Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (SPOILER ALERT)


After reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, I identified an important symbol. In the book there are  alternating main characters every other chapter, the two main characters are Sarah and Julia. The first story takes place in Paris. Julia Jarmond an American journalist, lives with her architect husband, Bertrand Tezac. While they renovate an apartment that has been in Bertrand’s family, Julia, for one of her articles, investigates the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, when French police under pressure from the Nazis removed Jewish family’s from their homes, and held them for days before sending them to camps.The second story is about the main characters',Sarah,journey escape from the camps. Sarah and her parents are taken from their home and split up into camps. Sarah wasn't aware what was happening when they were being taken from their home, so she made a quick and careless decision to lock and hide her brother in a cupboard, assuming that she would go back soon. After being held in the camps and separated from her parents she realizes they are going to kill them and she has to go back to paris to save Michael (her brother).

One symbol that I found in the book is the key, that Sarah keeps with her throughout her journey to save her brother. The key is for the cupboard that she locked her brother in, while she holds onto this she has hope that she will be back in time. In the book Sarah makes a decision that she regrets, but when she has the key with her she believes her little brother is still waiting, and alive in the cupboard. I believe the key is a symbol of hope, as long as she has it she is doing anything and everything to get back home. Sarah wasn't keeping track of how many days she was in the camp, so she couldn't assume whether her brother was alive or not. When Sarah reaches her destination she finds that her apartment has been sold to someone else, a family now lived in her home. She comes to find that her brother died while locked in the cupboard. 

In conclusion, Sarah wouldn't have had the hope she did to travel all the way back to Paris if she didn't have the key. I also realized that could be the reason why the title of the book is Sarah's Key. The key is also a symbol of courage because it gives Sarah the strength to carry on and go through her travels to find her brother.