Homesick for Another World

This story can be read as an allegory for cycles of abuse and intergenerational trauma women face. Despite her young age, Urszula’s mental distress is clear: “[S]ome nights I hate it here so much I shake and sweat and my brother holds me down so I won’t start kicking the walls and breaking things” (273). Although she loves her brother, Urszula is explicit about wanting to leave her life, saying that “my brain hurts and I cry all the time and I don’t want to be here on Earth for one moment longer” (274). These passages suggest a deep-seated anxiety and depression atypical of young children. Her obsession with Jarek Jaskolka—a name she believes she made up—is a result of this emotional distress.

Significantly, however, the name does turn out to have a prior history. Urszula’s mother explains that Jarek Jaskolka is “a bad, bad man” and that “many girls came away from his house black and blue and bloodied” (275). She lifts her skirt and reveals a series of thick scars on her legs: “marks like swollen earthworms, enough of them to make a lump from the side, the poor woman” (275). Later Jarek’s sister confirms that he is a threat to young girls in particular, warning Urszula that “curious girls get what they deserve” (282). Events in this story are often difficult to make logical sense of, and because the story is told from a child’s perspective, there is little to pierce the dreamlike reality Urszula inhabits. How did the name Jarek Jaskolka enter her mind? Why does Jarek’s sister effectively abet the attempted murder of her own brother? The story makes no effort to answer these questions. In this way it defies conventional expectations of modern, realist fiction, instead aligning itself with the generic conventions of the folk or fairy tale. Many of the story’s details, in fact, are strongly reminiscent of fairy tales—from the obscured (but seemingly rural and vaguely Central or Eastern European) setting to the poisoned berries.

The revelation of the community’s protection of Jarek Jaskolka offers a new explanation for Urszula’s depression and anxiety: It is inherited from her mother, who was the survivor of extreme violence as a girl. This story explores the theme of Social Isolation in the context of a small, closely-knit community. Here, everyone knows one another, and the rumors about Jarek Jaskolka are well known to the adults in town, yet everyone has conspired to do nothing, to preserve the status quo, to let Jarek go on about his life and perhaps abuse a new generation of young girls. Urszula’s mother has had to live her whole life with no way to redress the harm done to her as a child, and this unhealed wound (symbolized by the scars on her legs) has isolated her. Urszula has grown up within that vast isolation without understanding its sources, which explains her feeling that the world is not her home, that she comes from a better place and needs to get back there. Urszula’s determination to kill Jarek can be read as an attempt to end the cycle of violence to which her mother and other girls were subjected. She believes that the only way she can be in a better place—a place safer for women and girls—is to kill this violent man. Waldemar’s refusal to participate despite his love for his sister suggests that girls and women can only rely on each other for protection.