Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

Nonfiction | Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2005

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 2, Chapters 14-16

Part 2, Chapters 17-19

Part 2, Chapters 20-22

Part 3, Chapters 23-24

Part 3, Chapters 25-29

Part 3, Chapters 30-31

Part 3, Chapters 32-34

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Identity

The concept of identity recurs throughout the book in a variety of ways. The girls all question their own identity in one way or another; Liz, especially, questions her identity through Irena’s story in relation to her mother. Identity is also at the center of the events of the war, represented through the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis against certain identities as well as metonymically through the Kennkarte papers used to gain freedom at the cost of sacrificing one’s own identity. Stefan, for example, represents an interesting case of identity. He was born Jewish, but his parents converted to Christianity at an early age, yet for the Nazis, he was still Jewish. Purchased Kennkarte papers and a new identity, however, allow him to become Aryan once again. Most important is the role identity plays in Irena’s project. Irena Schultz believes that record-keeping is too unnecessarily risky, but Irena and Jaga insist on keeping track of the children’s identities. They believe the children’s original Jewish names to be not only a link to their original families, but an integral part of who they are.

Family

The motif of family is part of the motif of identity, but it exists separately because of the evolving concept of what it means to be a family through the book. Between the girls, for example, there are three different representations of family. Megan’s family is more traditional, if subtly patriarchal; Liz’s grandparents raise her; and Sabrina’s family—at least, at the start of the book—is living in two separate states. The book does not privilege any one version of family as superior, however; they are all shown to have their own inherent flaws and strengths, suggesting that family is something dynamic, even if it is not something we necessarily choose. Likewise, a key element of Irena’s project is precisely an upending of what one traditionally might believe to be familial. In order to accept Irena’s actions, the reader must recognize that for many families during the war, it was not only acceptable but necessary to break the bonds of family and give their children away to other families. The book makes clear that for some of those children, their new families (and identities) became the only ones they ever knew.

Communication

Communication of tragedy and pain is a central theme of the text, but it also exists more broadly as a motif. It is present in the ways mentioned above, but it is also present in its necessity throughout the war. A fundamental weapon of the Nazis was the disruption of communication, making the possession of a radio or the printing of underground newspapers punishable by death, something enforced in spectacular fashion at one point in order to communicate a different kind of message to the occupied. Yet, communication symbolizes resistance throughout the book. One of Irena’s first acts of resistance is to hide a radio, and despite executing newspaper publishers publicly, underground newspapers returned less than a week later. The veracity of communication is a central motif, as well—for example, Irena hears a different version of the war depending on the station she listens to, and many people end up going to their deaths, along with their children, because they refuse to believe the veracity of the reports communicated to them about Treblinka, etc.

Schindler’s List

The film Schindler’s List exists as an early symbol of tragedy. Irena is compared to Oskar Schindler, both for positive reasons—they both worked selflessly to save people—and for negative reasons—i.e., why do we remember Schindler but not Sendler? One fellow student at National History Day even replies to the girls by telling them yes, he’s heard of Schindler, forcing them to correct him. But the film also serves as a method of growth and identification, a stand-in for a similar work about Irena. Liz, who has never heard of the film, watches it toward the beginning of the project, and it is noted that she can remember crying twice in her life—after their first performance and during that film. Megan, likewise, is deeply affected by the film after watching it with her mother and brother. References to the film taper off after the first part of the book, but this mirrors the way it serves as a foundation for the girls prior to their moving beyond it.