Anna And The Swallow Man's Journey Summary

Anna and the Swallow Man’s journey begins in Krakow, Poland. She met the Swallow man in this city after her father was taken. He reminded her of her own father and because of that, she started following him outside the city. Anna conveyed to him that she wanted to travel with him, but the Swallow man said “’I will take you back to Krakow’” (Savit 36). However, he kept walking in the opposite direction and Anna knew this. They had decided to travel together. For the most part, Anna and the Swallow Man kept within the wilderness of Poland on their journey. They only went into cities when they had to. The first city they visited after leaving Krakow was Gdansk. Anna did not enter the city however, because her dress was too small and would draw

Solomon was a king written about in the Bible. If Anna were to call the Swallow Man, “Solomon,” then he could be seen as a Jew by others. Any Germans would likely kill him on the spot at that point and other people would not treat him with respect. When the Peddler thought that the Swallow Man was a Jew, he treated him with no respect. After Reb Hirschl asked what kind of meat the Peddler had, his reply was, “What the fuck do you care what kind of meat it is? You should be counting yourself lucky to get your teeth into some one last time before you’re killed, you fucking cow. Stop asking stupid questions” (163). Therefore, if the Swallow Man were to be called, “Solomon,” he would receive this kind of treatment, or worse, everywhere he went.

The first lesson of the Swallow Man was, “To be found is to be gone forever” (46). This meant that if a person was found, then they could be taken away or killed, just as what happened to Anna’s father. Another lesson similar to this one was, “One can’t be found as long as one keeps moving” (47). To keep from being found, a person must never be in one location for too long. Otherwise, another may point the people looking in the right