Analysis When Werner first sees the passing train full of prisoners, he thinks that prisoners are sitting and leaning against piles of sacks. Then he realizes those sacks are human corpses. The sight shocks him, and he incredulously asks Neumann Two if the prisoners are sitting on their dead. Neumann […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART SEVEN: August 1942 “Prisoners” to “Fall”Summary and Analysis PART SIX: 8 August 1944
Summary Marie-Laure hears a stranger enter her house. She recognizes the sound of his limp; she first met von Rumpel when he followed her to the grotto, but the narrative does not reveal that first encounter until Part Nine. She climbs to the sixth floor and then into the attic […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART SIX: 8 August 1944Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “Orders” to “Relapse”
Analysis Werner’s orders to join the war front are more proof that he doesn’t seem (at least in his own mind) to have control over his life. If he doesn’t obey the orders, he will be punished like Frederick—and his visit to Frederick makes this choice seem impossible. Not only […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “Orders” to “Relapse”Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “No Out” to “The Frog Cooks”
Analysis When Hauptmann refuses to allow Werner to leave Schulpforta, Werner realizes just how much he has lost control over the course of his life. Werner now has only two choices: to continue doing what he is told, or to refuse like Frederick and be punished accordingly. In a heavily […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “No Out” to “The Frog Cooks”Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “Old Ladies’ Resistance Club” to “Alive Before You Die”
Analysis While Werner is wrestling with his feelings of helplessness at Schulpforta, he remembers one of the lines from the French professor’s radio shows from his youth: “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” This call to awareness and action is an important […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “Old Ladies’ Resistance Club” to “Alive Before You Die”Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “Lapidary” to “You Have Other Friends”
Analysis The conversation between Madame Manec and the other French women about the German occupation reveals the power that ordinary citizens have to support or undermine an oppressive regime. As Madame Manec points out to the others, “We’re the ones who make their world run.” By simply continuing to do […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “Lapidary” to “You Have Other Friends”Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “January Recess” to “Plage du Mole”
Analysis A brief glimpse into the Nazis’ mistreatment of Jews occurs when Werner and Frederick meet Frederick’s neighbor Frau Schwartzenberger, a woman with a yellow Star of David stitched onto her coat to indicate her Semitic heritage. Werner later hears Frederick’s mother telling her friends about “the Schwartzenberger crone” who […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART FIVE: January 1941 “January Recess” to “Plage du Mole”Summary and Analysis PART FOUR: 8 August 1944
Summary In 1944, von Rumpel learns where Etienne’s house is located. After waiting out the worst of the Allied shelling, he crosses the abandoned city and enters the house. Trapped underneath the hotel, Werner and Volkheimer try to think of a way out. They consider using one of their grenades […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART FOUR: 8 August 1944Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “The Wardrobe” to “The Arrest of the Locksmith”
Summary Etienne emerges from his room and learns about the confiscation of the radios. Marie-Laure explains her choice regarding the radio still in the attic. Initially, he wants to surrender it to the Germans, but Marie-Laure convinces him it is too late. Paranoid that Nazis might search the house and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “The Wardrobe” to “The Arrest of the Locksmith”Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “Time of the Ostriches” to “Museum”
Summary Marie-Laure’s father works urgently on a model of Saint-Malo for Marie-Laure as conditions intensify in the city. French citizens are ordered to surrender their radios; because Etienne stays shut up in his room, Madame Manec and Marie-Laure’s father gather the house’s many radios and turn them over to the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “Time of the Ostriches” to “Museum”