A Night Divided Summary and Analysis PDF

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A Night Divided Summary and Analysis...

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A Night Divided Summary and Analysis

Overview An ILA-CBC Children’s Choices Reading List Selection, A Night Divided, by Jennifer A. Nielsen, dramatizes the experiences of the division of Germany after WWII and tells a tale of family separation from a child’s perspective. The novel explores the effects of repressive government on intimate relationships as the main character, Gerta, watches friendships and partnerships dissolve as a result of the Cold War. It is a story of individual heroism and family devotion. At the start of the novel, Gerta is fairly unaware of the political challenges she and her family face. Her father has a history of government critique but has been careful to hide this from his children. Still traumatized by WWII, Gerta’s mother wants nothing to do with dissidents or protesting and desires only to keep her family clothed, fed, and safe. All this changes, however, when the Berlin Wall is erected overnight, while Greta, her family, and the rest of Germany sleeps. Because he has been seeking employment in West Berlin, Gerta’s father is permanently separated from them, now a denizen of another world. Her brother, Dominic, who had accompanied her father over to West Germany, is also lost to them. Gerta, her mother, and her older brother, Fritz, are now barracked into their communist half of the nation. They cannot communicate with Gerta’s father or Dominic, and cannot receive monetary support or unadulterated letters. They have to begin living their lives with the new menacing partition of the wall splitting their family in half. Neither Fritz nor Gerta are followers by nature. Fritz craves the amenities available in West Berlin—the Beatles albums, the Coca Cola, the right to dress as he pleases. Gerta does poorly at disguising her irritation during the indoctrination rituals at school and mandated Pioneer Club. But what sparks their rebellion is a sighting of other members of their family. First, Gerta spies a glimpse of her brother, Dominic, on the other side of the wall. Though she is told by watch tower guards to stop looking over there, to West Germany, a few days later, she sees her father, who begins doing a dance and mouthing the lyrics to a song she used to sing her. She realizes this is a message and that the word he leaves off on is pivotal. That word is “dig.” Following a map delivered to her by her friend, Anna, Gerta locates a building under which she

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and Fritz can tunnel to get to West Berlin. The process, however, is fraught with difficulty. Snooping neighbors and roaming guards are always nearby, forcing the siblings to pretend to innocently be working a garden while really working hard to tunnel to freedom. When Anna’s older brother, Peter, dies while trying to get across to the West, the government forces Anna to become a spy and she, too, tries to interrupt their progress. After countless obstacles, a military conscription for Fritz, a work demotion for Gerta’s mother, and connections with some unlikely allies, Gerta and her family are finally reunited. By the novel’s end, Gerta has gained a newfound appreciation for freedom of speech and expression and a tangible sense of what heroism looks like in the real world.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses Chapters 1-10 Chapter 1 Summary Gerta, a resident of East Germany, wakes up on Sunday, August 13, 1961 to a sudden, shocking surprise: sirens are screaming overheard and the grenzers, the guards in the city, are out patrolling. To the horror of Gerta and her family, “a prison had been built around them as they slept” (1). Gerta wonders how she managed to sleep through the construction of the new massive wall that separates the East from the West in their city and nation. She recalls the warning her teacher shared with their class, that “we might salute the flag of East Germany but it was really Russia we bowed to” (2). With a pang of horror, Gerta recalls that her father and her brother Dominic are in West Berlin, and that they were supposed to be returning in two days. Now, however, with this new wall erected, Gerta doesn’t know how they will get home. Gerta finds her mother sobbing in her older brother Fritz’s arms. It is clear to Gerta that “nothing [will] ever be the same again” (3).

Chapter 2 Summary Even as Gerta is trying to process what has happened to her home and to her family, she is temporarily lost in memories. She recalls a night recently when a neighbor came to their door. Herr Krause is a “bit odd” and according to Gerta’s mother “definitely should’ve been arrested” after the war (5). Herr Krause and Gerta’s father get along well though, as both are treated with extreme suspicion by the Stasi, the secret police. Both are labeled as dissidents, as dangerous question askers. Though Gerta’s mother only lets this neighbor in with great reluctance, he carries a warning and important information. Herr Krause strongly suspects that soon no one will be allowed to leave East for the West. Herr Krause says that Gerta and her family have to try get to West Germany while it’s still possible to do so. Gerta’s mother pushes back against this warning. She reminds Herr Krause and her husband, whose interest is piqued, that she has an invalid mother she cares for. Their children attend school in East Germany. More than anything, Gerta’s mother refuses to live in poverty, in a refugee camp. As she exclaims to her husband and neighbor: “I won’t bring my children into a camp. We’re not beggars!” (9).

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Yet despite this clear fear of returning to the reduced living conditions that she endured during the war, Gerta’s mother agrees to let Gerta’s father travel to the West for a few days. While he is there, he will look for an apartment for his family and try and go on some job interviews. Gerta’s mother suggests that her husband “bring one of the children […] so employers know [he has] a family to support” (9). Gerta’s father chooses Dominic, the younger son, much to the chagrin of Fritz, the eldest, and Gerta, who would also both like to go with their father. When it’s time for Dominic and Gerta’s father to leave, he is merry, singing and kissing his family. He promises Gerta that he will see her again soon. But with the construction of the wall, Gerta wonders when she will see Dominic and her father again.

Chapter 3 Summary Residents become desperate to get out of East Germany and Fritz and Gerta hope that their mother will be among those protesting or attempting an escape. The attempted escapes they witness, though, are traumatic and terrible. Those dwelling in an apartment nearest to the wall attempt to jump over the wall to get to the West. The government quickly begins bricking up all the exits of this particular apartment building so those inside cannot get out of the East. Despite this, some still try to escape. One woman “threw down a mattress and all her bedding from the third floor” as the police banged on her door to drag her out. But when she leapt out, “the cushions weren’t enough for the hard concrete below” (15). After this disturbing event, Fritz warns Gerta to expect more horrors and more deaths, including those of children, as people try to get out of East Germany. Gerta hopes for resistance but instead, at school, her teacher teaches the class “a new song that thanked our leaders for building a wall” (15). Thinking of her father and brother on the other side, Gerta can only mouth the words, being unable to voice them. At home, too, she fails to encounter the resistance she hopes for. Over dinner one night, Gerta’s mother tells her and Fritz: “We will never be able to leave […] the sooner you both accept that, the happier you will be” (16). To Gerta though, this is unacceptable.

Chapter 4 Summary Four years pass and normalcy returns to East Germany, a terrible, sickening kind of normalcy, to Gerta’s mind. It upsets her, the way people have learned to live with the wall, the way people in East Germany have “learned to do as they were told without asking questions” (17).

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At age 12, Gerta is intrepid and ready to pick up on the dissident work her father had explored in the past, when still with his family. The Stasi still come to visit her house, to ask questions supposedly. But, as Gerta thinks to herself but doesn’t dare speak aloud: “if they only come to ask questions, why did they bring their guns?” (20). Gerta goes about doing the things that are expected of her as a good citizen of East Germany. With her shy, compliant friend, Anna, she participates in Pioneer Club, designed to dissuade East German youth from any interest in Western culture or values. At her mother’s urging, “we waved our flags at the parades and smiled at the leaders of the GDR, German Democratic Republic, our Communist government” (21). But a desire to rebel foments inside Gerta. This desire becomes all the more intensified when one day, while walking beside the wall with Anna, Gerta looks across and is able to get a glimpse of someone she thinks she knows. Though four years have passed, she realizes the boy she is staring at, squinting to get a good glimpse of, is her brother, Dominic. He recognizes her as well and begins to wave. When Gerta waves back, her actions attract the attention of the wall sentry, an officer named Muller, who tells her to step back and stop waving. He makes sure Gerta sees his gun. As the girls walk away, Anna makes Gerta promise she will never do that again.

Chapter 5 Summary Gerta is often in charge of grocery shopping though in her estimate it is a simple job because there are so few options to pick from. Often, Gerta notes, “the choice was between red cabbage and white cabbage” (27). More than anything, she longs for a banana, which are impossible to come by, and which she can only enjoy if Fritz is able to get one smuggled in from West Germany. Fritz also offers to get his sister some real cola but when he tells her that “after that […] you’ll never want our cola again,” Gerta declines, figuring she already has enough to pine for and miss (30). Her mother works to make dinnertime sedate and normal. She asks both of her children to talk about their day but Fritz is taciturn, making Gerta suspicious. She wonders if perhaps her elder brother is planning something. Gerta also does not feel like talking, though her mother prompts her to discuss the events of Pioneer Club. Instead, she astonishes Fritz and her mother but telling them that she saw Dominic in the barbed wire Death Strip between the wall. She expects her mother to ask questions about her son—how he looked, what he was doing. But Gerta’s mother simply tells Gerta to stay away from the wall or she could get into

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trouble. Gerta is angry and confused, wondering if her mother forgot about the family members lost on the other side of the wall, or if her mother has just ceased caring.

Chapter 6 Summary After Gerta’s upsetting moment with her mother, Fritz and Gerta hole up in his room, listening to contraband Beatles records. Though Gerta can’t understand the words well and mostly enjoys the catchy rhyme, the music means a great deal to Fritz. He explains to Gerta: “For me, it’s the lyrics […] the things they write could not be played here” (35). It is clear to Gerta that the desire for freedom and rebellion is pulling at her brother, more and more. He refuses to stop playing censored music like The Beatles, even though their mother badgers them about it being dangerous and someone potentially hearing it from the window. Fritz sees that Gerta is angry with their mother and tells her not to be, that she is just doing what she needs to do in order to survive. To Gerta, though, anger is a productive and reasonable emotion. Inwardly, she thinks: “our family was like a house of cards in a stiff wind. And when it became too much to feel the pain of our collapse, all I could do was become angry” (36). Because Fritz notices the intensity of Gerta’s feelings, he asks his sister how much she would be willing to risk to get to the West. He tells her that the attempt could work, or it could of cost Gerta her life. When Gerta replies that she’d like to know how the odds are stacked, Fritz tells her: “That’s not how bravery works […] courage isn’t knowing you can do something; it’s only being willing to try” (37). He then tells Gerta information that shocks her: that her friend Anna’s older brother is attempting to cross over to the West that very night. The idea definitely holds appeal for Fritz, and Gerta worries that maybe she is about to lose a second brother to the West very soon.

Chapter 7 Summary Out walking with Anna, Gerta feels pangs of guilt. Gerta knows about Anna’s brother’s plan to escape to freedom, but Anna does not. Gerta wonders how Anna’s family will feel when they realize he’s gone, “proud of his courage or ashamed that he’d abandoned them” (41). Gerta feels that it is bravery but listening to Anna complain about mundane things like the weather and the boy behind her in class, who pulls her hair, she realizes that Anna will never understand Peter’s need for freedom.

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Gerta again hopes for a glimpse of her brother and though Anna warns her to look away from the wall, Gerta instead strains for the sight of Dominic. Soon enough, she spots him in the same place he was the day before. This time, Dominic waves not to her but to someone on the same Western side of the wall. Gerta’s heart leaps when she realizes it is her father who “wore glasses now and his light brown hair seemed thinner” (43). Though his outward appearance has changed, his behavior has not. Rather than waving, he begins to dance, doing the gestures of the song he often sang Gerta before bed, “The Farmer in March.” However, to Gerta’s confusion, he doesn’t do the song gestures all the way through. Instead, he stops at the part of the song about digging and he pantomimes digging again and again. Clearly, Gerta thinks that it’s a message. “Papa wanted me to dig,” she thinks to herself during her school day, “But why?” (45).

Chapter 8 Summary Gerta spends a lot of time thinking about what her father meant about digging. She goes and finds the family’s old garden shovel, hidden away in the basement. Is it possible that he wanted her to plant a vegetable garden? No, she decides, he must’ve wanted something more. While Gerta is working on resolving that mystery, her mother delivers some tragic news. Peter, Anna’s brother, was shot in the back while trying to cross the wall. As Gerta’s mother tells her: “It’s a reminder to us all of what happens to those who try to escape” (49). While still struggling with the pain of this knowledge, it occurs to Gerta that Fritz is late getting home from work. Gerta has no choice but to admit to her mother that Fritz knew about Peter’s planned escape. Mother and daughter rush to Fritz’s work site only to learn from the foreman on the construction job that “the Stasi came to get him today” (52). When Gerta and her mother return home, Fritz’s room is in disarray. The Beatles record is smashed on the ground, and a poster of Ann Margaret is crumpled on the floor. Gerta is told to go to bed while her mother goes next door, to seek the help of Herr Krause.

Chapter 9 Summary To Gerta’s surprise and relief, Fritz is back at home when she awakes the next morning, although “he looked exhausted and had a dark bruise on his cheek” (55). Her mother and Fritz sit in silence at first and then begin to exchange awkward conversation. Gerta is confused

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and wants answers as to where Fritz was and what happened to him. On a piece of paper, Fritz writes down that the apartment is bugged, that someone is listening in on them, so they have to be careful about each word they speak and be careful too not to be silent for too long. In order to talk candidly, Fritz volunteers to walk Gerta to school. He refuses to tell her exactly what happened to him when he was in the custody of the Stasi but he does tell her to Anna’s family will be made to pay for Peter’s “transgression.” According to Fritz, now “they’ll have to work extra hard to prove their loyalty to the state” (59). As for Gerta’s family, there can be no pretense of loyalty, Fritz has learned. While in custody, Fritz was first shown the file the government has compiled on his father. Now, Fritz says, they are compiling a file on him. When Gerta tries to protest that such a thing is ridiculous, and that Fritz never did anything worse than smuggling in Beatles records or bananas, Fritz stops her, saying, “They have a file on you too” (62).

Chapter 10 Summary Gerta feels bad for Anna when she sees her at school, red-eyed and grieving. She tries to speak to Anna but Anna blames her, saying that Gerta is a bad influence, that her family is a bad influence. Gerta tries to defend herself and her family, saying, “the state can’t take away our friendship,” but Anna shakes her head no (66). It is too dangerous for Anna to know Gerta at this point. Gerta thinks of the file the government is compiling on her and decides inwardly, “my father had infected me,” that she was no longer innocent or safe simply because she was his daughter (67). Walking home past the wall, she catches a glimpse of her father. Again, he begins his dance, encouraging her to dig. This time she doesn’t stand and watch. Instead, she takes the long way home, away from her father, “away from the disease” (67).

Chapters 1-10 Analysis At the start of the novel, Gerta is a normal girl who fights with her siblings, has a best friend and worries about typical childhood concerns. She is vaguely attentive to the political environment in which she lives. Her father is critical of the government and her mother would like him to desist from critique in the hopes that they could live simply and painlessly that way. She dislikes the neighbor next door for being a troublemaker and a dissident, and would like her husband to disassociate himself with those types of people. When the wall is erected overnight, Gerta’s life changes completely. Her father and her

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brother, Dominic, who were travelling in West Berlin, are now residents of a different world. She learns to live without hope of seeing them again—almost. There is a piece of Gerta that asks questions and keeps hope alive, even against reason, from the start of the book. This part of her is invigorated when she sees Dominic from across the wall. When she sees her father, it is at first a thrill. She is willing to risk being reprimanded by watch tower guards. She is willing to risk the rebukes of her best friend, Anna. She is willing to risk anything to see her father. Seeing her father’s dance, it’s clear that he wants to convey a message and Gerta takes up the job of playing detective. She needs to understand the idea he is trying to convey. But she finds her loyalties are tested when Anna rescinds her friendship. Gerta begins to see that her father was up to more than just talking with their neighbor all those years. He has a reputation and that reputation of troublemaker and dissident is now her reputation, too. Is it worth it, she wonders, trying to figure out what her father wanted? Or should she just try and live as best she can in East Germany, as her mother would have her do?

Chapters 11-17 Chapter 11 Summary Gerta notices a change in Fritz. He is no longer as hard working, is more moody and distracted, and spends more time with whatever simple pleasures he can find. Now that Gerta is considered dangerous to associate with, she begins reading more, in order to fill the hours alone. She is reading in her quiet, bugged house one day when she hears noise next door. She can tell that Herr Krause is in pain, crying out for help. When she runs next door, she sees Herr Krause on the floor, bleeding. Gerta shouts that she will call the police but a gruff voice that identifies itself as law enforcement tells her to go back inside. Papers go flying out of the open doorway. Gerta grabs one. Straightaway, she sees why Herr Krause is being arrested: he has been operating a free press from his home. Gerta grabs a paper that says, “If I cannot speak what I think then it’s a crime to be me” ...