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Summary
Chapter 3
Barack is eighty-five years old and has retired. Barak and Sarah go to Haifa to celebrate Israel’s third independence day. There is great fanfare and parades, and Barak is honored for his lifetime of work. When they return home, Barak tells Sarah that he has cancer and a few months to live.
When Ari arrives to spend time with his father, Barak apologizes to Ari for not being around more. Ari won’t hear it and says he doesn’t blame Barack. He was doing the work that needed to be done. Barak tells Ari that Ari has been hiding from Kitty in the desert for two years. Barak has come to think of Kitty as a saint, and he feels responsible for Ari’s unhappiness because in the past he discouraged a match between the two. Ari tells his father he can never be what Kitty wants.
The next day, Ari and Barak go to Tel Hai, where Barak and Akiva first crossed into Palestine. This is where Barak will be buried, along with the other guardsmen, including Akiva. They look down on the settlements below them. This is what Barack worked his entire life for. He dies two days later.
Chapter Four
Dov joins the Israeli Army and works under Ari’s command with the Beasts of Negev. He goes to school to learn how to irrigate the desert. Dov is a brilliant student and is now open and warm. He and Karen are in love but are constantly kept apart. Karen joins the army and becomes a nurse. Kitty has come to terms with the fact that Karen will never leave Israel. As she prepares to leave, Kitty worries for Israel. The Arab countries are still vowing to destroy it. The Israeli army is now compulsory for all young people, and it has become the most efficient standing army in the world. Karen is one of the young Israelis who volunteer to live on the border settlements to defend their country. She is in Nahal Midbar, right next to Gaza Strip.
Whenever Dov is on leave, he visits Karen. One day, he greets her with the news that he has the opportunity to study in America at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years. Karen says she cannot leave, and Dov is not willing to go without her.
Kitty visits Nahal Midbar and is saddened by the plight of the young people there. When they aren’t plowing the fields, they are guarding their settlement. Kitty makes Karen promise that she will come to Yad El to celebrate Passover with Sarah, Sutherland, and Jordana.
Chapter Five
Kitty and Sutherland go to Sarah’s cottage in Yad El for the holy day. Ari surprises the group when he arrives with Jordana. He and Kitty take a walk and talk about Kitty’s impending departure and the danger that still exists in the settlements. A stream of visitors arrives to see Ari and Kitty over the course of the evening. Kitty becomes increasingly anxious because Karen has still not arrived. Ari goes to see if he can get word of her whereabouts and returns with the news that Karen has been killed by gang of fedayeen from Gaza.
The group collectively deals with the shock. Kitty is overcome with grief. Dov refuses to hate Karen’s murderers, because Karen could never hate. Ari isolates himself from the group, and after Kitty collects herself, she goes to see him. Ari tells her that everyone he has ever loved is dead. Kitty feels for all that Ari has suffered. He begs Kitty to stay in Israel, and she agrees even though she knows he will soon return to being strong, stoic Ari and will no longer need her. Ari tells Kitty she will always come second to Israel, which Kitty already knows. The two return to the house for Seder dinner.
Analysis
Barak Ben Canaan has lived a unique life in the service of Israel. He immigrated as a young man and worked to reclaim the land in Israel. His empathetic nature allowed him to forge a deep friendship with an Arab neighbor, even though the men were supposed to be enemies. He sacrificed many hours to helping immigrants settle as part of the Zionist Settlement Society, and then he worked as an honest and genuine diplomat. When Barak learns that he has a short time left to live, his only regret is that he did not spend more time with his family. Like his brother and his son, his simple dream has always been to spend his time tending his fields. As he is dying, he worries that he has failed his children, and is saddened by the cost of freedom. He views Ari’s generation as unemotional warriors who only know war and violence. He has come to this conclusion because he sees Ari hiding from Kitty, who is the only person who has brought him joy since Dafna died. He has also watched Jordana hide herself away for a brief time after losing David, only to quickly return to her life, hardened by the loss. This is similar to the concern that Akiva showed for Dov. He warned the young boy to not be so serious, which was surprising coming from the impetuous and angry Akiva. Both men, who lived their lives in very different ways, have similar advice for young people. Their hope is that their lifetime of work is enough to ensure that the next generation will have the comfort of choosing happiness instead of being imprisoned by duty.
It is this dedication to Israel that comes between Karen and Dov in Chapter Three. When an emotionally rehabilitated Dov has the opportunity to go to America, Karen feels bound to stay and do her part in her new border settlement. Karen is so opposed to the idea of leaving that it seems possible she will choose Israel over Dov. This illustrates that Kitty’s original plan of convincing Karen to go live in America was always doomed to fail. Karen is not only being loyal to her fellow Palmach soldiers, but she is exhibiting the same conviction as Barak in that she is driven to continue protecting the Israel of tomorrow. Karen shares Barak’s compassion as well, making these two characters the only vehicles by which Uris considers the perspective of the Arab people. When she looks past the fences of her settlement, Karen doesn’t see enemies but people who have been caged up by their leaders and are doomed to watch the Israeli fields grow while their land is barren. Karen, who barely has any material possessions to call her own, believes she has everything because she has pride in her land and lives in a place that God chose for her. Meanwhile, over the course of her selfless career in Israel, Kitty has also emotionally healed from the loss of her daughter and is no longer dependent on Karen for her happiness. However, she is concerned when she sees the conditions of the settlement where Karen lives and foreshadows the events of Chapter Five. Kitty’s concern, when Karen describes Israel as a bridge between darkness and light, Kitty has a flash of understanding. She suddenly realizes that so long as Karen is serving Israel, she is happy.
The last pages of the novel include one more devastating loss for the characters. Karen’s death is unique in that the characters experience the news as a group. They feel a collective shock and grief for a beautiful and kind soul, but they all handle this shock differently than they have individually in the past. Kitty feels the intense pain of a mother, but she does not become inconsolable, nor does she run from the pain, as she had done when her husband and daughter died. Dov is resolved not to be hardened by the loss and refuses to return to the hate he felt during the war. Karen’s effect on him has been profound, and he honors her by refusing to hate, just as she never could. Ari has the most unexpected reaction to Karen’s death when he breaks down in a flood of tears and emotion. Ari has met every tragedy and death of a loved one with stoicism and silence. But his grief has built up within him and now the years of pent-up sorrow comes pouring out. Ari even shows a brief moment of vulnerability when he begs Kitty to stay. This in turn makes Kitty finally understand she could never leave Israel. The characters’ reactions illustrate how much their experience in Israel has changed them, and how important it has been to them. This is a breakthrough moment for all of them, as each character is freed from the shackles of their own emotional hang-ups. The liberation in this moment is symbolized by the existence of a free State of Israel and the group’s subsequent Passover Seder commemorating the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage.
