The Winged Watchman

Dirk Jan, Joris’s older brother, also demonstrates a genuine desire to do good deeds and show kindness to others. After he and Joris aid Reina on the road, they check on her to ensure that she is well. Their feelings of responsibility suggest that their kindness is not strategic or performative; instead, it comes from a place of genuine concern. This instinct to help others emerges again when Dirk Jan journeys to Leyden. Disconcerted by the number of starving citizens roaming the countryside, he is struck by a lone boy with a nosebleed, and instead of just walking past, Dirk Jan tells the boy, “I’m going to Leyden. I’ll bring you to some kind people there where you can rest until you are strong enough to go back to the Hague” (117). In addition to giving the boy food and drink, Dirk Jan transports him to a safe place where he can recover. His propensity toward kindness is clearly one of his defining traits, as he goes out of his way to help another person despite the urgency of his own task.

Dirk Jan also shows the prevalence of Children’s Ability to Enact Change amid this turbulent time, as he aids the Underground’s plans by acting as a courier and helping with the weapons drop. Although he is older than Joris, Dirk Jan is still a child, and Uncle Cor trusts him to support the Underground by delivering a message. Father also holds a high opinion of Dirk Jan’s capabilities. As Father tells Cor, “Dirk Jan is old enough, and he has a lot of sense. He can do that for you” (109). Not only does Father believe that Dirk is capable of the task, but the boy is also excited at the prospect of helping to resist the Germans. The next day, he treks to Leyden to deliver a coded message about moving the location of the weapons drop. He even outwits German guards to enter the windmill and works to send a covert message. Because Dirk Jan is a child, the Nazis never suspect that he is working against their interests. Later, the boy also helps gather and store weapons, and his actions show that children can be agents of change in difficult times.

As a boy who chooses to collaborate directly with the Germans and spy on his friends, family, and neighbors, Leendert takes on an antagonistic role within the plot. In his first appearance, he treats his own family with disrespect, arrogantly telling his father, “You’d better mind how you talk to me, Pa […] I was made a landwatcher today” (10). Because he willingly works for the Nazis, Leendert represents everything that many Dutch citizens detest, specifically the Germans’ condescension and disrespectful behavior. Everyone present bristles at Leendert’s words, and their reaction shows that their allegiance does not lie with the Germans. Furthermore, when the Poot family and the British pilots are captured despite their use of an ingenious hiding place, everyone realizes that “the Schenderhans family’s farm [i]s the only place from which the prisoners could have been observed […] and […] it [i]s not difficult to guess where the Germans had got their information” (33). This passage indicates that Leendert is the one who reported the Poots, and his willing complicity with the Nazis emphasizes his role as a misguided and malicious antagonist in the story.

Fueling this role is Leendert’s lack of compassion and his desire for power, which render him a foil to Joris and Dirk Jan. For example, when citizens present their dogs to the Germans, most are devastated, such as a farmer who “part[s] from his sturdy bulldog with such grief that even the German officers [have] tears in their eyes” (88). By contrast, Leendert gleefully delivers his brother’s beloved dog, Nero, into German hands, and he also argues that the Verhagens are not faithfully bringing their own dog in. Most people, even the German soldiers, understand that these pets are family, but Leendert lacks any compassion and even goes so far as to treat his own family with disdain. When Leendert announces his position as a landwatcher, he threatens his father, declaring, “I can have you arrested, you know, if I tell about your black market activities” (10). Leendert’s callous attitude toward his own father represents the coldhearted methods of the Germans and exposes his own selfishness and greed, making it clear that he cares only about the power he now wields. In fact, the day he receives his uniform, he revels that “now he ha[s] power; now he c[an] show the talents he possesse[s]. Let everyone beware!” (16). Leendert’s focus is not on trying to do the right thing. Instead, he relishes his authority and does not care that he hurts people in the process of wielding that power. Everything Leendert says and does runs counter to the kindness of the Verhagen boys, as his actions are malicious and selfish.

Like their sons, Mr. and Mrs. Verhagen are symbols of kindness and compassion, and their actions always reflect The Importance of Making Ethical Choices. When the boys share that they have given food to a British pilot, their parents do not chastise them; instead, they are “excited and interested” and show their pleasure at the thought “that their sons had helped Charles” (64), the fugitive British pilot. Their reaction exemplifies their support of the Underground, especially when their only concern is that the boys should have shared this information sooner so that the adults could help Charles as well. As they declare, “We must think of a way to smuggle Charles King over the border, into the Allied camps” (64). Their desire to help people in need despite the danger mirrors the boys’ own selflessness and compassion. Given their willingness to care for Trixie as their own daughter, it is clear that they are fully dedicated to helping their friends and neighbors survive the occupation. In addition to helping Trixie, they also care for Koba and Betsy and offer refuge to Hildebrand, an escaped prisoner, jeopardizing their own lives to save others.

Furthermore, the author uses the Verhagens’ observations to provide valuable insights about the complexities of morality. When Mother balks at Leendert’s role as a landwatcher because the Schenderhans are church-going people, Father notes, “You […] 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” (14-15). By Father’s logic, simply going to church does not make a person moral. His words suggest that a person should behave in an ethical way no matter what their current social situation might be. 

Mother also delivers lessons on ethics, as when she lies to Leendert to keep Koba and Betsy safe and then explains to Joris that her deception is moral. She says, “You are right to hate lies, my dear. But remember that truth itself becomes a lie in the twisted minds of […] conquerors” (99). Although she does concede to viewing lying is a sin, she explains that when the Germans twist the truth into something dangerous, lying to save lives thus becomes a moral counter to this evil. Her words convey the difficult lesson that morality is not always clear-cut.

Uncle Cor is a kind man who loves his family, but he is also secretly the nationally revered Underground leader Kees Kip, and he is eventually killed in pursuit of his resistance activities against the German occupation. When Father Kobus visits after Cor’s death, the priest says that Cor “spoke beautifully of his love for [his] family. He said what whenever he felt discouraged, his visits here renewed and refreshed him” (175). Uncle Cor’s affection for his family is evident on multiple occasions, as when he dresses as St. Nicholas and brings gifts for the children. Father Kobus also references scripture when speaking of Cor’s death, invoking the famous line “Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends” (175). The priest’s words exemplify Cor’s role as a kind family member and a dedicated Dutch citizen who did everything in his power to free his people from German rule. These words emphasize that Cor’s entire life exemplifies The Importance of Making Ethical Choices, as he sacrificed his own life to save others, engaging in an act of martyrdom.