No Pretty Pictures

“But it’s also wearisome as well as dangerous to cloak and sanctify oneself with the pride of victimhood. I have spent many, many more years living well, occupied with doing happy and interesting things, than I spent ducking the Nazis or being a refugee.”

Lobel instructs the reader on how she wants them to view her. She doesn’t want them to think of her as a victim or to forgive her faults—”sanctify” her. She’s had a good life, so she doesn’t need extra sympathy. The quote features diverse diction or word use. There’s the religious “sanctify” juxtaposed against the informal “ducking.” This casual term makes it seem like child Anita was merely avoiding the Nazis as if they were some temporary annoyance.

“Then, one morning, he was gone and did not come back. He had kissed me in the night, and I did not know it. I looked for his shoes. I could not find his smell, and I cried.”

Anita uses a direct, jarring tone to convey the suddenness of her dad’s disappearance. She also brings in the theme of The Body and Societal Identity—she knows her dad by smell.

“I knew that Niania blamed all Jews for the torture and death of Christ. She didn’t like the Hasidic Jew with the fur hat we used to see rushing by the back balconies. She sneered at kosher dishes in the family household.”

Anita cements Niania’s characterization: She’s a person who doesn’t like a lot of things about Jewish people. Yet Anita doesn’t use the word antisemitism or criticize Niania for her prejudices. The excerpt illustrates the gap between words and deeds. Niania sticks by Anita and her brother and risks her life to help them survive.

“Mother was gone. I hadn’t thought much about her. She had come and created a stir. That was why we were on the run again.”

Anita uses a blunt tone to convey how her mom disrupted the safety of staying with Niania in her village. Matter-of-factly, she blames her mom for bringing danger and displacing her. The mom symbolizes peril, while Niania represents protection.

“We lay there. A bunch of smelly Jewish strangers. For hours we were like the contents of a boiling pot on the stove. Waiting for the lid to be lifted and for the strew to be ladled out.”

Anita uses a jarring tone to reflect the disquiet of hiding from the Nazis in the space above the attic. She creates an unpleasant atmosphere with the adjective “smelly.” She uses a simile, comparing their human bodies to a boiling pot and stew to reflect their foul moods, the dangerous situation, and their alienation from their bodies. They’re not humans but bits of food thrown into a pot, and they’re waiting for someone—maybe Nazis or maybe a person on their side—to come and do something to them.

“Looking at a naked nun was certainly a sin. We had not intended to be sinful. But I had been interested in the sight. If I had been alone, I know I would have taken another good look at old Sister Ignacja to see what she did in her bath.”

Anita uses repetition to convey how guilty she feels for observing Sister Ignacja naked—she says “sin” and then “sinful.” The quote illustrates Anita’s fascination with bodies and how they conform and deviate from social identities. The phrase “old Sister Ignacja” also reveals her occasionally flippant tone. The serious, life-or-death situation hasn’t stamped out Anita’s cheeky voice.

“Sure, it was important to have valuable things to trade. It was equally important not to draw attention to oneself. For the moment Niania had found a good shelter for the three of us. We were safe at the convent with the Benedictine sister. Until the Nazis went away. Until the war came to an end, I wanted everything to stay as it was.”

Anita acknowledges that her mom has some right to be upset with Niania for losing the jacket, but she ultimately sides with her nanny, who continues to represent protection. Anita also confronts the theme of Constant Displacement and the Lack of Stability by expressing her wish to stop moving around and stay in the shelter.

“But I had never spent a night in a room with a dead person before. Krysia was such a tease. Maybe she was just pretending. I kept hoping that she would wake up in the morning.”

Lobel shows how she goes back and inhabits Anita’s stream of consciousness. Anita goes from semi-boasting about the night with a dead person to wondering if Krysia is dead. Anita’s doubt reflects Krysia’s characterization: She’s a mischievous girl. It also shows Anita’s doubts about the relationship between bodies and labels. Anita isn’t sure if Krysia’s body corresponds to the “dead person” designation.

“Then we saw Niania running toward the truck with our coats and caps and scarves. I was afraid the Nazis were going to shoot her. But they allowed her to throw our clothes into the truck.”

Anita uses imagery to show how Niania runs after her and her brother. She uses specific language to highlight what she has in her hand and the danger she faces. The quote reveals Niania’s dedication. She risks the Nazis shooting her to give the siblings items to keep them warm.

“We hadn’t murdered anybody. We were here because we were Jews. Heavy iron doors were opening wide to receive us.”

Anita uses a blunt tone to sharply summarize her situation: She and her brother are in the Montelupi prison, not because they’re murderers, but because they’re Jews. The sentences reveal how Nazis linked the Jewish identity to criminality. Anita uses personification and humor to make it seem like the iron doors are people welcoming them to their new home.

“We would pop the lice one by one between our thumbnails. My scalp never stopped itching. The Nazis’ war had permanently sprinkled us with lice.”

Anita uses imagery to describe how the lice take over her and her brother’s bodies. The onomatopoeia contributes to the scene; “pop” makes a violent sound and adds a visceral layer to Anita and her brother killing the lice. The quote furthers the theme of The Body and Societal Identity and shows Anita’s humor. The word “sprinkled” makes it seem like the Nazis give her and her brother something good, like sprinkles on a cupcake.

“The man kept looking at me and smiling. I was ten years old. I did not like being naked in front of him. Why had Raisa not asked him to turn his back or leave the room?”

The theme of The Body and Societal Identity manifests as Anita relates her body to her identity as a child. She feels uncomfortable with the man looking at her, and she doesn’t comprehend why her cousin is allowing him to stay in the room. Lobel captures Anita’s confusion. As she doesn’t get what’s going on, the reader experiences her discomfort.

“The taste of yellow sulfur on my tongue. Down my throat. I didn’t care. I wanted to drink water. I needed to pee. I wanted to lie down somewhere.”

This series of short sentences reveals the urgency of Anita’s bodily needs and how hard it is to alleviate her discomfort. She’s so thirsty she drinks toxic water. She also has to use the bathroom and rest. It’s as if she’s listing her body’s demands.

“I had lost contact with Uncle Samuel and Aunt Bella and Raisa. They didn’t matter to me anymore. First they had pretended to take care of us. And then they had lied. They had tried to trick us. The failures of the grown-up around us had landed us in this place.”

Anita uses a sharp tone to censure her Jewish family members and to advance the motif of children versus adults. Child Anita holds her Jewish family members responsible for putting her and her brother in the camps and the death march. The quote demonstrates that Anita doesn’t think of Niania as a grown-up. It’s as if Niania is beyond human; she’s an angel.

“How could I know that we weren’t being tricked and fooled? All the food and niceness could just be part of another Nazi experiment!”

Anita arguably exhibits signs of PTSD, and her life-or-death experience in Poland will continue to haunt her. She thinks the people in Sweden aren’t who they say they are and that they, too, might be Nazis or collaborating with them. Her suspicions also relate to her distrust of adults.

“They soon discovered that the mute monkey with a stubble of hair in their midst was a fine garbage can.”

Anita uses figurative language to show how she thinks of her human body as something else: a monkey and a garbage can. She uses alliteration, placing two words starting with the letter “m” beside one another to create a pleasant sound, which mimics how good it feels to be able to eat so much food.

“I lived in pristine surroundings with kind, quiet people who spoke a beautiful language that was becoming mine. I had come far away from those years of darkness and fear. I didn’t want to be reeled back.”

Anita equates Sweden with safety and prosperity, and Jews continue to represent peril. Anita wants to distance herself from Poland and Judaism and the identities that they represent. She uses figurative language—”reeled”—to spotlight her dramatic aversion to the identities that the Nazis created for her.

“I took little bites of my sandwiches and held my teacup as delicately as I could. I wanted to stay there with Herr Nillson forever.”

Anita showcases her jumpy style. She goes from describing her bites and how she holds her teacup to wishing she could live with Herr Nillson forever. It’s as if she sees a connection between the two: If she acts dainty enough, Herr Nillson will let her stick around indefinitely. In Sweden, Anita still experiences continued displacement. Moving around greatly bothers her, so she uses exaggerated language—hyperbole—like “forever.”

“I looked into the familiar flatness of the faces around me. They were country faces, reminding me of so many people from our wanderings with Niania. Only one of the girls could be thought pretty.”

In the Polish shelter, Anita’s harsh tone reflects her aversion to Polish people. It’s not just Jews that represent a negative identity to her, but the entire Polish population. Aside from one pretty girl, Anita thinks none of them are good-looking. Anita feels as if there’s something “ugly” about being Polish.

“I didn’t understand why she so eagerly hung on to being Jewish. I just wanted to get away and begin to be with Swedish people.”

Anita continues to juxtapose Polish and Jewish identity with Sweden. The former is negative, and the latter is positive, so Anita doesn’t get why Ryfka “hung on to” a Jewish identity. The diction reveals how Anita sees identity. It’s something that a person can change and manipulate—it’s not innate. People aren’t born Jewish: They choose to be Jewish. Unlike Ryfka, Anita doesn’t identify as Jewish.

“How could my mother say such a thing about my hair now? Didn’t she know about the shaved heads in concentration camps?”

In Sweden, Anita’s mom continues to symbolize an adverse presence. Her mom wants her to cut her hair, but Anita links short hair to the concentration camps and an identity beyond her control. The Nazis made her cut her hair, and her mom trying to make her cut her hair revives that trauma.

“I could not understand why it was not enough for him just to have survived and to have his wife and children back. And to be alive in a country where there was plenty of food and where people were quietly helpful to strangers and the hating of Jews was not their main purpose in life.”

Anita uses juxtaposition to contrast her good life in Sweden with the deadly environment in Poland and demonstrate the sharp difference between the two countries. She also brings in the motif of children versus adults and the theme of The Body and Societal Identity. She thinks her dad should care less about his societal identity and be thankful he has what he needs to keep his body alive and that people in Sweden don’t actively persecute him.

“From my classmates came whispers of genuine admiration. After that morning I never wanted to live without such murmurs.”

In Poland, Anita hears whispers of deportation and liquidation. In her Swedish high school, she hears whispers of acclaim. There’s a juxtaposition, and Sweden represents a positive change. Anita also reveals her pride and her desire for praise and attention. She always wants people to be talking about what a great artist she is.