89 pages 2 hours read

Monica Hesse

Girl in the Blue Coat

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

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Symbols & Motifs

Fault

In the Prologue, Hanneke relays a memory where Bas playfully told her it was “her fault” that he had fallen in love with her. The idea of fault becomes charged as the text progresses. She believes that Bas’s death is also her fault, and this idea haunts her, making her feel unworthy of joining the resistance with Ollie.

When Ollie reveals that Bas made his own decisions, Hanneke feels partially absolved of fault. However, it isn’t until she hears Mirjam forgive Amalia that she realizes the question of “fault” during wartime is incredibly complicated, and that she should not bear the burden of it. She finally realizes, “We were wrapped up in things that were so much bigger than ourselves. We didn’t know. We didn’t mean it. It wasn’t our fault” (298).

Photography

Mina’s small act of rebellion in taking photographs has serious consequences. She intends photographs to be a record of her country’s occupation and the atrocities committed by Nazis. When Hanneke sees them for the first time, she is able to grasp that the events they document are not just historical, but present tense.

Because they are such accurate historical documents, they also come with a substantial risk, and when she leaves her camera behind her in the theater, her photos put her

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By Monica Hesse