Literary Analysis of Kindertransport by Diane Samuels

Semantics

Eva’s emotional journey is protrayed in Kindertransport, during her evacuation. Semantic field of fear is clearly demonstrated when Eva arrives to England, when she doesn’t understand what the organiser is on about. “Who will look after me?” clearly this suggests that she is afraid of being alone showing connotations of loss. Another semantic field of fear is presented by Eva, is when her identity is trapped. Eva is being dehumanised by the organiser, “will you look after me?”. . . “no. no. You stay where you are (barking at her as if to a dog) sit!”, humour is being presented by the organiser by forcefully showing his authority towards Eva, this gives him more status so that the children would conform to him. This also gives him an advantage as he is embodies the character of the Ratcatcher, but his disrespectful actions towards her makes him unaware of the fear as a young child, discrimination is shown towards her because he is not unconscious of her different background and her emotional journey of separation with her mother. This creates dramatic irony, as he is uneducated, through the use of interrogatives.

Eva is afraid of the Ratcatcher, that he embodies everything that frightens her, in different male characters. The emotional presence of the Ratcatcher terrifies Eva, “I will take the heart of your happiness away” the semantic connotations of the ‘heart’ symbolises the children because this is what keeps them alive, his dark mysterious figure is ironic because he personifies Eva’s fear of separation and loss. Also another semantic filed of fear is illustrated through the loss of valuable possessions “my gold watch is in there. . . and in the other heel are two rings, a chain with a star of David and a charm bracelet for you. All made of gold”, connotations of identity is presented by Helga, she passes on precious family possessions for the fear for losing Eva. By giving her the star of David that consists of the Jewish identity of religion and to remind Eva of her religion through times when she struggles and feels frightened. The connotations of time is presented through the gold watch Helga gives to Eva, that represents their time together, so Eva receives memories.

Sentence Structures

In Samules play, separation is seen throughout the play. Eva faces separation with her mother (Helga) at the start of the play by showing a cold approach to Eva. The war has effected their relationship by separating them and the declaratives used by Helga “Eva, sew on your buttons now. Show me that you can do it” this illustrates the lack of warmth and a sense of no feeling towards her daughter, just because she wants her to be independent even though she is a child. Eva refuses to listen to her mother by being stuborn when she is leaving her home, “can’t I do it later. . . there’s no ‘later’ left, Eva. . . now” this suggests a sense of an end, the imperative ‘now’ used is to instruct Eva by telling her to do it now as there is no future for them together. The noun ‘later’ suggests that their future together is being broken apart because of the separation. Eva is seen to be naive about what she is going through, the use of exclamatory sentence “Mutti! Vatti! Hello! Hello! See. I did get into the carriage. I said I would. See, i’m not crying. I said I wouldn’t” shows how she is trying to communicate with her parents through the use of childlike impression shows her as a young child. Here, she is presented as innocent, the amount of repetition she uses shows the confusion she is at, and even though her parents sent her away she is still trying to please them. This suggests that Eva has no understanding of what is happening, it seems that her parents haven’t told her what is actually happening to her. There is a clear barrier that has separated her from her parents that is seen as a sign of pain. Her mother has successfully changed her daughter’s thoughts about being independent when she says “There’s no point in crying”, this suggests how Eva is putting her emotions away, the audience views her painful situation as bravery as she can survive the separation made with her parents at a young age.

Another symbol of separation is used in Kindertransport is the Ratcatcher, this character in the play is Eva’s fear, he is hidden in Eva’s thoughts and increases the tension of separation. Whenever he comes to her thoughts she feels unsecure and this is when her anxiety about leaving her parents effects the structure of her sentences. “The Ratcatcher music weaves around the train’s chugging”. . . we’ll see our Muttis and Vatis soon enough” this declarative statement suggests how she is hoped, using childlike thinking shows her affirmation behaviour. Bowlby’s idea of maternal deprivation supports the idea that Eva has psychologically changed during the separation because of the confusion she has experienced during the transport.

Discourse, Formality and Metaphor

Eva shows interest in her religion as her identity through tag questions, “What is an abyss Mutti?” this shows their time together is temporary, also shows that the relationship between Helga and Eva is short. Through this question, Eva is presented as innocent, her mother is seen to be independent so that she can help Eva with her intelligence by answering her naive question, so that she can grow. This is ironic because the abyss is where everything changes, where she loses her mother and her Jewish identity. As a result to this change, war effects Eva, as she has lost everything she had in Germany including her mother and identity. Evelyn (or Eva) blames her confusion of her identity to her mother, “(EVEYLN) You threw me into the sea with all your baggage on my shoulders…(HELGA) you can never excuse yourself… (EVEYLN) how could I swim ashore with so much heaviness on me? I was drawning in leagues and leagues of salty water…(HELGA) I have bled oceans out of my eyes”. Turn taking in this extract is seen as traumatic, the idea of guilt is presented in both characters showing how their relationship has changed over the past years. In her emotional journey, ‘I was drawning’ this shows that as a young child she has suffered.

The use of her metaphorical language, there is a sense of being a drift, not belonging anywhere, she can’t change her identity becuase of her mothers responsibilities she had given her, suffering and experiencing pain because she doesn’t know who she is, sense of loss. Her mother also shows her suffering, ‘bled oceans out of my eyes’ this metaphorical language shows her pain, as she just wanted the best for her daughter, but it wasn’t expected of her daughter to change her identity. The war has effected the Jewish children in their adulthood by making them change their identity, “You admit that you were Eva Schlesinger then?. . . No I didn’t. . . did I?. . . No… Evelyn goes blank”.

Faith uses past tense ‘you were’, suggesting she is no longer Eva Schlesinger. Eva tries to get rid of her identity by changing her name to Evelyn, through Evelyn’s non-fluency sentences, she uses ellipsis to show confussion as she struggles to face her daughter with the truth. The ellipsis also creates tension because she is unsure about her identity herself. She has to ask herself about her past and who she was before answering her daughter. By using a tag question ‘did I?’, shows how much she refuses to accept her Jewish identity because of the pain she suffered from separation. She wants to remember but struggles to accept what it was like to be a young Jewish girl, Lil transforms Eva and presenting a negative image in her mind about her Jewish side.