Yellow Star

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Character Analysis

Syvia Perlmutter

Syvia is the protagonist and narrator of Yellow Star. She is four-and-a-half years old when the novel begins, at the beginning of the war in 1939, and almost 10 when it finishes, at the liberation of the Lodz Ghetto in January of 1945. Syvia is initially characterized as a typical four-year-old. She loves her new yellow jacket, she loves to play with her cousins and friends, and she loves playing with dolls. She also admires her older sister, Dora. These details characterize Syvia as a carefree, loving, and playful child.

Tragically, Syvia’s normal life is thrown into chaos and stress when her family is forcibly relocated to the Lodz Ghetto. The unusual and stressful turn that Syvia’s life takes is characterized by the loss of childish possessions and experiences; Syvia’s doll carriage is chopped up for firewood, characterizing the family’s desperation for fuel in the freezing winter months, and her doll is sold for money to buy food, as the family comes close to starvation numerous times. Later, both of Syvia’s best friends in the ghetto—Itka and Hava—are killed. Hava disappears on the streets of the ghetto, presumably killed by a Nazi soldier, and Itka is deported to a death camp, where she and her family are murdered.

In the fall of 1944, nine-year-old Syvia recalls energetically playing with Hava and Itka years earlier; it feels like another lifetime for Syvia, who now feels like a “pile of bones” in the corner of the cellar, listless and exhausted from years of starvation, deprivation of sunlight, and fear of discovery by Nazi soldiers (146). In the afterword, Roy describes that it took some time for Syvia to readjust to normal life after her family relocated to Paris.

As a middle-aged woman living in America, Syvia begins to recall and reflect on long-suppressed memories of her time in the Lodz Ghetto. She describes these memories to her niece, Jennifer Roy, who transcribes them into the novel in verse, Yellow Star.

Papa/Isaac Perlmutter

Isaac Perlmutter, the father of Syvia Perlmutter, is characterized as a capable and positive individual. Isaac works as a salesman in Lodz, Poland, before World War II breaks out. He loses his job due to rising antisemitism. When he relocates his family to Warsaw, Poland, he is unable to find accommodation for his family or work (due to similar antisemitic persecution). Isaac and his family return to Lodz; shortly thereafter, they are forcibly moved to the Lodz Ghetto.

Isaac finds work as a flour deliverer in the ghetto. His integrity is characterized by the careful way he and the other starving workers collect and divide the leftover flour collected in their pockets and on their clothing, while his resourcefulness and initiative are depicted in the way that he protects Syvia. With love and determination, he hides her in a hole in the cemetery, and then in other nooks throughout the ghetto once this hiding place is discovered. Isaac also finds the cellar in the workers’ house where the 12 children are later hidden and saves Mina, his niece, from deportation by disguising her in a wheelbarrow.

In all of these instances, Isaac demonstrates significant courage to safeguard others, particularly children. As well as being a quick-thinking individual, Isaac is self-assured and confident, which allows him to pull off his subterfuges, such as when he finds the clothes of a chimney sweep to enter the hospital where Mina is being kept: “I planned to say, ‘Here to sweep the chimneys,’ Papa tells us” (113). Later, Papa saves his family’s life by confidently declaring that they’re on the list of workers. Isaac’s confidence in these terrifying, life-threatening situations is admirable; the Nazi guards needed little or no provocation to shoot people on the spot, and Isaac risks this possibility numerous times to save the lives of others.

Mother/Haya Perlmutter

Haya Perlmutter, the mother of Syvia Perlmutter, is characterized as a loving and altruistic individual. Haya is detained in the Lodz Ghetto with the rest of her family from February 1940 until January 1945. Before the war, the Perlmutters had enjoyed a comfortable life. Syvia recalls that “[her] parents dressed up and went out to the theater and to movies” (26). This lifestyle is juxtaposed with the hardships in the ghetto. Haya, in particular, comes close to starvation as she prefers to give their meager supplies of food to her daughters, especially Syvia, who is the youngest: “Mother does not eat her meal. She gives it to me instead. She does not say ‘I love you’ in hugs or kisses, but her love fills my plate, and I gobble it up” (58). As Syvia recognizes, Haya’s sacrifice illustrates her love for her daughter, characterizing her as a kind and selfless mother.

Dora Perlmutter

Dora Perlmutter is Syvia’s older sister. She is eight years older than Syvia. Dora lived a happy and carefree life before the war; she was popular at junior high and well-liked by many individuals, including teachers. Dora’s devastation at their changed circumstances after 1940 is evident in her reflections to Syvia: “‘Now I’m here,’ Dora says, ‘working in a factory, watching my baby sister. I wonder if anyone from my old school even notices that I am gone?’” (36-37). Similar to other characters in Yellow Star, she yearns for the life she had and laments her current reality.

Like the rest of the family, Dora becomes emaciated and exhausted as they near starvation with the meager rations of the ghetto. She worries about her sister, Syvia, when the Nazis order that all children are to be deported. Her fear is characterized in her shaking voice as she recounts her nightmare about Syvia being taken away: “Dora tells me she had a bad dream that I went missing, just like Hava. ‘We looked and looked but you were nowhere,’ she says. Her voice is snuffly, shaky, un-Doralike. Just before we both drift back to sleep, Dora gives me a hug. ‘I will protect you, baby sister,’ she whispers fiercely” (52). Dora is characterized as a protective and loving big sister in this anecdote. This impression is strengthened by Dora’s bringing stories and gifts home to Syvia, who must be hidden in the family’s apartment and then in the workers’ house cellar.