I don't know if the translator mentions the real story behind the book (and the movie), I will do it:Night457 wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:59 am A play on words or double meaning for the names is certainly possible, and authors of novels like to do that. In this case I have to wonder if there is a meaning behind him choosing "Rudi" as an alternate identity, or if he was basically just crazy.
In the book the violation was expressed in metaphorical language, making it clear that she did not understand what had happened to her other than it was frightening and painful. That could be seen as a means for the author to avoid censorship by not writing pornographically. However, the translator's notes indicate this lyricism was a consistent part of the author's style throughout the novel, and expressing this more poetic language was one of the challenges of her translation.
Árvácska is a novel by Zsigmond Móricz. The writer modeled it on his adopted daughter, Erzsébet, nicknamed Csibe. In 1936, Móricz found the 20-year-old immature girl on the Ferenc József Bridge, she was preparing to commit suicide in order to end her unbearable and humiliating life. For years, Csibe told the writer about her childhood, the years she spent in foster care, and the darkest sadistic tortures. The state gives the orphan to peasant parents: they pay eight pengos and give clothes and shoes. Whoever takes her on wants to make money with her: they make her work and starve, her clothes are torn by the farmer's children, she is not allowed to go to school, she is beaten, burned with coals, kicked, and lustful men play with her. She lives worse than animals and her vulnerability provokes the foster parents to more and more serious evil. Móricz wrote the novel in the last period of his life: in 1940.
And a little bit of history: Yad Vashem recognized Erzsébet Móricz-Keresztes and Károly Keresztes (her husband) as Righteous Among the Nations in 1996.
https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/4058228