The Sweetness of Forgetting

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapters 18-24

Chapters 25-33

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Stars

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses antisemitism and the Holocaust.

Stars, as a symbol of eternity and infinity, represent the significance of remembrance and memorials. Jacob tells Rose that he will love her as long as there are stars in the sky, which becomes a promise she holds onto through the grief of losing Jacob and her family. Rose renames the stars in the constellation known as the Big Dipper for her lost family members, and when she looks for the constellation, she revisits her love for them and honors their memory. That she cannot find a star to stand in for Jacob is explained later when Hope learns that Jacob is still alive.

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The stars also recall the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear under Nazi control, representing the Star of David, marking their identity and their faith. In one respect, her continued reverence for the stars is a way that Rose keeps her faith in God even while practicing in the Catholic tradition.

The Bakery and Star Pies

In memory of her promise to Jacob, Rose begins shaping her favorite pastry recipe into the shape of stars, calling them Star Pies. This is the recipe she learns while living with the Haddam family during the war, so the pies represent not just her love for Jacob but her gratitude to this family for sheltering her and her child. When she begins her bakery in Cape Cod, starting a new life with her new husband and her daughter, Rose names it The North Star to suggest that the memories have become a point of orientation for her life. The name also signifies the continuance of a family tradition now enriched by the new family she found. The Star Pies serve as a plot device also when Rose uses them to observe Rosh Hashanah—the first hint to Hope that Rose was born Jewish—and when Hope and Alain learn that a Muslim family helped Rose escape Paris during the war.

The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty serves as the symbol for which it is widely recognized: a sign of the individual freedoms promised to citizens and residents of the United States, especially the religious freedom that has long been an attraction to immigrants. Rose acknowledges the long reverence for this symbol by incorporating the statue into her fairy tale as the queen holding a torch of light. When she arrives in New York City with Ted, Rose sees the statue as confirmation that she will win what she wished when she married him: the freedom to pursue the religion of her choice, a dream that she and Jacob harbored together as they saw the increasing persecution of Jewish peoples around them. Rose had always loved what the statue stood for and often visited the replica in the Luxembourg Gardens. She meets Jacob for the first time before the statue, foreshadowing the fact that he will be her route to freedom. The statue also becomes the clue by which Hope guesses where she can find Jacob, so it connects Jacob and Hope, evidence of their enduring, steadfast love.