The Devil's Arithmetic

Could Hannah have prevented herself from going back in time? How could she have treated her mom, Grandpa Will, and the rest of her family to demonstrate that she already has understanding and empathy?

There are many other books about the Holocaust told from a young person’s point of view. For instance, Yolen has written a few other books about the Holocaust, like Mapping the Bones (2018) and Briar Rose (1992). Choose one of the books, read it, and compare that book’s story to the story in The Devil’s Arithmetic. Consider elements like plot, characterization, tone, and message.

Throughout the book, Yolen includes images of nature. What does nature symbolize in the novel? How does that symbolism contrast with the symbolism of the concentration camps?

Watch the movie adaptation of The Devil’s Arithmetic. What are the differences between the film and book? What details changed, what stayed the same, and does the film does an adequate job of conveying the meaning of the text?

Hannah knows a lot of stories from popular culture. Read one of the books (e.g., Little Women) or watch one of the movies (e.g., Star Wars), and try to connect it back to The Devil’s Arithmetic.

Hannah tells Rivka and the girls that they must spread the message “[t]hat what happens here must never happen again” (150). Yet genocide has happened again. The Kurdish genocide took place in Hannah’s present-day, the Rwandan genocide happened in 1994, and many scholars, like the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, describe Israel’s decades-long conflict with Palestinians as a slow genocide. Thus, is the premise of the book problematic? Does it continue the pattern of emphasizing some forms of murderous oppression while minimizing others? Conversely, does it make sense for Hannah to have to experience the oppression that’s personal to her?

As the Epilogue states, only a few characters survived the concentration camp. Pick a character who died, like Shmuel or Rachel, and bring them back to life. Sketch out how they could have lived and what they could have accomplished if they survived.

Compare and contrast Hannah’s experiences with the Holocaust with another fictional character or real person’s experience with a different form of oppression. For example, in They Called Me a Lioness (One World, 2022), Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian girl, documents how she fights oppression from Israel. In Chains (Atheneum 2010), a novel, Laurie Halse Anderson shows how her character Isabel survives slavery in the United States.