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= A Cruel Arithmetic =

Have you ever been tied down by rules? The Devil's Arithmetic, a book by Jane Yolen, tells the story of a girl and her struggle against to very different codices. If a girl named Hannah steps out of line for one of these rules she'll be killed. The worst part is she is stuck between two sets of rules that both keep her alive and maintain order, but are completely different.

The first set of rules is given by four people: The Three-Fingered Woman, The Tattooist, The Officer, and Rivka. Of the many rules The Three-Fingered Woman gives the most important is to never say no, no to the Germans is to say kill me to a murderer. The only rule to The Tattooist gives is to memorize your number because if you use a name or you forget your number you will severely punished or killed. Finally the rule Rivka is is to memorize everything about your bowl or you will not eat or drink. The intent of these rules is to keep control and maintain order, by punishment.

Rivka's rules are the second set Hannah learns. These rules are all presented by one person, Rivka. One of the rules is to never stand next to a person with a G starting their number they are Greek Jews and cannot understand German. Another is to make your number your story identify yourself with it, the number can't steal your soul if it tells the story of it. One more rule is to never go to the hospital, since all you are really going to is a graveyard because it shows you are weak. The last of the rules I will say is to hide the children in the midden, which is mostly made up of feces, during inspection. The intent of Rivka's rules are to keep everyone safe and prevent the fate brought onto her family by the malach ha-mavis.

As you already know the Holocaust was a tragic and terrible period of time. The book The Devils Arithmetic just describes what happens in a fantasy based story. In short most of the rules at the camps were harsh and mean. They were also used in the wrong way, as leashes to hold the Jews in place. IN the end we know this happened and we have to work to make sure another doesn't.