Entrapment

Through Ana's succession of shifting narrative settings, the author explores the impact of entrapment on the individual's mind, heart, spirit, and sense of self. While growing up in Sepphoris, Ana feels confined by the expectations of her familial and religious customs. When she is just 14 years old, Ana's parents arrange her betrothal to the cruel and undesirable Nathaniel ben Hananiah. Despite her defiant attempts to refuse the betrothal, she soon realizes she has no choice but to comply. In Chapter VI of "Sepphoris 16 - 17 CE," Ana says, "I felt the weight of...being locked away in a future I didn't know how to bear" (46). As a young Jewish woman, Ana is expected to marry and bear children; her life and future are defined by confinement. Once she leaves the limitations of her parental home, she will enter the limitations of her husband's home and sphere.

At...