Racially Motivated Violence
As if racism wasn't bad enough already as a form of hatred, Phillips hones in on the furthest extent -- violence. This book is devoted to a brief, somewhat eccentric analysis of racially motivated violence against Jewish peoples. Beginning with Eva Stern's fictional story of surviving the Holocaust and progressing backward, Phillips traces how heritage can leave a lasting impact on a person, despite them not knowing their family origins. Eva becomes nearly obsessed with stories of prejudice toward her people, after surviving the war and struggling to establish any sort of life beyond survival. The stories that Phillips tells in conjunction with hers include Othello, the origin story for the stereotype of Jews being zealous moneylenders, and others. Each ends with violence, usually death.
Inability to Adapt
After the war, Eva is not only scarred but her worldview has been shaped during formative years by survival and racial hatred. She has not semblance of what a well-adjusted life could look like, so she naturally feels like an outsider. Unfortunately, she doesn't find a resolution. Her adult life becomes a series of maladaptations which further isolate her, despite her "freedom." She views herself as "other," and in turn makes this true.
Offering an alternative but equally tragic response, Eva's Uncle Stephan also fails to adapt after the war. He was an adult during the Holocaust, so he does possess a road map for normalcy, formed in early childhood. Nevertheless, he is fundamentally changed by his experiences. He devotes his life sacrificially to the preservation and re-establishment of Jewish culture in Israel. He does so in an obsessive, impulsive way, however, which leaves his family abandoned and his own emotions wildly neglected.
History Repeats Itself
In his tangential story-telling approach, Phillips makes the point of how history repeats itself. He points out through story after story, all loosely linked to Eva's experience of identity and trauma, how racially motivated violence has characterized Jewish history for centuries. Each story bears striking comparison to the last. As Eva herself comes to realize, no person is the target of this violence, but the identity of "Jewish" is. She was an anonymous number in a grotesque system, but she was slated to die like all the others simply because of prejudices long predating even her parents' lives.
