7817ip+Whole+by+Whole+Essay

Life Depending Rules  When you think of rules, But what if your life counted on you following those rules? During the Holocaust, there were certain things Jewish prisoners could and could not do. If a Jew broke one of the rules, their life could be lost. In //The Devil's Arithmetic,// the protagonist Hannah has to follow many rules from many different people.The first kind of rules that Hannah are told about come from the camp official. The second kind came from a girl Hannah's age named Rivka. Rivka has lost many people in her family and has learned what things to do in the concentration camp to make sure that it won't happen again. The camp rules and Rivka's rules both help Hannah survive and know what's expected at the camp. What Hannah realizes though is that they might be hard to remember, and forgetting even one rule may cost her life. Who should she listen to to save her life?

 A woman with three fingers, a tattooist, a Nazi officer, and Rivka tell the Jews the official camp rules. All of their rules were different, but somehow related. The three-fingered woman said that one of the first lessons Jews have to learn at the camp is to not call attention to themselves. Hannah called out and her consequence was to surrender her hair ribbons to the woman. The consequence could have been much, much, worse. The tattooist exchanges Chaya's name for a number and tells her to remember it; if she forgets it, life is gone indeed. The Nazi officer tells a big group of Jews a short speech of some important rules they must know. He said, "You will have discipline. You will work hard. You will never answer back, complain, or question. You will not try to escape. You will do this for the Fatherland. You will do it or you will die." Finally, Hannah meets Rivka who tells her a few important rules that she's probably told every group of newcomers at the camp. She hands them all metals bowls and says, "You must take good care of your bowl. I call them Every Bowls because they are everything to us. Without the bowl, you cannot have food, you cannot wash, you cannot drink, memorize your bowl its dents, its shape. Always remember where you have put it. There are no replacements." This is a very important speech for every group of newcomers. But Rivka has many more rules to give Hannah that will guarantee life. NOTE

 Rivka has taken the role of her mother who has died. She knows about everything that goes on in the camp and knows all the rules. She shares them with Hannah and two girls named Shifre and Esther, who are all obviously having difficulty remembering the rules they've already been told. She says to them, "First, you may call me Rivka and I may call you by your names, but remember my number as you you remember your own. You must learn to read the numbers as you would a name. There are good numbers and bad numbers." Esther walked away humming loudly trying to drown out the sound of Rivka's voice. "Esther..." Shifre called. "Leave her," Rivka said. "Leave her. Sometimes people get like that. They stop listening. They stop seeing. We call them //mussel men//. Rivka said that it is very sad when people become //mussel men//, but you must be able to let them go because it is one of the hard things you must do to be able to stay alive. To let people go. To know who to avoid. She said to never stand next to someone with a G in their number. They are Greeks and Greeks don't speak Yiddish nor understand German. Because they don't understand commands fast enough, they become gone and anyone standing next to them may be taken with them and become gone too. She also said different rules like to never lose your eating bowl. If you lose it you won't be able to eat, drink, or wash. Also that Commandant Breuer is not supposed to allow children under fourteen in the camp so whenever he comes to inspect the camp, the children have to hide in the midden. The most important rule of hers to follow is to never cross the line to Lilith's cave that leads to the gas ovens. If you cross the line, you will never come back and you will become gone.

Rivka's rules and the camp rules are both very different, but both have one similarity. Listen to the rules and you will stay alive. Today. If you listen to the rules one day, there is a very low chance you will be chosen. However, if you do not listen to the rules the next day, you will chosen and you will be gone. This is the reason why rules are very important. In my opinion, Rivka's rules were more helpful because she told Hannah and Shifre all the possible ways you could be chosen and all the ways to prevent it. Camp officials never tell you about being chosen. If someone didn't listen to Rivka, they could do something that they didn't realize was forbade or wrong and be chosen without knowing why. Rules were indeed hard to follow, but only the people who followed them were the survivors of World War II.

[|Go Back to My Table of Contents]