Kantika

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of antisemitism, child loss, infertility, xenophobia, wartime violence, genocide, and ableism.

The creative, hardworking, and charming Rebecca Cohen is the novel’s protagonist. She is described as a beautiful woman, “dark-haired and petite” with a “fair complexion, hazel eyes” (8, 162). From her girlhood in Constantinople, she expresses herself in a number of creative pursuits, including singing, sewing, and drawing. Always strong-willed, she becomes even more resolute after the Cohen family falls on hard times. The industrious protagonist works hard to support her children and establish her own dressmaking business. After Rebecca moves to New York, she brings her industriousness and determination to bear against a new challenge—helping Luna gain greater autonomy. As she tells Sam, “If you wanted a dishrag for a wife, you picked the wrong lady. I won’t sit back and watch a life go down the drain” (185). Rebecca is described as charming but also somewhat vain and prideful. She thrives on attention and knows how to leverage her appearance and interpersonal skills to achieve her goals. Her charm also provides a sort of armor, which Luna observes when watching her stepmother prepare to leave the house with a bearing that is “proud, almost imperious, with a ready smile, whether real or fake” (232).