86 pages • 2 hours read
Esther HautzigThe Endless Steppe
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 1968A 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.
Symbols & Motifs
The Moon
Early in the book, Esther admits: “When I was younger, I had thought the moon was God. A rather too good child, I nevertheless used to make a list of my wrongdoings […] and recite them to God when He appeared as the moon, and ask for His forgiveness” (31). Although Esther no longer believes that the moon is God, it remains a symbol to her of God’s presence. On the train to Siberia, Esther sees the moon through a hole in the car and asks God what she has done wrong to deserve her fate. This symbol of God follows her beyond Vilna; she sees the moon from the car, from the barracks, from the hut, and on the steppe.
Esther and her family seem to find themselves at the mercy of irrational governments and even sheer luck. Out of this chaos, Esther seeks to control her life through prayer. She believes that these prayers must be explicit—“Dear God, please do not let the bomb fall on the Rudomin house” (8)—and regrets that she “neglected to pray to God to save us from a gypsum mine in Siberia” (42). At other points, Esther does not make requests to God; she tries to give orders, willing that her family will survive the challenges they face.
Praying to God—symbolized by the moon—becomes a way for Esther to cope with the uncertainty of her life. “In Siberia,” she reflects wryly, “one thing was certain: one was never at a loss for something to pray for” (79).
Shoes
Throughout The Endless Steppe, clothes—particularly shoes—symbolize wealth and status. In exile, Esther remembers the dresses and shoes she left behind in Vilna. Grandmother clings to the status of proper clothing; she wears a silk dress, a stylish black straw hat, and even white gloves on the train leaving Vilna. In only a day, however, she has changed; “her dress was crumpled and her gloves were streaked with dirt” (26). To survive life in Siberia, the Rudomins sell whatever possessions they can to earn extra rubles; frequently, these items are pieces of clothing representing their past life of luxury.
In Siberia, the Rudomins are stripped of their old status and find themselves on the lowest social rung. Their clothes being sold, getting too small, or being ruined symbolizes this change. As winter approaches, they find Esther a pair of “cheaply patched pimy boots” (112); sapogy, however, are “the knee-high leather boots that the well-to-do wore” (128). Later in the book, when Esther enters a declamation contest at school, Esther’s teacher harshly disqualifies her because she does not have shoes. Esther is bewildered, as if the “pair of dirty feet” she sees don’t truly belong to her (193). As she rushes back to her hut to find a pair of shoes, she wonders angrily, “Why did one need shoes to speak?” (194).
Although Esther resents being treated poorly because of her bare feet, rather than resist this social pecking order, she seeks to adapt to it. She becomes obsessed with finding shoes, and when she finally gets a pair she feels powerful. She writes, “The shoes worked; merely possessing them made me feel rich, elegant, and the equal of anyone in the village” (198).
Before her journey back to Poland, Raya gives Esther permission to buy leather boots—sapogy—and a quilted jacket—fufaika—if she can earn the money. Esther works relentlessly toward this goal, convinced that the new clothes will be “the magic garments that would make me invincible on the dark journey back from exile” (233). Esther obtains the new clothes and resigns herself to returning to Poland. She is eager for her father’s admiration, but ironically, when he sees her, he says: “And your clothes, lalinka—But don’t worry, the first thing we will do is get you some new ones” (243). Esther realizes that, although she is back in her home country, she is in a foreign place; the status symbols of Siberia do not apply.
The Steppe
The title of the book describes the vastness of the Siberian grasslands. Throughout the book, the steppe is a powerful geographical force; the symbolism of the steppe shifts as Esther comes to love the land of her exile. In the beginning, noticing the steppes is how Esther learns she is in Siberia. She asks her father why the land is so flat, and he replies, “These must be steppes” (41). Esther is shocked—“Steppes? But steppes are in Siberia” (41). When Samuel tells her that they are in Siberia, every negative stereotype of Siberia floods Esther’s imagination: “Siberia! Siberia was the end of the world, a point of no return. Siberia was for criminals and political enemies, where the punishment was unbelievably cruel, and where people died like flies” (42).
Early in Esther’s exile, the steppe is hostile and unfamiliar; it is frequently described in negative terms. Esther compares the gypsum mine to the steppe, writing that its monotony is “as vast and endless as the steppe itself” (63). The first storms on the steppe are personified. Esther writes, “The lightning would fork out like a malevolent claw in a frenzy to ground itself on the treeless steppe” (64). The storm itself represents “the judgment of God, a God who would punish master and slave alike” (64). When Esther is enrolled in school, she fears being held back a grade, a fate she calls the “Siberia of all Siberias to children” (97). This comparison illustrates the negative connotations Esther ties to the steppe.
Although the steppe remains a formidable force, its storms and tough soil literally endangering the Rudomins’ lives at points, Esther’s view of it changes. Walking from the gypsum mine to the village market, Esther, “feeling oddly disloyal, [thinks] that the steppe [is] just a tiny bit beautiful that morning” (66). After the first snowfall—a snow that warns the adults around her of the terrible winter ahead—Esther has a turning point in her view of the steppe. She writes, “It was at this moment that I fell in love with space, endless space. And since Siberia was space, I had to include it—just a little and with great guilt—in this love” (95).
The endless space of the steppe becomes a place of emotional privacy. In the Rudomin family, self-control and dignity are highly valued. On the steppe, however, Grandmother unleashes her grief after the death of her husband. When Esther faces the possibility of leaving the steppe, she realizes the important place it has become for her as a young woman:
I had come to love the steppe, the huge space, and the solitude. Living in the crowded little huts, the steppe had become the place where a person could think her thoughts, sort out her feelings, and do her dreaming. Feelings are untidy; beneath all the pleasurable excitement, I still had a deep fear of going back to a city (236).
She struggles with leaving Siberia, but in the end the decision is not hers to make. Before boarding the train to Poland, she bids her friends farewell. She also says “goodbye to the steppe—to the wind and the snow and the heat and the monotony” (239). After she has left, en route to Poland, she craves the fresh air and open space of Siberia. The geographical landscape of Siberia—the steppe itself—is an important symbol throughout the book. Esther’s view of the steppe changes from a place of hostility to a place of beauty and privacy; this reflects her changing view of life in Siberia. An unfamiliar place of exile slowly becomes her home.
