96 pages • 3 hours read
Monica HesseGirl in the Blue Coat
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Hanneke returns to Mrs. Janssen’s house to exchange notes. Hanneke notices that Mirjam had been writing the letters “M” and “T” in the dust on jars and marvels at the fact that even while afraid and in mourning, Mirjam’s love for T (presumably Tobias) persisted. Hanneke inspects the back door again and finds that Mirjam could have closed the latch behind her with a garden stake. At least a small part of the mystery of her disappearance thus seems solved.
Chapter 14 Summary
On Friday, Hanneke learns that Tobias hasn’t been in school. She visits Mina, who receives a call from Judith. Judith invites Hanneke to a gathering at Leo’s and suggests that if Hanneke doesn’t come, she will stop extending help. Hanneke sets off to look for Tobias’s father, Dr. Rosen, a dentist, but has no luck. She runs into Christoffel and learns that his father often travels to Den Haag. Impulsively, she asks if his father might deliver a note to Amalia. She carefully inquires after Mirjam and folds the letter in the shape of a star.
Chapter 15 Summary
Hanneke arrives at Leo’s and waits with Willem, Ollie, and Sanne for Judith’s arrival. Everyone grows nervous as time drags on. Finally, she shows up, and reveals that members of the Jewish Council are now being rounded up. Her uncle can no longer protect her. Judith assures everyone that she and Mina both have a plan to go into hiding.
Chapter 16 Summary
Hanneke wakes up on Saturday morning to find her mother “on a cleaning tear” (159). Her mother asks her to organize the paper in her room, using some to light fires and some to line shoes. She finds the same edition of Het Parool that was in Mirjam’s room and has a sudden realization: An ad reads “Elizabeth misses her Margaret, but is glad to be vacationing in Kijkduin” (165). She races out and bikes to Mrs. Janssen’s house, convinced that Mirjam must have gone to follow her friend.
Chapters 13-16 Analysis
In these chapters, the events of the novel speed up, with each chapter now spanning half a day instead of a single conversation. This reflects the increased urgency of locating Mirjam as time passes. Hanneke finds parallels between her life and Mirjam’s everywhere: Mirjam’s friendship with Amalia reminds her of her own with Elsbeth, and her crush on T reminds her of her own relationship with Bas. Still mourning Bas keenly, she comes to believe that even amid war, Mirjam, too, is preoccupied with her first love, highlighting the theme of Conflicts Between Love and Friendship. Her operating theory is in fact that Mirjam has gone to find Tobias, and she searches for the Rosen family tirelessly.
As Hanneke looks for Mirjam, she is increasingly drawn into Ollie’s resistance circle. However, his friends are unwilling to go on helping her if she does not help them. Her proximity to this group continues to open her eyes to the reality that Jewish people, including Mirjam, face, making her task feel all the more urgent. Joining the resistance against the Nazi occupation presents Hanneke with a profound sense of moral ambiguity. On one hand, she is beginning to realize that resisting the occupiers is a moral imperative, a stand against tyranny, injustice, and the horrors of the Holocaust that she has witnessed. On the other hand, she still has doubts about whether this is the right path because it can lead to her own death or imprisonment. Her feelings are highlighted in her assessment of the university students as wasting their time. Everything about the resistance conflicts with her philosophy of survival.
In the novel’s background are characters who choose to prioritize the safety of themselves and their family members by avoiding involvement in resistance. While the novel does not judge these individuals, it does examine the nuances of life under a dictatorship. Many fear the repercussions of resistance, such as execution or the destruction of their homes and communities. While the Netherlands was politically neutral and did not intend to become involved in World War II, the Nazi occupation made it impossible to maintain neutrality as every action (or inaction) could have life-or-death consequences. While Hanneke gravitates toward risking her own safety to help others, the novel emphasizes that in a time of pervasive fear and oppression, focusing on personal survival and protecting loved ones is an understandable choice. This moral tension highlights the complexities of wartime ethics, where the line between heroism and self-preservation blurs, and each decision carries significant consequences.
As a YA novel, Girl in the Blue Coat does not focus too long on abstract moral quandaries; these larger issues are always grounded in the characters’ lived experiences, and the action-centered plot keeps the narrative moving forward. The search for Mirjam takes on the conventions of detective fiction, with Hanneke in the role of amateur detective, balancing the novel’s weightier themes. For instance, when Hanneke finds her own copy of Het Parool, she realizes that she has been pursuing the wrong path. While she thought Amalia might have a good sense of Mirjam’s whereabouts, she never thought that Mirjam might go to her friend. This sudden suspicion leads her to feel the pain of her own break with Elsbeth all the more strongly.
