Hannah’s exact reaction to the dress Gitl gives her in Chapter Six of The Devil’s Arithmetic is to say that it “is a shmatte.” This is a Yiddish word that means “rag.” Therefore, Hannah absolutely despises the dress and thinks it is “the ugliest thing” she has ever seen. The context of the situation is that Gitl is dressing Hannah for a wedding and wants her to look nice. As a result, Gitl lets Hannah wear the same dress that Gitl wore for Shmuel’s Bar Mitzvah. It is a blue sailor-suit with a huge collar, piping that is white, and a sash. The reason why Hannah has to wear this particular dress to the wedding is that her own clothes were burned due to a previous sickness when she lived in Lublin. When Hannah shows her disgust to Gitl, Gitl gets angry with Hannah. Hannah is hurt by this severe scolding, and Gitl ends up saying she is sorry for the harshness she exhibited.
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