
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Photographs of Grandma’s family but none of Grandpa Will’s, because, Aunt Eva had once explained, no photographs had been saved in the death camps. “We are our own photos. Those pictures are engraved only in our memories. When we are gone, they are gone.”

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Shmuel, Grandpa Will
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Pretty girl, with faraway eyes,
Why do you look with such surprise?
How did you get to be so wise,
Old girl in young-girl disguise.

Related Characters: The Badchan (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Shmuel, Fayge, Shifre, Esther, Rachel
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“The men down there,” she cried out desperately, “they’re not wedding guests. They’re Nazis. Nazis! Do you understand? They kill people. They killed—kill—will kill Jews. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Six million of them! I know. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. We have to turn the wagons around. We have to run!”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Gitl, Shmuel, The Rabbi
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Was knowing—or not knowing—more frightening? She couldn’t decide. A strange awful taste rose in her mouth, more bitter even than the Seder’s bitter herbs. And they were for remembering.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Of course, Jew,” came the officer’s voice. “And then my men will move among you and take your papers and jewelry for safekeeping.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Shmuel
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“You are zugangi, newcomers, the lowest of the low,” the tall, dark-haired woman said to them as they huddled in the stark barracks room. She was in a blue dress with green piping and the short sleeves displayed a long number tattooed on her arm.

Related Characters: The Blokova (speaker), Hannah/Chaya
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“When the man finished the number, he reached out and touched the collar of her dress, smoothing it down gently. “Live,” he whispered. “For my Chaya. For all our Chayas. Live. And remember.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, The Blokova
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Something forced Hannah to bend down and stare into the shelf. Little Tzipporah lay curled in a ball, her finger in her mouth like a stopper in a bottle. There was a fly on her cheek. Hannah reached out to brush it off.

“Do not touch her,” Gitl said.

Related Characters: Gitl (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Yitzchak, Tzipporah
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“God made the Devil, so God is here, too,” Rivka said.

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Wolfe
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:

Organize,” Rivka said. “As I have organized some shoes for you, and not wooden clogs, either. And sweaters. You will need them because the nights are cold still.”

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Suddenly Hannah noticed that one of the camp babies was still cradled in a wash tub. Without stopping to ask, she grabbed it up and ran with the child into the middle of the midden. Garbage slipped along her bare legs.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , The Commandant
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

Part of her revolted against the insanity of the rules. Part of her was grateful. In a world of chaos, any guidelines helped. And she knew that each day she remained alive, she remained alive. One plus one plus one. The Devil’s arithmetic, Gitl called it.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Gitl
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:

The commandant stood up and stared at her, his eyes gray and unreadable. “Are you his sister?”

She shook her head dumbly, afraid to say more.

“That is good. For you.”

Related Characters: The Commandant (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Yitzchak, Reuven
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“If something happens to us, you must remember. Promise me, Chaya, you will remember.”

Hannah’s lips moved but no sound came out.

“Promise.”

“I will remember.” The words forced themselves out through her stiffened lips.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Gitl (speaker), Shmuel, Yitzchak
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

When it was silent at last, the commandant threw the shoes on top of Fayge’s body. “Let them all go up the stack,” he said. “Call the Kommandos. Schnell!”

Related Characters: The Commandant (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shmuel, Fayge, Grandpa Will
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

The memories of Lublin and the shtetl and the camp itself suddenly seemed like the dreams. She lived, had lived, would live in the future—she, or someone with whom she shared memories. But Rivka had only now.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shifre, Esther
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

Then all three of them took deep, ragged breaths and walked in through the door into endless night.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Grandpa Will, Shifre, Esther
Related Symbols: Chimneys
Page Number: 160
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

“In my village, in the camp . . . in the past,” Eva said, “I was called Rivka.”

Hannah nodded and took her aunt’s fingers from her lips. She said, in a voice much louder than she had intended, so loud that the entire table hushed at its sound, “I remember. Oh, I remember.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker)
Related Symbols: Tattoo
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

It later became an adoption agency, the finest in the Mideast. She called it after her young niece, who had died a hero in the camps: CHAYA.

Life.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Gitl, Yitzchak
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis: