Character Analysis
Everyone's favorite Good Samaritan helps Jacob out in a time when he's got nothing—he's just been robbed and doesn't even have money to get back home. Not only does Alma call Daan to figure out where Jacob should go, she buys him a coffee and gives him a train ticket as well.
Alma explains the reason behind her kindness to strangers:
But what I wanted to tell you is that though it was awful at the end, we were all in it together. Now it isn't like that. Most of us in your country and mine are well off and comfortable compared with those days, yet we allow it to happen that great numbers of our young people are homeless. (4.75)
Alma's memory of the war is hauntingly beautiful—it was dark and full of death, but it also forced people to unite and help one another. Now she tries to do the same thing for people.
She becomes friends with Jacob and quickly becomes a sounding board for our main guy. He confides in her and shares his secret crush on Anne Frank with the old gal, and Alma is never anything but polite and generous with him, even when she's got no reason to be. She singlehandedly turns his trip around from depressing to enjoyable.