Finding yourself can be strenuous but is challenging everyone must face in life. The two protagonists Sarah Starzynski and Julia Jarmond go through the ultimate battle to find themselves, making life altering decisions in times of conflict. Sarah’s Key, a novel written by Tatiana de Rosnay’s, features two ongoing plot lines involving two protagonists. Sarah Starzynski, a 10 year-old Jewish girl, born in Paris is arrested with her family during the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup in July 1942. Before leaving Sarah locks her four-year-old brother in their secret cupboard, thinking her family would be returning in just a few hours. The second protagonist is Julia Jarmond, a middle aged American journalist, living in Paris. While working for a French-American …show more content…
magazine she is given the task to write an article on the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup. Both protagonists experience many different hardships during the course of the novel; Sarah deals with the loss of her innocence and her family while Julia’s marriage and profound image of France falls apart. Julia and Sarah both feel discriminated against for being different; the Tezac family continues to deny Julia as a Parisian, even after being a part of their family for fifteen years. Sarah and her family are discriminated against for being a Jewish, even though Sarah and her brother were born in Paris. Both protagonist the encounter a common theme in France of becoming selectively blind to people and their actions. Sarah experiences the people of France pretending she does not exist during the round up. While Julia realizes she can no longer turn a blind eye to her husband and their marital problems. Through their experience with conflict and adversity, Julia and Sarah end up discovering and accepting their authentic selves. Once Sarah found her authentic self she transformed from a fragile 10 year-old girl to a harsh broken girl that sees the world for its true self unfair and cruel. As Julia began to find herself, she became a strong, independent woman and changed her priorities from trying to be the perfect Parisian wife to focusing even more in her children and most importantly herself. Grief is a monumental experience in a person’s life.
Sarah and Julia are no exception to this feeling and the conflicts that are created by it. They end up using these experiences to reflect and to continue on their journey to authenticity. Everyone has experienced a passing relative or a disconnection with an old friend, these key moments in our lives make us step back and reevaluate ourselves. Sarah experiences great grief during her journey in July 1942. Once Sarah and her parents arrived at the Velodrome d’Hiver, Sarah continued to ask her father when they are going to go back to their apartment, Sarah’s father explains “There is nothing we can do… Nothing.” (de Rosnay 56). Sarah’s tried to gently tell Sarah there is no hope of getting back to her brother in time or at all. Sarah realizes the gravity in leaving Michael behind, “The girl understood. She was no longer a happy little ten-year-old girl. She was someone much older. Nothing would ever be the same again. For her. For her family. For her brother.” (de Rosnay 57) This moment of potential loss changes something in Sarah making her into a strong and harder little girl, trying to survive these horrendous circumstances and keeping hope for her brother's safety and survival in their secret cupboard. At the Drancy camp, Sarah and her mother are stripped from each other, in that moment she sees her mother break, crumble into something unknown. “Gone was the happy, loving woman. Gone was the mother who used to sweep …show more content…
her into her arms and whisper love words.… The one who said that even if there was a war, they’d pull though, because they were a strong, good family, a family full of love.... The girl felt like her mother was already dead.” (de Rosnay 66) Sarah discovers that her mother, her family is broken, gone. This alters Sarah’s character, it is now that she knows she has to persevere and escape this camp. To be strong and brave for what is to come. Julia tells her husband, Bertrand the wonderful news that she is pregnant but her world turns upside down for a moment mesmerised by his reaction, his reaction of nothing. Bertrand does not want this child, proclaiming he is too old to be raising another child, and suggests an abortion. “It wasn’t even a baby, for him, at this point. It wasn’t even a human being. It was a little seed. It was nothing… And if I decided to have it against his will, he had said hoarsely, that would be the end... The end of us, he had said, with the awful, broken voice I did not recognize.” (de Rosnay 135) Bertrand has left Julia with a life altering decision. At this point she saw a different side of her husband, one she did not recognize, Julia ponders how her husband could ever suggest another abortion after three miscarriages. Julia starts to see a change in her marriage, and in her life. It would never be the same. Julia has always been fascinated with Paris even as a young girl, the sole reason for uprooting her life. After discovering more about the Vel d’Hiv roundup while visiting Franck Levy, a French man who has devoted his life to discovering the families involved in the roundup in July 1942. Julia ponders “My eyes wandered once more over the little faces in the photos. I thought of Zoe, alone, torn from me and Bertrand. Alone and hungry and dirty. I shivered… Maybe it was because I was pregnant, because my hormones had gone awry, or because I hadn’t slept. But I suddenly felt devastated. I stared at the photos, stricken.” (de Rosnay 115) Julia’s profound image of Paris is tarnished after finding out all the pieces for her article. Paris, such as her marriage was not what it seemed, and this impacts Julia’s character. Everything Julia has known since she uprooted her life to Paris has just been a fantasy, but now Julia sees the true reality around her. This makes Julia realize it is time to make some changes in her life. Discrimination unfortunately is an experience common around the world. The protagonists Sarah and Julia find themselves in the same situation, which ultimately helps them discover their authentic selves. Sarah does not understand why her family and all the other Jewish families are being discriminated against. “What was wrong with being a Jew? Why did some people hate Jews? Her father had scratched his head… He had said, hesitatingly, Because they think we are different. So they are frightened of us. But what was different? Thought the girl. What was so different?” (de Rosnay 88) This conversation with her father brings light to what is going on in the world. She still does not completely understand why Jewish people are the ones being targeted, but this gives Sarah a new perspective on her society. This contributes to her discovery of her true self, for the first time Sarah has seen the reality of our society and its biases between different races. After fifteen years of being in the Tezac family, Julia still feels discriminated against by her own family. Julia’s in-laws never consider her to be a Parisian meanwhile Bertrand has made Julia being an American into quite a joke. “Why did Bertrand take such pleasure in making me out to be the snide, prejudiced American… And why did I just stand there and let him get away with it?... Even today, I had to admit I liked her more than Bertrand’s parents, who still make me feel like the American, although I had been living in Paris for twenty-five years, been married to their son for fifteen and produced their first grandchild Zoe.” (de Rosnay 21) Now Julia grasps after all these years of giving her life to her husband and his family, providing them with Bertrand’s first child and The Tezac’s first grandchild, Julia is still not given the respect and acknowledgement she deserves because she is known as L'Americaine. This experience contributes to Julia’s road to find her authentic self, by taking a stand to her husband and not letting him or his family push her around. Julia now notices that Bertrand is not supporting her in what she wants, not taking into account what Julia has had to go through. People all over the world tend to turn a blind eye to conflict and horror happening around them, to protect themselves, their image and, forget what our world can come to in times of misuse of power. Sarah and Julia both encounter turning a blind eye to conflict, even though Julia turns a blind eye to her husband and his actions while Sarah is mesmerized by the people of France choosing to pretend nothing is happening to the Jews. While Julia is waiting to tell Bertrand about expecting another child, Julia ponders about the past. “There was going to be a new baby. Amelie could not fight against that. I smiled, a little bitterly. Closing my eyes. Wasn’t that the typical French attitude, closing your eyes on your husband’s wanderings?” (de Rosnay 102) Julia encounters the realization that she has closed her eye on her husband being unfaithful. Julia reflects on how she could let that happen, how she could let Bertrand manipulate her. Now Julia finds herself in a clinic with the life altering decision of getting another abortion to ultimately please her husband. “I was carrying the baby he did not want. My last chance to be a mother. I kept thinking of what Charla had said: This is your child, too. For years, I had longed to give Bertrand another child. To prove myself. To be that perfect wife the Tezacs approved of… But now I realized I wanted this child for myself. My baby. My last child.” (de Rosnay 167) While trying to live up to the perfect wife in the Tezacs family, Julia lost sight of her own needs. At this turning point in Julia’s journey to discovering her authentic self she finds strength and independence to make this decision to keep her child for herself. A sacrifice she is willing to take in her marriage for her own happiness. Sarah is only 10 years-old at the time of her family's arrest, but being very vigilant Sarah notices her neighbours in the courtyard simply watching the French police take her family away not interfering or speaking up for their rights, even the neighbours Sarah was close to stood in silence. “But the girl noticed that nobody move, nobody said anything. They simply watched… The neighbors watched silently. Even the music teacher remained silent.” (de Rosnay 18) At the time Sarah does not understand why no one is speaking up for her family, later on she finally understands that this tragic event in French history is something France is ashamed of. In life, it is easier to pretend a conflict is not going on than to face the conflict head on. This turns a new page in Sarah’s discovery of her authentic self, and that in the face of adversity you have to push on and overcome conflict. As Sarah does by escaping from the camp to make her journey back to her brother in Paris. Sarah and Julia's experiences and conflict throughout their journey end up defining their authentic selves.
Both protagonist have gone through tremendous conflict to define themselves as who they really are; Sarah loses her family and her childhood innocence after the arrest, while trying to put all the pieces together Sarah feels discriminated against by the French people and tries to grasp how the people of France can turn a blind eye on its people. Now that Sarah has discovered her authentic self, after all the years and horror, Sarah has become a hard and broken individual, experiencing France and the world's darkest days. Sarah can ultimately not live with what she has gone through. Julia confronts a vase about of problems surrounding her environment. Julia deals with her marriage and profound image of Paris is crumbling at her feet, as well as the discrimination she feels from her in laws for being an American, even after being in their family for fifteen years. Julia can no longer close her eyes on material issues at hand. As Julia becomes to uncover her authentic self are finds a strong, independent woman. Julia truly now understands what it is like to put herself first, choosing her daughter Zoè and her soon to be arriving daughter Sarah. These protagonists have overcame finding their authentic selves, from their conflict and life experience. Journeys of self discovery can be simply uncomplicated while others are treacherous, but while challenging adversity, those
who have hope and positivity will prevail to their success.
In conclusion, the story describes that life changes, and nothing stays the same throughout it. It is in the hands of the people to decide that how they want their life to be. They can make it as beautiful as they want to and they can also make it worse than it has ever been
She sees her father old and suffering, his wife sent him out to get money through begging; and he rants on about how his daughters left him to basically rot and how they have not honored him nor do they show gratitude towards him for all that he has done for them (Chapter 21). She gives into her feelings of shame at leaving him to become the withered old man that he is and she takes him in believing that she must take care of him because no one else would; because it is his spirit and willpower burning inside of her. But soon she understands her mistake in letting her father back into he life. "[She] suddenly realized that [she] had come back to where [she] had started twenty years ago when [she] began [her] fight for freedom. But in [her] rebellious youth, [she] thought [she] could escape by running away. And now [she] realized that the shadow of the burden was always following [her], and [there she] stood face to face with it again (Chapter 21)." Though the many years apart had changed her, made her better, her father was still the same man. He still had the same thoughts and ways and that was not going to change even on his death bed; she had let herself back into contact with the tyrant that had ruled over her as a child, her life had made a complete
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
When Marie tries to ask the protagonist to take a walk, this action shows that she is trying to achieve Pauline’s dream by getting her outside of the house. Therefore, she could finally feel the true meaning of freedom. Nevertheless, Pauline’s mother’s response demonstrates that she wants her daughter’s safety more than anything. The mother tries to keep Pauline away from the danger, so the protagonist can at last have a healthier life. However, Agathe’s reply shows that her mother is willing to sacrifice Pauline’s dream to keep her secure.
When Zora Hurston wrote this novel, she wanted to explain how a young women search for her own identity. This young woman would go through three relationships that took her to the end of the journey of a secure sense of independence. She wanted to find her own voice while in a relationship, but she also witnessed hate, pain, and love through the journey. When Logan Killicks came she witnessed the hate because he never connected physically or emotionally to her. Jody Starks, to what she assumed, as the ticket to freedom. What she did not know was the relationship came with control and pain. When she finally meets Tea Cake she was in love, but had to choose life over love in the end.
Sara feels horrible that she didn’t come to see her mother and spend more time with her. She knows that she should’ve come to see her mother instead of investing so much time in school. Then, her mother died a couple of days later. She decides to stay and visit her father, Reb Smolinsky, often but doesn’t visit him after he gets married again only thirty days after her mother died. A couple months later, she sees Reb again, but he’s working.
correlates to the condition of society during the fifties, and conveys a momentous idea that the people living during this time should have faith in God and hope for the betterment of society in times of hardships, and should not focus on the injustice in the world. First, the reference to the death of millions of innocent people in the bombings of London, Hiroshima, and Dresden outrightly relates to the suffering that people have experienced both during and after the war, because many people innocent perished in WWII for no reason. In addition, David’s death also parallels to the post-WWII era, and relates to J.B. and Sarah’s responses to his death to the pain and devastation that families suffered when their young children who served as soldiers died in World War II. J.B. and Sarah’s discussion during their Thanksgiving meal is yet another parallel to the postwar era and portrays the two different outlooks that people had on life after the war. Finally, MacLeish uses J.B. to relate to the people living during the postwar era by concluding the play with J.B. and Sarah finding comfort in love and rebuilding their life together as a family to convey the message that they should try to alleviate their hardships and sorrow by viewing the situation optimistically and by seeking love in the
They are already in a compromising situation in celebrating her eighteenth birthday at a gas station having coffee which was already established as being not the norm earlier with Marie recounting her own large party where her “mother made a large party” (154). There reality is broken when the teenagers arrive and “One of the girls went to the juke box and put money in” and they are forced to leave because of Carol condition which causes her to have a breakdown from the noise (157). The arrival of the kids forced them to come into contact with their own reality which can never coincide with the one they have fabricated. This small reminder of what the norm is supposed to be is often brought to their attention through others such as when they “could see, in the light shaft of light, a boy, two girls and a dog” (155). In this instance, they are walking on the way to their weekly picnic, which is in itself repetitive, when they are shown the norm of other having fun “the boy splashing in the water with the dog” while they are forced to go through the motions without much emotion. This depiction of the norm unsettles their reality and, even though they don’t stop trying to alter reality to shelter Carol, shows how dysfunctional their own situation is as it can be seen as a potential version of themselves without Carol’s
Mara, the main character, is a perfectionist. She has straight-As, is in National Honors Society, and is a future Yale student. She is competing with her only ex-boyfriend for the Valedictorian. Her life changes completely when her niece V, who is only a year younger than her, comes to live with Mara. V is a slutty, druggie that has an attitude. This story takes the reader on an adventure of two complete opposite girls who have to learn to love each other. Mara eventually learns that she cannot control everything and has to take life as it comes.
Her struggles are of a flower trying to blossom in a pile of garbage. Growing up in the poor side of the southside of Chicago, Mexican music blasting early in the morning or ducking from the bullets flying in a drive-by shooting. Julia solace is found in her writing, and in her high school English class. Mr. Ingram her English teacher asks her what she wants out of life she cries “I want to go to school. I want to see the word” and “I want so many things sometimes I can’t even stand it. I feel like I’m going to explode.” But Ama doesn’t see it that way, she just tells, Julia, she is a bad daughter because she wants to leave her family. The world is not what it seems. It is filled with evil and bad people that just want to her hurt and take advantage of
Sarah and her mother are sought out by the French Police after an order goes out to arrest all French Jews. When Sarah’s little brother starts to feel the pressures of social injustice, he turns to his sister for guidance. Michel did not want to go with the French Police, so he asks Sarah to help him hide in their secret cupboard. Sarah does this because she loves Michel and does not want him to be discriminated against. Sarah, her mother, and her father get arrested for being Jewish and are taken to a concentration camp just outside their hometown. Sarah thinks Michel, her beloved brother, will be safe. She says, “Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. I’ll come back for you later. I promise” (Rosnay 9). During this time of inequality, where the French were removing Sarah and her mother just because they were Jewish, Sarah’s brother asked her for help. Sarah promised her brother she would be back for him and helped him escape his impending arrest. Sarah’s brother believed her because he looks up to her and loves her. As the story continues, when Sarah falls ill and is in pain, she also turns to her father for comfort, “at one point she had been sick, bringing up bile, moaning in pain. She had felt her father’s hand upon her, comforting her” (Rosnay 55).
At the end she risks her life and becomes a pretty to become and experiment to David’s moms to test a cure to the brain lesions created when they go ... ... middle of paper ... ... o save them from going through a transformation that will change them forever. The moral of the book is you don’t have to get surgery to look a certain way.
Throughout the novel, crucial family members and friends of the girl that died are meticulously reshaped by her absence. Lindsey, the sister, outgrows her timidity and develops a brave, fearless demeanor, while at the same time she glows with independence. Abigail, the mother, frees herself from the barbed wire that protected her loved ones yet caused her great pain, as well as learns that withdrawing oneself from their role in society may be the most favorable choice. Ruth, the remote friend from school, determines her career that will last a lifetime. and escapes from the dark place that she was drowning in before. Thus, next time one is overcome with grief, they must remember that constructive change is guaranteed to
woman she once knew. Both women only see the figure they imagine to be as the setting shows us this, in the end making them believe there is freedom through perseverance but ends in only despair.
Towards the middle of the memoir, the theme is shown through the irony of Jeannette’s mother’s situation as well as Jeannette’s feelings towards