Samiya12
01-10-2012, 10:30 PM
please don't mind the [finish] notes to myself.
Julia Jarmond is a journalist who had been given an assignment to write about the sixtieth commemorations of the Velodrome d’Hiver round ups during July of 1942. Veldrome d’hiver was “famous indoor stadium where biking races were held. Thousands of Jewish families locked up there for days in appalling conditions. Then sent to Auschwitz. And gassed” (27). She was instantly taken in by the information that she discovered. She decided that she would make it her duty to inform the public about it in hopes that Holocaust survivors would know that they were being remembered. This mission, however, proved to be quite difficult. The people of Paris were ignorant and thought that it was unnecessary to reveal the secrets of the past that they had worked so hard to conceal. During her research, she discovered that her husband, Bertrand; her charming daughter Zoe and she would soon move into a house which had belonged to a Jewish family. This family was forcefully taken out of their home and sent to concentration camps. Knowing this information had made Julia uneasy and triggered a new desire which she felt she must fulfill. She wanted to personally tell the only survivor of the family, Sarah Starzynski, that she remembers what they had gone through. She shared her new found desire with her husband and he scolded her for trying to bring up the past. Her relationship with Bertrand hadn’t been a smooth one since they had discovered she was pregnant. “After three miscarriages”, he had given up and urges her to have an abortion if they wanted to remain together. (This stresses her even more as she already has the stress of her job sitting on her shoulders.) She finally decides that she is going to go through with what she wants; this includes keeping her child, publishing her article about the Vel’ d’Hiv and finding Sarah. During her search for Sarah, she had discovered that she had passed away and decided that she would tell her son, William Rainsferd, instead. Unfortunately, Sarah kept her past a secret from her family and William was shocked to learn the truth. He panicked and told Julia to never contact him again. However, later on in the novel, he had a chance to think everything through and is thankful to have been told this life changing information about his mother. Not only had William’s life changed, but so did Julia’s. She no longer was married to Bertrand and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl who she had named after Sarah Starzynski. Julia goes through many events and which each one she is able to overcome that obstacle which helps her realize what she is capable of.
Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Julia Jarmond comes across many obstacles that test her determination and willpower to overcome them. After being given an assignment to write about the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, everything in her life begins to change. Many of the French people didn’t know what had happened in their own city and this is where Julia would come in. She was to write about the sixtieth commemoration of the round up, however, this proved to be difficult. Her own husband and relatives had encouraged her to write about a topic that wasn’t so controversial. “What are you going to do, amour, rub our noses in it? Nobody cares anymore. Nobody remembers. Write about something else. Something funny, something cute […] Tell your boss the Vel’ d’Hiv’ is a mistake” (51), were the words of her husband. The discouragement from those who were close to her fueled her desire to learn more about the Holocaust. She spoke to her grandmother-in-law to see if she knew anything about the roundups and discovered that the house she was about to move into was owned by a Jewish family. This disturbed her and she felt that she had to learn more about the family. She asked one of her co-workers who specializes in the history of the Holocaust, to identify the family that had lived in the house. She learned that the family name was Starzynski and that four people lived there: a mother, father, daughter and son. The daughter, Sarah, was the only one to escape from the camp and start a new family. So, Julia made it her responsibility to inform Sarah that she remembers what she went through. However, yet again, she is discouraged by her family members to keep out of other people’s business. No one understands the emotional turmoil that Julia experiences, but one; her father-in-law Eduoard. His father had kept a secret about the Starzynski family. As a young boy, he had witnessed something that would trouble him for the rest of his life. Within five days of being taken away from their home, Eduoard`s family moved in. After two weeks, Sarah had escaped and returned to her home to unlock her four year old brother from the cupboard. However, it was too late and Eduoard watched as they took out his limp body. This was the reason why Eduoard encouraged Julia to find Sarah and tell her that he was sorry that he could do anything to help her brother and that she would remember her forever (END OFF)
Along with the obstacles that she faces that come along with her work, she also comes across some personal problems. After years of trying to conceive, and three miscarriages, she is pregnant. She is ecstatic and couldn’t wait to tell her husband, except, when the time comes, his reaction isn`t what she had hoped for. “I can’t stop you having this baby. But I need you to know that I just can’t come to terms with it. Having this child is going to destroy me” (203). She was devastated to learn that the only way that they would be able to live together, was if she got an abortion. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t allow herself to go through with an abortion after trying to have a child for so long. Not only was the weight of this too much for Julia, she had discovered that Bertrand was cheating on her. He had been cheated on her for a good portion of their marriage and she found this hard to believe. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do (Need to finish and add a **** load of stuff)
With all the stress that Julia carries with her, she decides that she needs to assert herself. She needs to make three important decisions which would change her life. She needs to decide whether she is keeping the baby, whether she will publish the article about the sixtieth commemoration and decide if she is going to find Sarah. Her development in character begins while she sits in the abortion clinic. When the nurse walks in to tell Julia the doctors are ready, she suddenly decides that she will keep her child. “I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind… I’m not going to do this. I want to keep my baby” (182). She finally stopped allowing her selfish husband to make her decisions for her. This wasn’t the only thing she had decided by herself, she had published the article and continued on her journey to find Sarah. With the help of her friend, Nathalie, she is able to track down Sarah’s location, but finds that she had passed away. So, she finds out that she has a son by the name of William Rainsferd, and tracks down his location. She calls him and they decided to meet in a small café in Italy, Venezuela. But to her surprise, Sarah does not share her dreadful and disturbing Holocaust experience with her own child or husband; he is positively oblivious about his mother’s story. Although one would think that an individual such as Sarah would speak about her past: losing her brother on her own behalf because she could not return to save him, being separated from her parents at the camps, and being harbored by a generous family throughout the war; she does no such thing. She had not revealed her childhood, her origins, and her religion. She had made a clean break with her terrible past. In fact, William’s first reaction was to deny everything he hears concerning the subject. He refuses to believe what Julia had told him was true. “No. No, no. This is crazy. My mother was French. She was called Dufaure. She was born in New Orleans. She lost her parent during the war. She had no brothers. She had no family. She never lived in Paris, in that rue de Saintonge… You’ve got it all wrong” (239). He stormed off promising that he’d never speak to Julia again, however, as the novel continues, he thanks her for telling him the truth about his mother. Lastly, Julia publishes her article and divorces Bertrand to begin a new page. [FINISH]
Throughout the novel, Sarah’s Key, protagonist Julia Jarmond goes through many struggles that help to define her character. She deals with the stress of her job as a journalist and as a wife. Researching about the Vel’ d’Hiv’ round ups for her article has changed her life completely and requires her to make decisions for herself regardless of how people viewed her.[FINSIH]
Julia Jarmond is a journalist who had been given an assignment to write about the sixtieth commemorations of the Velodrome d’Hiver round ups during July of 1942. Veldrome d’hiver was “famous indoor stadium where biking races were held. Thousands of Jewish families locked up there for days in appalling conditions. Then sent to Auschwitz. And gassed” (27). She was instantly taken in by the information that she discovered. She decided that she would make it her duty to inform the public about it in hopes that Holocaust survivors would know that they were being remembered. This mission, however, proved to be quite difficult. The people of Paris were ignorant and thought that it was unnecessary to reveal the secrets of the past that they had worked so hard to conceal. During her research, she discovered that her husband, Bertrand; her charming daughter Zoe and she would soon move into a house which had belonged to a Jewish family. This family was forcefully taken out of their home and sent to concentration camps. Knowing this information had made Julia uneasy and triggered a new desire which she felt she must fulfill. She wanted to personally tell the only survivor of the family, Sarah Starzynski, that she remembers what they had gone through. She shared her new found desire with her husband and he scolded her for trying to bring up the past. Her relationship with Bertrand hadn’t been a smooth one since they had discovered she was pregnant. “After three miscarriages”, he had given up and urges her to have an abortion if they wanted to remain together. (This stresses her even more as she already has the stress of her job sitting on her shoulders.) She finally decides that she is going to go through with what she wants; this includes keeping her child, publishing her article about the Vel’ d’Hiv and finding Sarah. During her search for Sarah, she had discovered that she had passed away and decided that she would tell her son, William Rainsferd, instead. Unfortunately, Sarah kept her past a secret from her family and William was shocked to learn the truth. He panicked and told Julia to never contact him again. However, later on in the novel, he had a chance to think everything through and is thankful to have been told this life changing information about his mother. Not only had William’s life changed, but so did Julia’s. She no longer was married to Bertrand and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl who she had named after Sarah Starzynski. Julia goes through many events and which each one she is able to overcome that obstacle which helps her realize what she is capable of.
Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Julia Jarmond comes across many obstacles that test her determination and willpower to overcome them. After being given an assignment to write about the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, everything in her life begins to change. Many of the French people didn’t know what had happened in their own city and this is where Julia would come in. She was to write about the sixtieth commemoration of the round up, however, this proved to be difficult. Her own husband and relatives had encouraged her to write about a topic that wasn’t so controversial. “What are you going to do, amour, rub our noses in it? Nobody cares anymore. Nobody remembers. Write about something else. Something funny, something cute […] Tell your boss the Vel’ d’Hiv’ is a mistake” (51), were the words of her husband. The discouragement from those who were close to her fueled her desire to learn more about the Holocaust. She spoke to her grandmother-in-law to see if she knew anything about the roundups and discovered that the house she was about to move into was owned by a Jewish family. This disturbed her and she felt that she had to learn more about the family. She asked one of her co-workers who specializes in the history of the Holocaust, to identify the family that had lived in the house. She learned that the family name was Starzynski and that four people lived there: a mother, father, daughter and son. The daughter, Sarah, was the only one to escape from the camp and start a new family. So, Julia made it her responsibility to inform Sarah that she remembers what she went through. However, yet again, she is discouraged by her family members to keep out of other people’s business. No one understands the emotional turmoil that Julia experiences, but one; her father-in-law Eduoard. His father had kept a secret about the Starzynski family. As a young boy, he had witnessed something that would trouble him for the rest of his life. Within five days of being taken away from their home, Eduoard`s family moved in. After two weeks, Sarah had escaped and returned to her home to unlock her four year old brother from the cupboard. However, it was too late and Eduoard watched as they took out his limp body. This was the reason why Eduoard encouraged Julia to find Sarah and tell her that he was sorry that he could do anything to help her brother and that she would remember her forever (END OFF)
Along with the obstacles that she faces that come along with her work, she also comes across some personal problems. After years of trying to conceive, and three miscarriages, she is pregnant. She is ecstatic and couldn’t wait to tell her husband, except, when the time comes, his reaction isn`t what she had hoped for. “I can’t stop you having this baby. But I need you to know that I just can’t come to terms with it. Having this child is going to destroy me” (203). She was devastated to learn that the only way that they would be able to live together, was if she got an abortion. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t allow herself to go through with an abortion after trying to have a child for so long. Not only was the weight of this too much for Julia, she had discovered that Bertrand was cheating on her. He had been cheated on her for a good portion of their marriage and she found this hard to believe. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do (Need to finish and add a **** load of stuff)
With all the stress that Julia carries with her, she decides that she needs to assert herself. She needs to make three important decisions which would change her life. She needs to decide whether she is keeping the baby, whether she will publish the article about the sixtieth commemoration and decide if she is going to find Sarah. Her development in character begins while she sits in the abortion clinic. When the nurse walks in to tell Julia the doctors are ready, she suddenly decides that she will keep her child. “I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind… I’m not going to do this. I want to keep my baby” (182). She finally stopped allowing her selfish husband to make her decisions for her. This wasn’t the only thing she had decided by herself, she had published the article and continued on her journey to find Sarah. With the help of her friend, Nathalie, she is able to track down Sarah’s location, but finds that she had passed away. So, she finds out that she has a son by the name of William Rainsferd, and tracks down his location. She calls him and they decided to meet in a small café in Italy, Venezuela. But to her surprise, Sarah does not share her dreadful and disturbing Holocaust experience with her own child or husband; he is positively oblivious about his mother’s story. Although one would think that an individual such as Sarah would speak about her past: losing her brother on her own behalf because she could not return to save him, being separated from her parents at the camps, and being harbored by a generous family throughout the war; she does no such thing. She had not revealed her childhood, her origins, and her religion. She had made a clean break with her terrible past. In fact, William’s first reaction was to deny everything he hears concerning the subject. He refuses to believe what Julia had told him was true. “No. No, no. This is crazy. My mother was French. She was called Dufaure. She was born in New Orleans. She lost her parent during the war. She had no brothers. She had no family. She never lived in Paris, in that rue de Saintonge… You’ve got it all wrong” (239). He stormed off promising that he’d never speak to Julia again, however, as the novel continues, he thanks her for telling him the truth about his mother. Lastly, Julia publishes her article and divorces Bertrand to begin a new page. [FINISH]
Throughout the novel, Sarah’s Key, protagonist Julia Jarmond goes through many struggles that help to define her character. She deals with the stress of her job as a journalist and as a wife. Researching about the Vel’ d’Hiv’ round ups for her article has changed her life completely and requires her to make decisions for herself regardless of how people viewed her.[FINSIH]