The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

The novel often uses animals as symbols of wildness and freedom. Characters encounter horses, swans, and a wild boar, for instance, and come away from those encounters with changed perspectives on their situations. Choose 3 of the animals mentioned in the novel and explain how each affects a character. 

The novel is loosely based upon the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm. Read that fairy tale at Virginia Commonwealth University's Archive of 19th-Century German Stories. What are some details from the fairy tale that appear in the novel? How does the novel’s author adapt those details to fit a World War II narrative?

Though much of the novel’s plot centers upon Hansel and Gretel’s life in the village of Piaski, many chapters zoom out to show the broader effects of World War II in Poland. How do the large-scale developments in the war—Russian and German troop movements and Nazi policies, for instance—directly affect the lives of Polish citizens in Piaski? Choose at least 2 developments and explain their effects. 

The Stepmother makes many difficult choices over the course of the novel. She pushes the Mechanik to leave Hansel and Gretel in the woods, negotiates with the partisans, and kills Gretel’s assailants at the expense of her own life. What details from the Stepmother’s past inform her choices in the novel’s present? Provide a close reading of 1 choice, using examples to show how the Stepmother may have arrived at her decision.

Magda’s ability to foresee the future gives her access to information that other characters do not have. As narrator, she frequently uses foreshadowing to hint at developments that may occur in the novel. Find at least two examples of foreshadowing in the text and explain how they create tension or suspense in the novel.

The author of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel divides the novel into 35 short chapters, some of which do not take up an entire page. How does dividing a story into many small pieces affect the experience of reading it? Consider elements such as the novel’s pacing, plot development, and setting in your answer. 

Repeatedly, the Mechanik narrowly misses seeing his children in the woods around Piaski. He speaks with Telek mere feet from where Hansel and Gretel lie hidden behind a log and arrives at Magda’s hut shortly after the Nazis have burned it. What does this series of near misses tell readers about the novel’s setting? What physical and logistical aspects of the setting keep the Mechanik and his children apart?

Religion is hotly debated in the novel. While characters such as Nelka and Starzec maintain faith in the Christian God during World War II, others, such as the Mechanik, do not believe in any deity. What does a character’s acceptance or rejection of God say about his or her approach to life in general? Choose one character and explain how their attitude towards religion relates to other aspects of their characterization.