60 pages • 2 hours read
Karen HesseLetters from Rifka
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“October 9, 1920” Summary
Rifka finally sees Saul, who visits while the rest of the family is working. She hugs him, and he notes, “You look different” (105). Saul gives Rifka a banana, expecting to impress her with something new, and then wonders how she already knew how to peel it. She explains that she learned about bananas while in Antwerp. A doctor comes in during his rounds, and Rifka speaks to him in English, while Saul is silent. Saul is impressed by her ability to learn English so quickly, stating, “My sister Rifka speaks like an American in one week?” (107). He asks Rifka what to tell their mother about Rifka’s lack of hair, and she advises him to tell the truth.
Ilya comes in, and he and Saul fight over the Pushkin book. Rifka’s Star of David falls out and breaks apart, and Saul calls Ilya a “nasty little peasant” (109). He also is angry at Rifka for reading a Russian book, when they have fled Russia’s persecution. Angry at Rifka’s favor for Pushkin, Saul accuses Rifka of being different than she used to be, but she counters that she has simply survived as life has gone on. Rifka asks if their mother was able to buy new candlesticks, but Saul says they have no money. Rifka gives Saul some of the money she’s saved and tells him to buy some new candlesticks to replace the ones that were stolen.
“October 11, 1920” Summary
Rifka’s Mama is finally able to visit and brings a honey cake as a belated celebration of her daughter’s 13th birthday. They talk about what Rifka has been through. Mama is not shocked about Rifka’s lack of hair, but only wishes they knew what to do about it. A doctor comes in and meets Mama. Rifka goes to care for the Polish baby, and Mama, like Saul before, comments on Rifka’s gift for languages and praises her ability to learn English so quickly. However, Rifka is afraid to introduce Ilya because she believes her family hates everything Russian. In contrast, she is coming to think of people in more humane terms, as more than what they’re labeled. She thinks about Ilya, who is alone, but clever and has the chance to become American.
“October 14, 1920” Summary
Ilya hides from Rifka in a bathroom that is being renovated, unspooling toilet paper for fun. The renovation workers notice and become angry. Rifka fears that she and Ilya will be punished for wasting paper. When they tell Nurse Bowen what happened, she laughs at Rifka’s fears, explaining that paper in the US is plentiful. She tells Rifka she will look into finding her some paper to write on. Rifka decides to try writing her own poem, something she did long ago with Tovah.
“October 21, 1920” Summary
The baby Rifka has been caring for has died of typhus. The hospital official tells Rifka that he must let her family know a decision about her case by the next day. Ilya’s case will also be decided then. Rifka worries that she will not be allowed to enter the US, because her head has begun itching again.
“October 22, 1920” Summary
Rifka convinces Ilya to accept America because the alternative—living in Russia—means he will always be a peasant, whereas “in America, he could grow up to be anything he wanted” (130). Even as she tries to help Ilya, she feels convinced that she will be sent back. Rifka sees her family at the meeting with the officials the next day. Saul tells her that he bought new candlesticks but has not given them to their mother yet.
The doctor present states that Ilya should be sent back, believing that he is unintelligent and that he cannot even speak. Rifka defends Ilya, seeing that his uncle, who is present, is overjoyed to see his nephew. The uncle begs Ilya to read, and Ilya reads aloud from Rifka’s book of Pushkin poems. Everyone is amazed, and it is decided that Ilya can stay.
The officials ask about Rifka’s ringworm. She forces herself not to scratch her head, though it itches. Rifka addresses the officials’ concerns that she will be unable to attract a husband if she has no hair and thus will become a social liability, boldly asserting, “if I wish to marry, I will do so with hair or without hair” (138). Ilya and Saul want Rifka to read her own poetry aloud to help her case by proving she is talented. Ilya, speaking English for the first time, says that Rifka wrote the poetry, and he reads one of her poems aloud. Impressed, the officials permit Rifka to enter the US. Then, however, Rifka’s kerchief falls off of her head, to her horror. The doctor examines her head but announces that her hair has finally begun to grow back and has been the cause of the itching.
Saul tells her he has a notebook for her, and that he “bought it for [her] himself, with his own money” as well as the candlesticks (144). Mama gets her locket back from Rifka. Rifka’s parents give her a new Star of David on a chain. Rifka and her family are finally reunited and able to begin a new life in America.
Part 4 Analysis
The final entries in Letters from Rifka open with a significant event when Saul is able to visit Rifka in the detention hospital. It’s been nearly a year since Rifka has seen anyone from her family. The lengthy passage of time emphasizes that Rifka is now a different person. For instance, Saul attempts to impress Rifka by showing her a banana, assuming that she will not be familiar with the fruit that once seemed so exotic to them. Her nonchalant acceptance and eating of the gift show that she is no longer so naïve and inexperienced. Furthermore, her acceptance of the Russian peasant Ilya as a friend prompts Saul to remark with disdain, “You’re different, Rifka” (109). Saul is nevertheless impressed by Rifka’s language skills, amazed that she has learned English so quickly.
Rifka also shows that her relationship with her family has matured over time. When she gives Saul money to buy their mother new candlesticks to replace the ones that were stolen crossing the Polish border, she donates from what she saved from the money her family sent to her in Antwerp. This generosity not only demonstrates that Rifka has taken thoughtful action to care for her family but also shows that she has overcome her naïveté shown earlier in the novel when she lost the family’s entire food budget buying a single overpriced orange.
Saul’s initial reaction to Rifka’s friendship with Ilya, however, shows that the siblings still have differences, and it also emphasizes how deeply the immigrant family opposes all things from Russia, the land that persecuted them. Rifka shows that she’s already personally transformed, making peace with cultural differences and respecting common humanity. Rifka’s personal transformation is also evident in her self-regard: “I am both Jewish and Russian. And I am also more” (117). This “more” includes considering herself a writer. After writing letters to Tovah in her Pushkin book and reading the poet’s words, Rifka begins to believe that she can write as well. This revelation leads her to express herself, and her words also earn others’ respect.
Nevertheless, challenges and tragedies continue to emerge around Rifka. The Polish baby whom she has been helping to care for dies of typhus. The loss is poignant for Rifka, especially since she herself nearly died of typhus earlier in the novel. The death of a Polish baby while Rifka, a Russian Jewish emigrant, survives highlights how loss cuts across ethnic and national boundaries; a fundamental humanity is most important. Rifka also faces fear when her head begins itching again shortly before the emigration hearing, fearing she has lost all hope of rejoining her family.
These dark moments deepen the novel’s sense of drama before its climactic final letter, in which Rifka convinces the immigration officials to let her enter America on her own terms—with or without hair—after proving her intelligence with languages and writing. The novel closes with a happy ending, as Rifka’s hair begins to grow back, the lost candlesticks and damaged Star of David are replaced, and the family is reunited in America.
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