Cilka's Journey

Content Warning: This study guide contains depictions of genocide, rape, sexual assault, suicide, and drug addiction.

One of the central themes within Cilka’s Journey is embracing womanhood, sisterhood, and motherhood. From the outset of the novel, Cilka Klein, Josie Kotecka, and the other women traveling to Vorkuta form a close bond and rely on each other for comfort and support. For example, one young woman starts her period on the train and believes she is dying. An older woman explains what’s happening to her, and Josie comforts her, encouraging the other women to do the same. Some women begin “tearing pieces off their garments, ripping sections from the bottoms of their dresses, and passing them along to the woman caring for the girl” (11). Giving what little they have to help the girl enter womanhood signifies how much the women support each other. Another event that represents strength in femininity is when the women decorate Hut 29 and adorn their clothing with lace. These simple acts are “a small reclamation of an identity, a femininity, an expression of something other than a functional body put to work daily” (105).