How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph), (Chapter.Figure)
Quote #7
Nina Petrovna rises, walks to where the group photograph of our class hangs on the wall, and blackens Four-Eyes's face with her ink pen. That's what we always do to the pictures of enemies of the people, and it usually feels good, but not this time. (22.2)
Scratching out photographs—it's not just for when your Aunt Tilda wants to get rid of her ex-husband's ugly mug in family albums. It also has a darker use. Blacking out the faces in the group photographs here is a way to symbolically erase all foreign and suspect influences from the rest of the group. It parallels the way that people are physically erased from the group (by being imprisoned or executed).
Quote #8
"You should know, children, that Sobakin's father was executed as an enemy of the people," says Nina Petrovna. "Does it explain his hideous anti-Soviet behavior and the likely fact he was conspiring with Finkelstein? What do you think, children?" (22.11)
Can you say, "Guilt by association?" Because both of these boys are foreign (Four-Eyes is Jewish) or "other" (Vovka is the son of a criminal), they then must be working together on heinous projects, right? Seems logical… in no way whatsoever.
Quote #9
"Boys, boys, you don't know what's good for you," [Sergei Ivanych] says. "Finally, we got rid of that Jew, Finkelstein. That might have satisfied the authorities for a while. But no, you had to get in trouble." (23.18)
It's all about the scapegoating here. The principal here would have been perfectly happy to get rid of "that Jew" to keep the authorities from breathing down his neck for a while—whether or not Four-Eyes has actually done anything wrong (and we know he did not).