The Silver Sword
When is Ruth shown to be a mother figure to her siblings and the orphans
two of them and each with one paragraph
two of them and each with one paragraph
Ruth is the eldest of the Balicki children, and after their mother is taken away, she immediately assumes the maternal role. She is firm, fair, and authoritative, and runs her family with an iron but loving fist. She has an air of capability about her, and the adults who see her in action all believe her to be a very special and unusual kind of person. Although she is frightened, she does not show it, and manages to keep her little sister Bronia's spirits up by telling stories and by remembering how much she likes to draw. She is a natural-born teacher and children instinctively listen to her. After the war she seems to be trying to recapture her lost childhood by regressing emotionally and following her mother everywhere for fear of losing her again. This soon wears off, however; she goes on to study at university in Zurich and becomes a teacher in her Swiss hometown.