What happens in chapters 5-7 of The Devil's Arithmetic?

These three chapters are the last three before the setting and mood of the novel take a traumatic turn for the worse. These chapters are about Hannah's immersion into her new world -- Poland in 1942. Hannah is completely confused and feels out of place, but those around her treat her as someone they have known for a long time and Hannah quickly realizes that nothing she says of her "past" in New Rochelle as Hannah makes any sense to them. She is continually "culture shocked." Breakfast is a plain affair of bread and milk, and the milk is not processed like that of home. The clothes she must wear to her uncle's upcoming wedding are just awful and ugly in her opinion (from the future). She is dismayed by everything about life, but realizes too that she is being loved and cared for by very genuine people, Gitl and Shmuel. Chapter 5 focuses on her home life with Gitl and her realization that her modern memories and comments sound like nonsense here. Chapter 6 focuses on the preparations for the wedding. Chapter 7 is about the actual travel to the wedding. Many of the village walk together with the bride and groom in wagons to the town and the synague where the wedding will take place. Hannah is able to make friends easily and enjoys being the center of attention as a story-teller with lot of interesting tales to tell. She uses books and movies she has read or seen as her sources. Unfortunately, by the end of chapte eight, the wedding party is being confronted by the Nazi soldiers who are rounding up all of the Jews in the village so that they can be transported, by train, to a concentration camp. The innocence and excitement of this strange time-travel journey comes to an abrupt halt as the horror of the situation sets in.

What is the most significant passage in The Devil's Arithmetic?

A significant passage in The Devil’s Arithmetic is when Hannah is getting her head shaved, because that is when she realizes that memories are important.

At the beginning of the book, Hannah is complaining because all Jewish holidays seem to be about remembering.  She does not understand why she has to remember so much.  She can’t empathize with her relatives, who are still bitter and broken from their experiences in the war.  The war is distant for Hannah.  She does not see it as something that happened to her family or her people.

Yet when Hannah is magically transported back to the Holocaust, she wants to remember.  She is beginning to forget.  She does not remember what happens next.  She does not remember who she is.  As she fails to remember, she starts to panic. 

The passage in chapter 11 where Hannah gets her head shaved is a good example of how the full reality of the situation has hit her, and how memory has become important.

…I cannot remember, she whispered to herself. I cannot remember. She's been shorn of memory as brutally as she'd been shorn of her hair, without permission, without reason...Gone, all gone, she thought again wildly, no longer even sure what was gone, what she was mourning. (Ch 11, p. 94)

This passage, which begins with, “The barber was clearly a prisoner,” and ends with, “Without their hair, all the women looked the same,” is the important one.  This passage hits hard on one of the novel’s main themes: Our collective past makes us who we are.  Hannah’s relative past was her past.  She saw that then.  She realized that this past was part of her identity.  It was part of her DNA, and part of her upbringing.

Hannah also really develops as a character through this experience.  She alone knows the full weight and history of the Holocaust.  She knows about the mass extermination of Jews, and fears that she will become one of the casualties.  Yet she remains strong, demonstrating a fundamental truth of human nature: We all want to survive. 

Hannah does survive, but she also learns that she can sacrifice herself, and be noble, if she has to.

What quotes from The Devil's Arithmetic show contrast and contradiction?

There are definitely both contrasts and contradictions contained in The Devil’s Arithmetic.  A contrast is simply a presentation of two things that are different.  On the other hand, a contradiction is a statement that is in opposition to one already said. 

A good contrast can be seen when Hannah leaves the present day and enters 1942.  In this scene, Hannah opens the door and does not see the hallway that she expects.  Instead she sees an open field.

[Hannah no longer sees] the doors to the other apartments, but instead a greening field and a lowering sky.

The two things being contrasted here are the apartment hallway and the “greening field.”  One is inside and one is outside.  One is in the 1980s and one is in 1942.  One is in the city and one is in the country.  As you can see, many contrasts can be found within this one example.

A contradiction can be seen between the words of the Rabbi and the words of the badchan when the Jewish people are herded out of the boxcars and into the concentration camp.

“See? ... we are in God’s hands. We are not afraid of work,” but the badchan whispers, “This is the Devil’s work, not God’s.”

The contradiction here is between what the Rabbi says and what the badchan says.  The Rabbi, always trying to be optimistic, insists this is God’s work.  The badchan, always trying to be sarcastic and even pessimistic, insists this is the Devil’s work.  This is a direct contradiction.

What is a quote from The Devil's Arithmetic that emphasizes the importance of remembering history?

"Hannah nodded and took her aunt's fingers from her lips. She said, in a voice much louder than she had intended, so loud that the entire table hushed at its sound, 'I remember. Oh, I remember.'"--Hannah

This is a very good question because one of the central themes of the book is memory and its relationship to cultural heritage and history. It was not difficult to find a quote that answers this issue because the book's purpose is to have the reader reflect on the importance of remembering the past. Hannah, as an adolescent in modern times, is dismissive of the Jewish traditions. She does not see the relevance in learning about the heritage of her people. When she is made to experience the Holocaust, her feelings about learning from the past are changed.

The quote mentioned above comes at the end of the story. With the quote, the novel's central theme comes full circle. Hannah promises Aunt Eva that she will always remember the pain and misery that her ancestors experienced. By sharing the experiences of Jews during the Holocaust, she can pass this history down to future generations so their suffering is not forgotten.