111 pages • 3 hours read
Zlata FilipovićZlata's Diary
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 1993A 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.
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BetaAugust 1992-October 1992Chapter Summaries & Analyses
August 1992, Entries 70-77 Summary
Shelling continues in August. The family receives word that Zlata’s mother’s brother is doing well working for the press in Otes. Zlata remains inside and plays with her new kitten, Cici. When summer school starts, she is allowed to cross the 200 feet to the community center. Her father walks her so she is not alone. She joins the drama and the literature club and is excited to recite poetry with her classmates.
Residents must now walk and wait in line to fetch water, and when Zlata’s father suffers a hernia, he can no longer carry water for the household. Zlata’s mother must take on the additional task. School becomes a refuge from the war. Zlata reflects on how much her classmates and teacher mean to her and how much they brighten her time. She even dresses up for school because it is something to look forward to, though she hopes that she does not seem conceited.
September 1992, Entries 77-85 Summary
Many birthdays occur in September, including Zlata’s mother’s. Zlata reflects on the neighbors and friends who still exchange gifts and bake cakes to forget the war and assert a sense of normalcy. Though many feel celebrations help them, Zlata worries that they are only imitating life. She looks forward to more birthdays, but the shadow of the war still hangs over the city. The many birthdays provide a bit of cheer, though a shell falling in the street nearby disrupts her friend Alma’s birthday with noise and shrapnel, forcing them to move to a more secure location. A shell falling in the street near the community center also kills a boy, Eldin, in Zlata’s drama class.
Despite the dangers, Zlata finally convinces her parents to let her cross the bridge and visit her grandparents. The city appears both the same and different on her outing. She describes empty streets and rushed encounters with people. Her grandparents tell her that she has grown. Though she boasts about her bravery in going out to Bojana and Maja, the dreadful state of the city reminds her of all of the dead victims of the war.
By September 21, the power is off, perhaps for good: Radio reports indicate that the last long-distance power line to the city has been destroyed. Following this, forces also cut off the water to the city. Zlata’s family uses batteries to power the radio, and when that goes out, they bring in the car battery and only use the radio for news updates. On September 30 they hear that many Croats and Muslims have been forcibly expelled from Grbavica.
October 1992, Entries 85-92 Summary
With October and cold weather approaching, Zlata expresses disbelief and outrage that families in Sarajevo must endure a winter without electricity, water, or gas. She wonders whether politicians are thinking of those in the city when they meet to negotiate. She hopes her family can find enough wood to last the winter. Her mother returns from work and confirms that people are being forcibly expelled from Grbavica. Zlata’s best friend, Mirna, finally comes to visit and shows off her new fashion designs. The two catch up, speaking about Mirna’s dog and her “fashion designing.” Afterward, they begin to meet regularly.
The Bobars consider sending their daughters, Maja and Bojana, to Austria. Zlata wants the best for her friends but knows she will miss them when they leave. In mid-October, Maja asks Zlata if she has a diary: Through the school and community center, there is a chance that a child’s diary might be published. Maja convinces Zlata to submit her diary, and on October 21, Zlata reveals that her diary was selected for publication.
At the end of October, Zlata’s mother and co-worker, auntie Ivanka, reveal that they have received grants to do specialized work in Holland. The offer came with a letter of guarantee that Zlata could also travel abroad. However, they do not know if they can risk leaving behind Zlata’s father or her mother’s extended family.
August 1992-October 1992 Analysis
The period of late summer and early fall is a transitional period in the war. A short period of uneasy normalcy follows the fresh terror of the spring. Zlata’s entries shift in tone, no longer full of shocked disbelief, but marked instead by wary optimism. Several external factors contribute to the change, but internal acceptance of the war also enables her to catch her breath, if only for a moment. She marks the time since the war’s outbreak solemnly, writing, “Five months. Five months of brutal aggression against the independent, sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” (70), the serious formality an indication that she has processed this new reality.
The entry that follows is lighter, recounting a series of bullets entering the neighbor’s house with near humorousness rather than terror; Zlata focuses not on the horror of the near-death encounter, but on the impossible ways each bullet entered the house, pierced household objects, and “finally FELL!”, capital letters no longer indicating horror but amazement. The surreal description speaks to The Absurdity of War, in which close calls and terrifying events have become so commonplace that they can be recalled with a sense of amused relief by witnesses who have once again escaped death.
A string of birthdays and the distraction of classes bring a welcome disruption from constant rumination on the war. When Zlata writes of her close friends and neighbors, “We fool around, we have our own kind of humor. Sometimes we laugh so much, we forget about the war” (76), her upbeat tone reveals how The Support of Friends and Family uplifts her mood and keeps her grounded. The return of the electricity brings entries full of excited capitalizations and exclamation points, revealing Zlata’s newfound appreciation for simple pleasures.
Though tragedy still strikes all too frequently, as in the death of a boy from Zlata’s drama class, the relative novelty of the war instills in her a can-do spirit, a sort of honeymoon period in which she feels more confident that she can outlast the conflict. Her reference to her first visit to see her grandparents since the beginning of the shelling exemplifies this attitude: “[N]ow I can say like the others that I’m brave. I walked bravely through the streets of Sarajevo” (83). Though she reflects sadly on the state of the city and the ruin around her, her confidence in her own strength becomes a cherished takeaway from the event, a symbolic sign that she has what she needs to keep alive her Hope and Perseverance.
At the same time, it’s undeniable that Coming of Age During War is forcing Zlata to grow up much faster than she should. One way in which this manifests is her increasing awareness of her parents’ vulnerability; her father develops a condition that jeopardizes the family’s access to water, and her mother is increasingly “depressed.” Although both parents still do their best to care for Zlata, they are only human, and the situation prevents them from being able to fully shelter her. Perhaps in recognition of this, they finally allow her outside of the house and even across the bridge to visit her grandparents.
