How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was on my way back when I heard the planes and saw the parachutes. "Oh look!" I called out, though there was nobody to hear me. "Look! How beautiful!" And then I raced for home, saying to myself over and over again, "The Tommies have come! The Tommies have come! Liberation! Liberation!" (2.7)
Our first description of war is actually of it being over—or, what Geertrui thinks will be the end of the war anyway. Too bad for her, things are just heating up where she lives. The novel constantly hints at the end of the war, making the death that war brings that much more heartbreaking when we experience it.
Quote #2
Somehow, I suppose, till that moment, the war, the fighting, had been outside, separate from us. Now suddenly it was happening right inside our home. (2.28)
This is a huge moment for Geertrui, because it's arguably when she grows up. She's no longer an innocent kid, ignorant of the war going on around her—now she's seeing bloody soldiers and death right in her own living room, and growing up as a result.
Quote #3
"Now we know what war means," said Mother. (2.60)
For Geertrui's family, the war really hits home when, well, it hits home. When their home is destroyed, they don't know how to move past the war, because it's all around them, killing people and things they've cared about their whole lives.
Quote #4
"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. The question is: which is better—a selfish, peaceful society, like the modern one, or a united, war-torn world like back in the day?
Quote #5
I think this was the moment when I knew for sure that, after all, we had not been liberated but would soon once more be in the hands of the German invaders. And for the first time that week I was truly afraid. So afraid that my legs felt too weak to carry me and my hands trembled uncontrollably. I wanted to scream but could not utter a sound. My stomach tightened in a knot, yet I wanted to rush to the lavatory. (5.57)
The novel doesn't just tell us the consequences of war for the entire community—it makes it personal. Very personal. Geertrui feels sick over what's happening, but she's got no choice but to deal with it.
Quote #6
"Rotten luck!" I shouted. "How can you say that? This is not rotten luck! This is because of fighting. Because of war. Rotten war! I hate it! I hate all of it! I hate those who have done this! How dare they! How dare they!" (5.70)
When Jacob must stay behind from the men, he thinks it's just bad luck, but Geertrui knows better. Here's the thing, though: later on, she changes her tune. She tells us she thinks a lot of her survival was just down to luck, not anything else. War changes her whether she likes it or not.
Quote #7
Whatever happened now, at least I was making an effort to take charge of my own life and not giving myself in to the hands of our enemy. I have never been as religious as my parents, but such times bring back the old words. (7.59)
It's not uncommon for people to get religious when they confront death or war, but Geertrui thinks about this in a unique way. She finds comfort in the practice of reciting religious words, whether she believes them or not—for her, it's more about taking charge for herself than letting her parents decide everything for her.
Quote #8
"And besides, Dad has never been happy about the way Sarah idolizes Jacob—that's what he calls it—and romanticizes—his word again—their three years of marriage. He says it's unhealthy. No relationship, he says, is ever as perfect as Sarah makes out hers was with Grandfather, no matter how much the two people are in love. I wouldn't know." (12.37)
We get why Sarah only praises Jacob—he's a war hero and it's easy to remember things more perfect than they actually were. Yet the book doesn't let us get away with thinking the same thing—Jacob's dad and Geertrui's memoir make sure of it.
Quote #9
Young Geordie and myself were warned to get ready. As we had not been in the battalion long, we were designated as bomb carriers and were given the harness with six ten-pound [4.5 kgs] mortar bombs to cart into action. We were issued with Dutch occupation money, maps, escape saws, forty rounds of .303 rifle ammo, two .36 grenades, an anti-tank grenade, a phosphorus bomb, and a pick and shovel, as well as the rifles we already had. (14.11)
Private Sims's account of war is a real-life memoir from what happened during the battle of Arnhem. It gives the book a sense of realism, like we're really witnessing the war in front of us, as it happens—it makes us think about what it was like for the soldiers who fought when they were fighting, not afterwards.
Quote #10
"Besides, all war is horrible, dreadful, I don't like to hear about it. And that war, Hitler's war, is still so much talked about here in the Netherlands, on and on, almost as if it only ended yesterday. I wish people would stop. So much pain, why do we go on remembering it so much? It would be better if we forgot. But people say, no, we must always remember so that nothing like it ever happens again. To which I ask, when has the human race ever forgotten about their wars, and how much has that prevented another being fought?" (14.56)
Tessel might ask Jacob this, but we (the audience) are being asked to think about it too. Is it important to remember war? Does doing so keep us from fighting again? We'd like to think it does, but look around the world—there has been plenty of war since WWII ended. Does that mean Tessel is right?