Cilka's Journey

Content Warning: This study guide contains depictions of genocide, rape, sexual assault, suicide, and drug addiction.

The symbolism of Hut 29 evolves throughout the novel, just like the women it houses. In the beginning, the hut represents a place of oppression and rape. This is because the men force their way in and take advantage of the women, desecrating the only personal space the women have in the camp. Despite the men’s visits, however, the women’s friendships gradually transform the hut from a place of powerlessness to one of peace, comfort, and relative safety. The women form deep bonds over time and comfort each other in moments of need and suffering, even making fun of the men who rape them so that the men’s visits become less painful and something that must simply be endured. The women also decorate the hut to make it feel more like a home. When Josie Kotecka brings Cilka Klein two spring flowers, Cilka places them in a chipped mug in the hut. Likewise, Olga teaches several women to embroider, and they take the threads from the end of their sheets to make “beautiful doilies which are strung about the hut” (91).