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.
Symbols & Motifs
Bas’s Letter
Content warning: The guide contains discussions of antisemitism, the Holocaust, starvation, and violence that appear in the source text.
Bas’s letter is a symbol for guilt Hanneke feels that leads her to blame herself for his death. It also represents the other forms of blame and guilt in the novel, such as the events of the war. For Hanneke, the letter represents her desire to control unfortunate events and preserve her psychological coping mechanisms.
The importance of assigning blame becomes charged as the text progresses. In the Prologue, Hanneke relays a memory where Bas playfully told her it was “her fault” that he had fallen in love with her. 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. She continually refers to the letter she destroyed and feels additional guilt because she believes she robbed Bas’s family of his last words.
When Ollie reveals that Bas made his own decisions and shows her his own letter, Hanneke feels partially absolved of her guilt. However, it isn’t until she hears Mirjam forgive Amalia that she realizes the question of blame 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). Letting go of the need or ability to assign blame means accepting that the war’s events are outside of the characters’ control and do not have a simple explanation.
Mina’s Camera
Mina’s camera stands for the importance of photography and bearing witness throughout the novel. Photography symbolizes the capture of moments, freezing time to preserve memories and emotions. It represents reality and truth, yet also subjectivity, as each photograph reflects the perspective of the photographer. Mina’s act of rebellion in taking photographs reflects this symbolism and has serious consequences, given her historical moment. She intends her 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. In this way, Mina’s photography bridges the past and present, allowing the characters to connect with history through their own points of view.
The act of taking a photograph can also symbolize the need or desire to take control over fleeting experiences or turn transient events into permanent, tangible records. Because they are such accurate historical documents, they also come with substantial risk, and when Mina leaves her camera behind her in the theater, her photos put her resistance network in danger. One of the most powerful aspects of photography is its use as a tool of observation and scrutiny, revealing details that often go unnoticed. The importance of photography in the novel is emphasized by the lengths that Mrs. de Vries goes to to develop Mina’s rare color film. It reinforces the idea that Mina’s camera is a powerful and, at the same time, dangerous weapon of resistance.
The Black Market
The rise of black markets in wartime symbolizes the undercurrents of human resilience and survival amidst chaos. It represents defiance against oppressive regimes and harsh wartime economies, illustrating the lengths to which individuals go to secure essentials. In the novel, the black market serves many narrative and thematic purposes. Mainly, it appears as a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation and of reaffirming the beauty and joy of life. Buying and selling black market goods might seem like a small act, but in asking for sausage, beauty products, or cigarettes, the citizens of Amsterdam put their personal desires above the demands of the Nazi occupants.
The clandestine nature of the black market reflects the breakdown of official order and The Necessity and Danger of Keeping Secrets. It also highlights moral ambiguities, as those involved navigate the fine line between necessity and exploitation. Trading in black market goods feels like a way to survive to Hanneke, but it also gives her the necessary skills to evade German soldiers and begin to resist more actively. Ultimately, the black market symbolizes both ingenuity and the moral compromises made in times of extreme hardship.
