Plot

In the memoir We Are On Our Own there are two different progressions of plot. The first being of a jewish woman and her daughter attempting to escape during world war 2 and the other being trying to reunite with her husband which is the main plot for a majority of the book.

It starts in 1944 in Budapest with Esther and Miriam taking their dog for a walk with a friend. At first everything seems normal and safe but it is revealed that later that day the Nazis demand that Esther give them their family dog. As the situation in the city gets worse, Esther makes plans to escape with her daughter into the country. She does this by obtaining forged papers and faking her death by setting fire to their apartment and all their family possessions. They arrive to their safe house by train only to find out that the residents did not know about them coming but Esther convinces them to let her work there and for a while things are good.

But then one day a rich Nazi soldier wants Esther to be his woman and because of the patriarchal values of society, Esther is forced into a position where she has to sleep with the man in return he gives her presents which his wife was unhappy about.

Eventually the Nazi’s fall and the Soviet Union rises to power. The Russian soldiers attack the town, raping all the women and drinking all the alcohol. Luckily, Esther grabs Miriam and manages to escape during the snowstorm and get to the next town where she finds a place to stay.

Esther and Miriam stay at the town until Esther reveals that she may be pregnant with the Nazi soldier she had to sleep with’s child and the owners of the home they are staying at tell Esther that she can get an abortion in town. When she is in the town she reveals her identity to a nice Russian soldier who gets her on a train headed to Borosvar.

Esther and Miriam then look for help at a refugee centre and reunite with an old friend of theirs. Their friend allows them to stay at his home while the refugee centre searches for her husband who is missing. However, her friend secretly hopes that if the husband is not found that he could marry her.

A week later Esther gets her abortion while Miriam is learning french from the governess. At this point there is still no news of Esther’s husband but we see him on the next page searching in Budapest for his wife and daughter. A friend of Esther’s tells the husband of Esther and Miriam’s escape and points him to the right direction of where they are. The husband retraces the steps of Esther and Miriam until he reaches the train station that the nice Russian soldiers who helped his family out previously are at. They are happy to find out he is alive and get him on a train heading to Borosvar.

The friend of Esther’s that secretly wanted to marry her is the first person to see that the husband is alive and even though he is unhappy to do it, he reunites Esther and Miriam with him. However, Miriam isn’t able to recognize her father right away and has a hard time understanding the events of the past few years.

The side plot of the memoir is about a young jewish woman who is living in New York, raising her son. This supports the main plot with reflections on how society works both similarly and contrastingly as time pases.

It starts with Miriam’s son being born in 1968. They are living in New York and the feeling is peaceful and calm, instead of the peace and calm that was fake in 1944.

Later in the book Esther and Miriam are running and playing games involving hiding in the autumn leaves which can be compared to when they were escaping Russians through the snow storm. Soon after this it starts to snow and a now older Esther calls Miriam to reminisce about the snowstorm from back then which Miriam doesn’t remember much about.

In the last scene, Miriam’s son returns home with his first bible and she reads the story of creation from it. This goes alongside when Esther was teaching Miriam the same thing very early in the book. Miriam assures her son that the bible is more of a story than being true fact and tells him that they will talk more about it later.