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.
Prologue-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Content warning: The guide contains discussions of antisemitism, the Holocaust, starvation, and violence that appear in the source text.
The narrator, Hanneke, remembers the first time her deceased boyfriend, Sebastian (Bas) Van de Kamp, told her he loved her: “It’s your fault […] Because you’re lovable” (1). She regrets not saying “I love you” back and remarks that she would have if she’d known all she “would find out about love and war” (2). She blames herself for failing to tell him her true feelings at that moment.
Chapter 1 Summary
Chapter 1 begins on a Tuesday in January 1943. Hanneke Bakker encounters a soldier and writes that she stops because “the soldier’s face is young and pretty,” and he might make a good romantic prospect (5). But she quickly amends her statement, writing “that’s a lie” (5). She explains that she prefers to pretend she has a choice than to acknowledge her reality: As a citizen of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, she has to stop for soldiers. She then flirts with the soldier to distract him from the illicit goods in her bicycle basket. Hanneke explains that while “most would say [she trades] in the black market,” she thinks of herself “as a finder” (8). She delivers a lipstick to Miss Akkermann and avoids her invitation to stay for lunch. Her next client, Mrs. Janssen, asks her to stay for coffee—out of sympathy for her deceased sons and missing husband, she stays. Mrs. Janssen asks her to help find a Jewish girl whom her husband was hiding.
Chapter 2 Summary
Hanneke continues her conversation with Mrs. Janssen, who reveals that her husband, Hendrick, built a secret room for her business partner, David Roodveldt, to hide in with his wife and two daughters. He never told Mrs. Janssen, and she discovered the truth only when David’s daughter, Mirjam Roodveldt, arrived at her door. Nazis found the hiding place and killed her parents, her sister, and Hendrick. Mirjam stayed with Mrs. Janssen for three weeks until she suddenly disappeared. Hanneke weighs helping to locate Mirjam, noting that doing so conflicts with her new motto, “survival first” (25). As she contemplates, Mrs. Janssen’s errand boy, Christoffel, arrives to pick up an opklabed (folding bed) that she is selling so that she can pay Hanneke.
Prologue-Chapter 2 Analysis
These chapters introduce Hanneke Bakker as a bright, cynical girl, hardened by the loss of her first love, Bas, and the Nazi occupation of her city. This sets up the point of departure for her character arc around the theme of Personal Transformation During Wartime. Written in first person, these chapters reveal Hanneke’s state of mind. When she recalls Bas’s playful statement that she is at fault for “making” him love her, it reminds her of her greater sense that she is at fault not only for failing to return the sentiment but also for causing his death. Although it is not revealed where this sense of guilt stems from, it shapes Hanneke’s actions in these pages, as well as her new life motto, “survival first, survival only” (25). The repetition of “survival” in her motto establishes the novel’s high stakes and the reality of living under a fascist dictatorship.
In her encounters with Nazi soldiers as well as her customers, Hanneke shows herself to be adept at manipulating others, introducing another main theme in the novel, The Necessity and Danger of Keeping Secrets. She flirts with a soldier, pretending to be more naïve than she is. She tells her customers that she must eat with her parents, using her supposed filial piety to avoid invitations, even though she has other black-market errands to run. Her goal is avoiding detection—but also unnecessary intimacy. It is suggested that this cold-hearted attitude toward the world is a response to the loss of Bas and the tremendous guilt she feels. Therefore, when Mrs. Janssen asks her to find a lost Jewish girl, her immediate response is to reject a task that is not only dangerous but also possibly foolhardy. Hanneke writes, “People disappear into thin air every day during this occupation […] How can she expect me to find just one?” (28). However, there are some hints in this section at Hanneke’s continuing sympathy for her customers and countrymen; it is Mrs. Janssen’s loss that convinces Hanneke to sit down for coffee in the first place. When she pleads with Hanneke that both she and Mirjam need each other as they have both lost their families, Hanneke begins to seriously contemplate the task.
The novel’s opening exemplifies the conventions of Young Adult (YA) novels set during World War II. This relatively new subgenre of YA fiction has its roots in real-life accounts like The Diary of Anne Frank. It offers a unique perspective on the historical events of the era, which are usually told from adults’ points of view. Novels like Girl in the Blue Coat, on the other hand, focus on the experiences of young people amid the turmoil. These novels blend historical accuracy with compelling narratives, making the past accessible and relatable to modern readers. They accomplish this by crafting characters who deal with the same coming-of-age issues as readers who may not have experience in wartime events but can relate to the characters’ emotional and personal journeys. Through characters like Hanneke, they explore themes of bravery, resilience, loss, and the complexities of morality during wartime.
