When We Re Far Apart Analysis

The Struggles of the Lost and Found In the captivating story of While We’re Far Apart by Lynn Austin, millions of people were affected by World War II, not unlike the real problems people had to deal with at this time: Jews were killed and persecuted in horrible ways and evidence of the war was everywhere. The main characters lived during this time period. One was a Jew whose entire family was either dead or missing in Hungary, one was a woman who hoped to get a second chance at love, and finally two were children whose father (that the woman was in love with) enlisted for the war.
Jacob Mendel, the Jewish main character, had family in Nazi-occupied Hungary. He had no idea if his son, his daughter-in-law, or his grandchild were alive, and if they were, they were either in hiding or had been captured. His problems and struggles in this book were very similar to Anne Frank’s, a young girl who lived during World War II. Anne Frank was also a Jew who went into hiding when the Nazis invaded her country. However, the Nazis discovered their hiding place and sent them into a concentration camp, just as the Nazis did to Jacob’s family. Only she was not able to escape. Corrie Ten Boom and her entire family also were taken to concentration camps for helping Jews, like Jacob’s family, except Jacob’s family
were taken into concentration camps just for being Jews.
Also, there were two children named Esther and Peter who were main characters as well in this story. Their father left them to enlist for the war. Because their mother had died in an accident, he felt he needed to get away from reminders of her and his constant gloom and serve his country. Esther and Peter’s father made a choice to leave the two in the care of a friend, but many, many fathers and young men were drafted into World War II and had no choice but to leave their loved ones to serve.
Next, Penny Goodrich was the young woman in the story who loved, and had loved as long as she could remember, Eddie, Esther and Peter’s father.
She volunteered to watch and keep his children for him as he went to war in the hopes that he would finally notice and love her in return. Unfortunately, this never happened. She instead grew to love a different man from the army who was ripped away from her several times when he went into battle. Thousands, even millions, of people had to watch their loved ones march into combat just like Penny. Luckily for her, the man she grew to love as well as Eddie were never killed. However, others were not so
fortunate.
A last example was when Jacob Mendel was angry at God for killing his wife (in the same accident that killed Ester and Peter’s mother) and for taking away his family. For a long time, he did not even believe in God. How could one ‘so loving’ be so incredibly cruel as to watch his people suffer and do nothing? Many people struggled to keep their faith just as Jacob did when God took everything away from them: loved ones, their homes, their families, their friends.
In conclusion, millions of people did die and/or did lose loved ones. But the constant question that was raised tested the faith of the fictional people in this book, but also real historical figures: Could there still be a God who could let these atrocities happen, and if so, does he even care? Jacob Mendel eventually discovered yes, there was/is. This inspirational story follows his journey and the other characters mentioned, and their own war to keep their faith. And all those who were lost were found.