86 pages • 2 hours read
Esther HautzigThe Endless Steppe
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Esther and her family arrive at the gypsum mine, a site “so bleak that it made the village of Rubtsovsk attractive by comparison” (43). They are led into a large wooden building, a former schoolhouse, where they are told to wait. Finally, Makrinin, the director of the mine, introduces himself. He is a kind man, and he apologetically delivers the work assignments: “The orders are for the men to drive carts and work in the mine. The women will dynamite, the children will work in the fields, and the old people will shovel the gypsum” (49).
Back in the schoolhouse, Samuel criticizes the “insanity” of the work assignments, and Raya admonishes him to be quiet. Grandmother worries about the fate of her husband, and Esther is startled to see her—along with the other elderly exiles—shown no deferential treatment. Like everyone else, they sleep on the bare floor in the hot, crowded room. Esther “[speaks] to a shaft of moonlight” (50), thanking God for being able to work in the field and feeling “very saintly […] to be so thankful in this terrible place” (51). In the middle of the night, two village girls sneak watermelon to the Polish exiles.
In the morning, the family is divided according to their work assignments. Esther feels “dismembered” to be left alone and is led to the potato field with the other children. She remembers her Grandfather Solomon, an avid gardener, and misses her cousins and governess. Despite her homesickness and the hard work and heat, Esther enjoys her morning in the field. After a meagre lunch, however, “the heat became more intense” (57), and Esther fantasizes about swimming at her family’s summer house.
At the schoolhouse that evening, the exiles share the experiences of their work day with each other. Father tells an amusing story from his day; Grandmother complains about her day of shoveling and proceeds to push back her cuticles, a habit she will maintain each night before bed. The next day, Esther and the other children are frightened by the sound of the dynamite. At lunch, she is relieved to see that her family members are safe.
Esther and her family become accustomed to the hardships of Siberia. She learns that the men drink cologne due to the lack of other alcohol, and through a failed attempt to wash her hair with clay, she learns “how not to wash one’s hair” (61).
Chapter 5 Summary
Life at the mine becomes familiar and monotonous. One day, Makrinin announces that “every Sunday, six people would be allowed to go to the village” (65). Esther insists that she must go to the village, and Grandmother eagerly offers to be her chaperone.
In the village, there is a market—a baracholka—and the family decides on items they can sell there. Finally, the appointed Sunday arrives; Esther and Grandmother leave for the village early in the morning. Esther and Grandmother enjoy haggling at the market, trading one of Raya’s silk slips and other items for rubles to buy food. They are reluctant to leave, and as they walk back to the mine, Esther prays “that one day [they] will be allowed to live in the village within sight and sound of the Sunday baracholka” (71).
Chapter 6 Summary
Fall arrives “with a great howling wind” (72); Esther and her family brace themselves for a dreary winter ahead. One day, Makrinin announces that the Polish government, in exile in London, and the Soviet Union have made a pact granting amnesty to Poles “detained on Soviet territory” (73). Makrinin explains that the Polish deportees can choose to stay at the mine or move to the village, where they will be assigned jobs and given a small stipend. While a few families choose to stay at the mine—to Esther’s amazement—the Rudomins and others move to barracks at the outskirts of Rubtsovsk.
Before moving, Esther worries that the amnesty will somehow be taken away, and Grandmother hopes that Grandfather will find a way to join them. When they finally arrive at the barracks, they meet “old friends from Vilna: the Kaftals” (76): Mrs. Kaftal, her daughter Anya, and her son Karl. Mrs. Marshak and Boris—who were distraught at Samuel’s departure—join them in the barracks earlier than expected.
Except for Grandmother and Mrs. Kaftal, all of the adults are assigned jobs. Esther, unable to go to school until the family finds housing within the village, looks after Boris and feels bored. Esther decides to add to the family’s meagre food rations by taking Boris to hunt in the fields for “potatoes that had been overlooked by their owners” (81). The family goes to the Sunday market again to sell more possessions in order to buy more food.
The Rudomins, along with the Kaftals, hunt for living quarters within the village. A young couple—Nina and Nikita—agree to rent part of their hut to the group of deportees. Although Raya is concerned by Nikita’s apparent trachoma and the Rudomins are surprised by the use of first names, Esther is excited to move to the village. Nikita collects the group and their belongings in his wagon, and Esther enjoys the ride from the barracks to his hut.
Nina puts straw on the floor for the deportees and gives Esther some milk to drink. The Rudomins and Kaftals make cakes, and they seem to taste particularly “delicious” in the new surroundings. Feeling cozy and comfortable, the group is “content”; Esther falls asleep to the sound of Nina and Nikita whispering.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
Esther’s life in exile has begun; she describes the mine site as bleak, and Siberia itself is a barren, frightful place in her mind. Her life is radically changed, and the social order has been turned upside down. Samuel is frustrated by the way the Communists assign work, ranting: “Insanity! Insanity! Peasants are capitalists. Engineers drive horses. Women dynamite. What next? What next?” (49). Raya agrees, saying: “Everything is insane, senseless […] The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” (50). Esther is appalled by the lack of special treatment given to the elderly and the sense of oppression as even the adults in her life are given orders. The Rudomins have lost their freedom, and they seem to be at the mercy of a disjointed, illogical system.
However, almost immediately, positive details begin to chip away at the negative description of Siberia. For example, small kindnesses—Markinin’s decency and the watermelon brought to the deportees by unknown Siberian girls—light up the bleak landscape. Instead of pining for home, Esther shifts her perspective to realistic hopes. She yearns to live close to the Sunday market, and this wish is fulfilled. Esther’s character is further developed by her optimism; she can’t help but enjoy life’s simple pleasures. For example, describing the trip in Nikita’s wagon from the barracks to his hut, she writes: “Cold or no cold, I loved every minute of it; after all, it was a ride in a horse and wagon and I was sorry when it was over” (87). She even begins to admire the steppe itself. On the way to the village market, Esther, “feeling oddly disloyal, [thinks] that the steppe [is] just a tiny bit beautiful that morning” (66).
Different aspects of the author’s writing style are also evident in this section. Detailed imagery is used, demonstrating Esther’s vivid imagination and sharpening the sense of longing. For example, working in the fields on a hot afternoon, Esther remembers swimming with her cousin in “cool and clear” river water, her cousin swimming “like a beautiful silvery fish himself” (57). This memory of the Rudomins’ summer house contrasts with the reality of their exile.
