The Endless Steppe

One day, Esther is doing homework while Grandmother and Mrs. Kaftal are “engaged in their favorite competition, the remembrance of things past” (106). Esther discovers that a piece of cheese is missing; when Esther suggests that they should go to the police, Mrs. Kaftal shocks them with her terrified reaction. Grandmother and Esther stare at Mrs. Kaftal, but Grandmother smooths over the awkward moment by suggesting that Esther must only be imagining that there is cheese missing. In the future, when food goes missing, the Rudomins remain silent.

Esther develops a persistent cough. Raya takes her to a doctor, who diagnoses Esther with severe bronchitis. The doctor instructs Esther to rest; she is devastated to miss school but is confined to the hut for “that first Siberian winter” (109).

One evening, another Polish deportee arrives at the hut with the news that Grandfather has died in a labor camp. Grandmother screams, and Esther herself does not know “what to do with [her] sense of loss, [her] grief, and [her] terror” (110). Somehow, Samuel gathers 10 Jewish men to perform the mourning rituals. On the third night, the police interrupt the service and accuse the group of trying to start a synagogue.

At home, Grandmother “would have been surrounded by her family, and her friends would have come and gone to help her through the initial stage of shock” (111). In Siberia, she sits shivah for her husband in the hut with only Esther and Mrs. Kaftal as her company. After the first eight days of mourning, Grandmother “went out onto the steppe and disappeared for hours” (112).

Esther experiences her first Siberian winter storm. Raya learns ways to protect herself from the elements on her walk to the bakery, and Samuel makes rough wooden snowshoes. Confined to the hut with no playmates or toys, Esther feels an isolation “more than separation or loneliness” (113). Throughout the winter, on the steppe or in the hut, Grandmother continues to grieve.

Nina becomes pregnant, so the Jewish deportees must find another place to stay. Esther’s family rents a hut on the other side of the village; it is “dark and dingy” and filled with bedbugs (115). The other occupants are “two dour sisters and an equally dour little boy” (115).

One evening, Samuel does not return home from work; Raya, Grandmother and Esther wait in unspoken worry. The next afternoon, Samuel returns to the hut, shaken and exhausted. After resting, he explains that he was taken by the N.K.V.D, the secret police, and questioned for hours. They tried to persuade him to be a spy and report on the other Polish deportees. He boldly told them that the deportees were only trying to survive and refused to spy on his own friends. Esther feels proud of her father but worries that the secret police will return for him.

Esther is haunted by the worry of the secret police returning for Samuel. In spite of this concern, spring slowly arrives, and she is happy to return to school. The other children pay attention to her and ask questions about her illness, and—ironically—she enjoys singing Communist songs in the assemblies. Esther, along with her classmates, is excited about an American movie coming to the village. Even though the movie costs four rubles, Samuel insists to Raya and Grandmother, “The child must go to the movie” (123).

Attending the movie and talking about it with peers gives Esther a stronger sense of belonging at school. She yearns for a best friend. When she finds out that Svetlana is jealous of her braids, she asks her mother if she can cut her hair. Raya is shocked by Esther’s desire to look like everyone else; although Raya refuses at first, the next day she agrees to cut Esther’s hair for her. The haircut does not turn out very well, but Samuel boosts Esther’s confidence. When she goes to school the next day, she is delighted to fit in with her classmates and to be accepted by Svetlana.