Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

“Who changes one person, changes the world whole.”

This quote, from the Jewish Talmud, hangs in Mr. C.’s classroom over the blackboard. In some respects, it’s a banal quotation, the sort of broad inspirational quote often found on posters in classrooms. In this context, it becomes significant, both because of its source and because of its connection to one of the major themes of the book, the power of the individual to effect change.

“Not a single Black person lived in the Uniontown school district, and, as far as she knew, there had never been a kid of any other color except white in the high school. Kansas City also had a lot of Jewish people, but she was pretty sure there had never been a Jewish kid in Uniontown High School either. Warsaw and Kansas City were other worlds—Jews and Blacks were other people—and until now she didn’t think much about it.”

As the book progresses, the gap between the girls’ experience in Kansas and the experience of Irena in Warsaw closes, at least symbolically. Not only do the girls begin to better understand a semblance of diversity through their work, but they begin to see that a lack of representation in Uniontown does not preclude the same kinds of bigotry and hatred that developed in Warsaw.

“Sabrina smiled in a way that Megan knew meant she was not OK and did not want to talk about it.”

Throughout the book there are various manifestations of this idea: the communication, or lack of communication, of pain and tragedy, and the way we wrestle with these things as human beings. This moment adds another dimension to this—it becomes a kind of language that’s understood by the recipient, taking on a semiotic element.