The Devil’s Arithmetic

by

Jane Yolen

Rivka/Aunt Eva Character Analysis

Rivka is Hannah’s closest friend in the concentration camp (where Hannah is Chaya), and Rivka eventually grows up to become Hannah’s Aunt Eva. Despite being younger than Hannah, Rivka has learned a lot about how the concentration camp works in her time there. She believes that the best way to avoid dying is to avoid attracting attention, and the best way to avoid attracting attention is to follow the camp rules, which can be nonsensical and contradictory, but which are nevertheless important to learn. Rivka teaches Hannah the meaning of sacrifice when she gives up her gold ring so that Hannah can be placed on kitchen duty instead of on the more dangerous woodcutting crew. Hannah returns the favor by swapping places with Rivka at the end of the novel so that Rivka can live on (and so that Hannah can return to her life in present-day America). Rivka demonstrates the injustices that Jewish people lived through in the concentration camps, showing how the Nazis imposed arbitrary expectations on them and how even following these expectations was not enough to guarantee survival. As the adult Aunt Eva, she impresses on Hannah the endurance and resilience of the Jewish people.

Rivka/Aunt Eva Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic

The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by Rivka/Aunt Eva or refer to Rivka/Aunt Eva . 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

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 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 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 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 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:
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The Devil’s Arithmetic PDF

Rivka/Aunt Eva Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic

The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by Rivka/Aunt Eva or refer to Rivka/Aunt Eva . 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

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 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 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 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 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: