Incantation

“My name once meant daughter, granddaughter, friend, sister, beloved. Now those words mean only what their letters spell out: Star in the night sky. Truth in the darkness.”

By not explicitly revealing her name, Estrella puts readers in the position of searching for her names and retroactively connecting them to these meanings. This mirrors the searching and questioning done by the protagonist, developing the theme of Finding Identity Within Traditions. The passage also foreshadows the deaths of Estrella’s family; the name “Esther” signifies her relationship to these people (daughter, granddaughter, sister, etc.), who have since passed away.

“[Catalina and I] thought about our futures, how they twined around each other, as if we were two strands of a single braid of fate.”

The imagery of the twisting futures represents the friends’ core conflict. Both girls wish for the same future: a life with Andres and all the comfort, wealth, belonging that entails. However, this competition will separate them; they will be close, but never the same strand.

“His coat had caught on fire, but he no longer cried. I think he may have looked at me. I think I may have looked back.”

After his surrender, the rabbi and Estrella share this moment of connection, much as they share the same Jewish identity (although Estrella doesn’t know it). Her unwillingness to know this truth is evident in her hesitancy and unsureness; she uses words like “think” or “may” to avoid taking a side. This moment begins the book’s conversation around The Dangers of Silence and Bystanders.