Rachel comes from a Jewish family who had from one European country to another before finally arriving on the island of St. Thomas. While her family is traditional, she consistently fights against societal and familial expectations. Even as a young girl, Rachel would rather have spent her time in her father’s library than helping her mother with domestic chores. When she’s older, she chooses to be outcast from the Jewish community rather than give up the love of her life, Frédéric. She can thus best be characterized as strong willed and defiant. However, she would describe herself as a striver, “the sort of person to do my best no matter the situation” (36). Her self-determination and desire to make the best of things is apparent throughout the novel: she commits to her arranged marriage, she raises her children and step-children with a deep love, and she takes being ostracized from the congregation with a grain of salt. 

Rachel is a dynamic character who changes dramatically by the end of the novel. In the beginning, Rachel doesn’t believe in love; this is why she is okay with the arranged marriage to Isaac. She believes that marriage can be a business arrangement and nothing more.