The Forest of Vanishing Stars

Yona’s struggle to understand who she truly is remains a dominant theme in The Forest of Vanishing Stars. These questions are present from the story’s beginning as Jerusza kidnapping Yona unroots her, causing her to wonder about her identity, family ties, and faith. In response to her questions, Jerusza answers her “You are what you were born to be” (28), emphasizing the role of destiny in one’s identity. While Jerusza believes in a divine sort of destiny, Yona’s destiny manifests when she trusts her instincts and makes choices based on what she thinks is right. As such, identity is the sum of one’s choices rather than something preordained.

As Yona grows to adulthood, her questions persist and are only partially answered by Jerusza’s deathbed admission that she stole Yona from her German parents to save her for a greater destiny. When she meets Aleksander, he asks who she is, and she answers, “I wish I knew” (71), indicating a struggle to understand herself in her isolation. Nonetheless, her identity has been shaped by the survival skills that Jerusza, her surrogate mother figure, taught her, and she perpetuates this identity in the choices she makes.