A Clutching Past In Jillian Cantor's Margot

Jessie Jones

Ms. Gourd

Pre-AP 10th ELA

March 30, 2018

A Clutching Past Imagine having a secret that is confidential, so confidential that just 15 years prior, this secret would have resulted in death if surfaced. The book Margot by Jillian Cantor depicts this scenario. Once Margot Frank in a past life, Margie Franklin has accumulated a seemingly simple American life in Philadelphia during post World War II. Now a “Christian”, Margie hides her past through her lies. Flashbacks of the Holocaust haunt her, causing wrinkles in her “smooth” life. Employed as a secretary in a Jewish law firm, Margie becomes romantically close to her superior, Joshua Rosenstein. Her sacred past threatens her promising future when unwanted attention is directed in

No other culture can relate to the mass genocide that the Jews faced in World War II. Survivors like Margie have carefully crafted lies as a form of protection; lies to protect from memories. “I hear the sound of footsteps behind me. They are heavy, the gait of boots. Surely, NBS footsteps. The Green Police. I cannot help it. I quicken my pace, until I am almost running.” (Cantor 105). No matter how hard she fights the urge, Margie relates many sounds to her experiences from Margot's time to present day occurrences. The sound of footsteps is only one example of how natural it is for Margie to quack in fear at average affairs. Flashbacks are common among survivors. “When I finally do fall asleep, my night is filled with black and tumultuous dreams. In them, I replay a memory, the way I so often do.” (Cantor 131-132). The PTSD of the Holocaust has left an excessive scar on its victims. The effect this has on these people clings to their soul for the remainder of their lives. “‘God knows’ he says. “You cannot hide from God.”’ (Cantor 180). No matter how much Margie hides from her past, she will never escape it. Not even after death. If this was portrayed in another culture, the novel would primarily lose its sense of purpose. This story is only accurate in a Jewish mindset, any other culture would simply be

She gets assigned to help on a case involving a Jewish Holocaust survivor who wanted to sue the company she was hired at for prejudice actions toward Jews. This becomes a threat to Margie because the client, Bryda Korzynski, notices something off about her. “‘You one of us,” she says. I’m still shaking my head, back and forth, back and forth. I want her to stop. I want it to stop. It never stops. “Your eyes,” Bryda says. “They like eyes of dead person.” (Cantor 51). A survivor, like Margie, is unraveling the ball of emotions that hold her together, and that terrifies Margie because if she figures out who she is, her life will change completely. Despite Bryda, Margie try to trudge on in her life. “I do no let myself think about the Shabbat, the unlit candle in my apartment. I do not let myself think about Bryda Korzynski, or even the crooked black letters on the Pelt mailbox again.” (Cantor 107). Margot is slowly creeping into Margies life, threatening her future at every turn. Margie has claimed stakes in Philadelphia, but the ever present black cloud of her past sucks the joy from her surroundings. “I wonder if my feet took me here on purpose, overtaken by homesickness that I can never get through no matter how much I think I can, or might want to. It is always lurking there, just beyond the surface. Even in the Jewish law firm. Especially in the Jewish law firm.” (Cantor 246). The conflict of the