HOW TO ANALYZE THE ENDLESS STEPPE NOVEL

HOW TO ANALYZE THE ENDLESS STEPPE NOVEL

1.    Basic Question

The main character is Esther Rudomin. The two other most important character is Miss Rachel and Samuael. Yes, they related to one another.

2.    Big Q uestion s : A first Shot

The Endless Steppe is, first of all, an excellent history lesson. It spells out some of the consequences of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939: the deportation of Polish citizens, the wartime separation of families, and the hardship of labor camps. Although the Rudomins' Judaism is not a major theme of the book, The Endless Steppe also provides glimpses of anti-Semitism and bitter class-consciousness. Behind the engrossing story of Esther Rudomin and her family lies a sense of the tragedy and paradox of political conflicts: the Rudomins live a cultivated and gracious life in

3.    Mapping I : Places

The contrast between settings in The Endless Steppe is a reflection of the story’s main conflicts. Hautzig opens the story at the beginning of World War II in the large home that houses her extended family. War has not yet touched the white plaster house with a red tile roof nor the beloved garden filled with roses, peonies and lilacs. This idyllic setting contrasts sharply with the rest of the settings in the book: the rank, confined cattle car where the Rudomins spend the next six weeks; the vast spaces of the Russian steppe; the cramped and often infested mud and dung huts they crowd into; and finally, the devastated postwar city of Lodz, where the family reunites at the end of the war. The characters’ reactions to each of these settings reveal much about their personalities. Their reactions also help illustrate and develop the themes in Hautzig’s book.

4.    Mapping II: events

Ten-year-old Esther Rudomin’s happy life in Vilna, Poland, comes to an end in 1941, when her parents and grandparents are arrested for being capitalists. After a long ride in cattle cars, they arrive in Rubtsovsk, Siberia. They first live in crowded barracks outside of town. The adults work in a mine, and the children work in the fields. The deportees are later allowed to move to the village, where Esther goes to school, her mother works in a bakery, and her father is a bookkeeper. They often live in fear of death from freezing or starvation. Esther assumes many adult responsibilities but also has experiences common to schoolgirls everywhere. In 1946, their exile ends, and the family returns to Poland.

5.    Mapping III : Character

Esther Rudomin, called Lalinka by her father, is ten years old when the Russians, who have invaded her hometown in Poland, deport her family to Siberia.

Miss Rachel, the governess, is Esther’s constant companion as a young girl.

Samuel, or Tata, is Esther’s optimistic and loving father. Esther describes him as her “favorite person in the world.”

Raya is Esther’s happy but strong-minded mother.

Grandfather Solomon, Esther’s paternal grandfather, whose garden is his prideand joy, is separated from the Rudomins shortly after their arrest.

Grandmother Anna, Esther’s paternal grandmother, is sent to Siberia with the Rudomins.

Grandmother Sara is Esther’s maternal grandmother, to whom Esther takes her mother’s jewels on the morning that the soldiers come. She does not survive the war.

Reisa, Esther’s maternal great-grandmother and the family historian, wills herself to die when she hears the Nazis are coming.

Alexander Ivanovich Makrinin, the director of the gypsum mine, is the first Russian adult to address the deportees kindly.

Mrs. Kaftal, an old friend from Vilna, meets up with the Rudomins in Rubtsovsk.

Anya, Mrs. Kaftal’s lovely daughter, manages to turn her grooming into an act of courage.

Nina Ivanovna, a Russian peasant, offers to rent a space in her tiny home to the Rudomins and Kaftals.

Nikita Alexandrovich is Nina’s husband.

Raisa Nikitovna is Esther’s severe fifth-grade teacher in Rubtsovsk.

Svetlana, who sits next to Esther in class, becomes her friend only after Esther’s long braids have been cut off.

Ivan Petrovich, called Vanya the bum by villagers, lives with the Rudomins briefly and then disappears without a word.

Uncle Yozia and his cheerful wife, Zaya, are not related to the Rudomins but offer help and friendship while Esther’s father serves in the Russian labor brigade.

Marya Nikolayevna, a rich, lovely, and rather thoughtless resident of Rubtsovsk, refuses the first sweater Esther knits for her because she has grown too fat to wear it.

Yosif Isayevich, who shares his house next to the tractor factory with Esther and her mother, is generous and respectful.

Natasha and Nikolay (and their infant daughter, Katia) share their tiny hut with Esther and her mother after Yosif Isayevich’s wife returns early.

Alexandra Lvovna, a dressmaker, gives Esther work but pays her poorly and late.

6.    Mapping IV:themes

Hautzig’s story of the Rudomins’ exile illustrates the human capacity to adapt to and even find happiness amid the most difficult circumstances. While each of the Rudomins faces exile with courage, optimism, grace, and love, Esther serves as a particularly clear example of this theme. She acknowledges the extremely negative aspects of exile, such as the possibility of freezing or starving to death; but she is also able to celebrate the positive aspects, such as her discovery of the great Russian novelists and poets and her burgeoning love of space on the Siberian steppe.

7.    Analysis I : Character and Plot

The grim historical circumstances of war, deportation, and racial prejudice provide the context for the human dramas in The Endless Steppe, but Hautzig does not dwell on the intense moral questions raised by the atrocities of the war. Instead, the characters in her story accept the tragic aspects of existence and, though often sad, sick, and demoralized, go about the business of coping with the many challenges to their bodies and their spirits. Hautzig also refrains from explicitly stating the importance of religious faith as a defense against adversity.

8.    Analysis II : image and ideas

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9.    Analysis III : experience and ideas

There are elements of the main character’s experience thet are not like my experience.

10.  Moral value  of The Endless Steppe Novel

Tell students that this memoir recalls the author’s experiences during World War II in Europe. Explain to students that, as a result of a pact between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, in 1941 the Russians took over Vilna, Poland (which is now Vilnius, Lithuania), where the author and her family lived. The family was sent to work as slave laborers in the frozen wasteland of Rubtsovsk, Siberia. Build background by having students locate Vilnius and Rubtsovsk on a map.