Four Perfect Pebbles
Storyboard Text
- Exposition
- " How could it be that people in that small town of Hoya would turn away from us so quickly." pg 15
- Conflict
- "Look closely. I have these three perfect pebbles, exactly matching.Today I will find the fourth." pg 7
- Rising Action
- " Toten raus" (out with the dead) pg 78
- Walter, Ruth, Albert, and Marion were a typical Jewish family from the little German town of Hoya. Everything was normal until 1933, when a boycott of items sold by Jews was enacted. The third-person omniscient point of view is used.
- Climax
- " And this time, Papa was one of its victims. Just as the Germans had tried to kill us in their own last moments, so this last gasp of the typhus epidemic would not let Papa go." pg 99
- Character vs. Destiny was the story's central struggle. During a time when every Jew in a concentration camp was nearly guaranteed to die, the Blumenthals' daughter kept hope alive for the family.
- Falling Action
- " We were no longer 'refugees.' Now we were 'displaced persons.'"
- The Blumenthals were thrown onto the "Death Train." Only if the train was stopped by an enemy force did they have a chance. The train was stopped by the Russians one night, and the remaining Jews were allowed to stay at nearby abandoned fields.
- Resolution
- " Already my new admirer seemed to have made up his mind that we were meant for each other." pg 124
- The Blumenthals expected things to improve after the Russians stopped the "Death Train." That, however, did not occur. The typhus outbreak had progressed to the point that Marion's father had died and Marion had to shave her head. Despite the fact that many loved ones perished on the farm, the family maintained hope that things would improve. Life on the farm was difficult, but everyone knew they were free of Nazi rule.
- Ruth, Albert, and Marion returned to Holland after leaving the farm to live with Walter's relative, Tante (aunt) Gerda. Later, the Blumenthals traveled to Amsterdam, then to Bussum, where Albert and Marion had to live in a Youth Aliyah Home and learn Dutch and Hebrew, as well as the Orthodox religion. Ruth was permitted to come once a week. Finally, the family found a sponsor in America, as well as a visa and other essential documents, allowing them to relocate to New York, where they found work.
- The household relocated to Peoria, Illinois. In the summer of 1948. Marion obtained a babysitting job for the summer. Marion had found the man she would spend the rest of her life with when she was 16 and a sophomore in high school. A young man approached her after a church service and asked if he might walk her home. They both knew they were meant to be together from that point forward. The couple married two years later and welcomed their first child on August 2, 1953.
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