The first-person narrator of the novel, it is Rifka whose geographical and personal journey drives the plot. Rifka’s character arc is largely defined through her response to hardship; when her geographical journey is hindered, her personal journey advances. By the time she is finally within reach of her promised land of America, her metamorphosis is so profound that it touches those around her, leaving a transfigured world in her path.

She begins the novel feeling mixed fear and excitement as she and her family escape from Berdichev. She writes to Tovah about disliking her brother Saul and generally seems less mature than later in the novel. Rifka also reveals her naïveté when she wastes the family’s entire food budget, entrusted to her, buying a single orange from a dishonest salesman. At the same time, there are early signs that Rifka can act boldly and independently. She keeps her cool on the train platform in Berdichev while soldiers search for her family, for instance.

Rifka’s independence grows significantly, especially when separated from her family while living in Antwerp and later on Ellis Island. She demonstrates keen linguistic skills, picking up Polish, Flemish, and English quickly, in addition to her native Yiddish and Russian; Rifka’s linguistic prowess makes her a point of convergence for different cultures, symbolizing her embrace of others who at first seem different from her, but with whom she then finds a commonality.