The Winged Watchman

“He could not even imagine what it would be like when the war was over. He’d got used to the regular drone of English bombers on their way to Berlin, and to the exploding shells of antiaircraft guns. He’d got used to the feel of danger, always threatening. These things were part of his life, like hail and thunder.”

Although Dirk Jan is old enough to recall how plentiful everything was before the war, Joris cannot imagine it, as he was only six when the Germans invaded. Things that are familiar to him—planes, bombs, guns, and danger—are the antithesis of a joyous and innocent childhood. For him, however, the impact of war is so absolute that Joris uses a simile to suggest that these dangers are as normal as the weather.

“She bustled about, tending to her wounded warrior, while she listened to his tale.”

When Joris returns home after saving the puppy, his mother tends to his cuts and bruises. By calling him a “wounded warrior,” she compares him to a soldier, and this scene thus foreshadows his later role in resisting the Germans and exhibiting Children’s Ability to Enact Change.

“You women always judge people by what they do in church. I judge them by what they do outside. Farmer Schenderhans is getting rich in the black market.”

When Mother expresses her shock that a Catholic family could raise a boy to become a landwatcher and spy on his own community, friends, and family, Father makes this vehement response, which suggests that people are not always what they seem. Just because someone goes to church does not mean that they are good. This comment also sets the tone for the gray areas of morality that arise during war.