Hode

Hode, called Hode the Russian by the women of Polotzk, is the great-aunt of Mary Antin and the sister of the narrator's grandmother. She is a figure of striking contradiction: a woman of great wealth and unconventional habits who lives in a society that strictly defines a woman's role. Her story, as recalled by Mary, is one of restless travel, lavish generosity, and a deep, unfulfilled longing for a child of her own, a longing that ultimately shapes the destiny of the narrator's mother, Hannah Hayye.

Identity and Background

Hode's most defining characteristic is her deviation from the expected norms of Jewish womanhood in the Pale of Settlement. While the ideal for a woman was to be a wife and mother, Hode married a fiddler who travelled constantly, playing at hotels and inns throughout "far Russia." Having no children, she was expected by society to spend her days in fasting, praying, and lamenting her childless state. Instead, she chose to accompany her husband on his travels, finding genuine enjoyment in the excitement and variety of their restless life. This choice was seen as a voluntary exile from Jewish society, and she was blamed for living among "pork-eaters" and copying the bold ways of Gentile women. Her conduct was not strictly orthodox; she was in the habit of shaking hands with men, looking them straight in the face, spoke Russian like a Gentile, and kept a poodle. Despite this, she remained so pious that she would never eat trefah, even if it meant going hungry.

Life and Wealth in Polotzk

After her nephew, the narrator's grandfather Raphael, settled in Polotzk, Hode bought a fine estate there and made it her home whenever she tired of travelling. She lived in state, with many servants and dependents, wearing silk dresses on weekdays and setting silver plate before the meanest guest. The women of Polotzk were breathless over her wardrobe, counting up how many pairs of embroidered boots she had, at fifteen rubles a pair. Her manners were as much a subject of gossip as her clothes, for she had picked up strange ways in her travels. Though the town pitied her for being childless, it was well known that she would have given all her wealth for one scrawny baby. Yet, her misfortune was regarded by some as no more than a due punishment for her unconventional ways.

Relationship with Hannah Hayye and the Secret Plan

Hode felt a hungry heart beneath her satin robes and wanted to adopt one of her sister's children, but the grandmother would not hear of it. Hode was particularly taken with her niece, Hannah Hayye, and the grandmother, in compassion, loaned her the child for days at a time. These were happy days for both aunt and niece, as Hode would treat her mother to every delicacy in her sumptuous pantry, tell her wonderful tales of life in distant parts, show her all her beautiful dresses and jewels, and load her with presents. As Hannah Hayye developed into girlhood, her aunt grew more and more covetous of her. Following a secret plan, Hode adopted a boy from the poorhouse and brought him up with every advantage that money could buy. She threw her niece into the boy's society, hoping she would marry her adopted son and so become her daughter after all. To accustom her to the match, Hode would open her jewel boxes and take out flashing diamonds, heavy chains, and tinkling bracelets, dress her niece in them in front of the mirror, telling her that they would all be hers when she became the bride of Mulke. The narrator's mother still describes the necklace of pearls and diamonds which her aunt used to clasp around her plump throat, with a light in her eyes that is reminiscent of girlish pleasure. However, Hannah Hayye liked the boy less than the poodle, and when the momentous hour came to choose between the pearl necklace with Mulke and a penniless stranger from Yuchovitch, she chose the stranger, dooming Hode's plan.

Narrative Role and Significance

Hode's significance extends beyond her own story. Her unconventional conduct afforded her nephew, Raphael, the opening for his career. For several years, he travelled in Hode's train, in the capacity of a shohat, providing kosher meat for the little troupe in the unholy wilds of "far Russia." The grateful couple rewarded him so generously that he soon had a fortune of eighty rubles laid by, which he used to open a store in Polotzk, a decision that made the narrator's childhood pleasant. Hode thus stands as a catalyst for the family's rise from poverty, a figure whose defiance of social norms indirectly created the prosperity that would later be lost and regained in America. She embodies a world of possibility and wealth that contrasts sharply with the narrator's own experiences of poverty in the Pale and the cramped tenements of Boston's Wheeler Street, where families cooked, washed, and ate in miserable flats with no room for a common life. Her memory serves as a reminder of a more opulent past, a world of silk dresses and silver plate, that the family left behind in their journey to the New World.