Throughout A Separate Peace and Summer Of My German Soldier we see how there is evil in everyone except Finny and Patty. The innocence in Patty and Finny is shown first of all, when they don’t care about their appearance. They both speak their minds and are sheltered from the real world. Also, they do not know anything about the real world and the War going on. The evil in people is shown in Gene and Patty’s father with their internal struggle.
Summer Of My German Soldier is told from the point of view of a 12-year-old girl, Patty Bergen. Her parents reject her and they are always abusing her mentally and physically. Patty tries extremely hard to win their affection, but she never does. She befriends a German prisoner, Anton, and hides him in her garage. When Anton has to leave, she gives him her father’s shirt and he gives her a ring. Later, after Anton has been gone for some time, an officer comes over to talk to Patty and gets a confession out of her after showing the blood stained shirt of Anton. She ends up going to a reform school. The only person who goes to visit her is Ruth. Here, she discovers herself, no longer as a young child, but a young woman.
Patty does not care about her appearance at all. This is seen throughout the novel when Patty refuses to wear dresses that everyone tells her to wear. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks. 1″I want you to take off them faded old shorts and put on one of them nice pretty dresses of yours. Sounds of my mother! For God’s sake, why do I have to get all dressed up?” She never combs her hair and hates when she has to go to the hairdresser to get it washed. Taking baths is something Patty never does when she is told to because she does not like people telling her what to do. She likes the way she looks without everyone else telling her how to look. Finny does not care about what others think of his appearance either. We see this when he wears his pink shirt in front of everyone.
Speaking her mind is something Patty does, no matter what the consequences may be. This is shown when Patty goes ahead and plays with Freddy, the boy her father will not let her see, and she tells her father that she should be able to play with him, because he is such a nice boy. When people treat Patty poorly or say things about her, then she will confront them about it. We see this when Patty’s father hits her, and Patty says, 2″And I don’t love you! Nobody does!” Patty does what she feels and thinks is right. This is shown when Patty takes in the German prisoner because she thinks he is a good man and it feels right to her. Also, Patty makes up her own set of rules for everything, such as when her nanny tells her she’s not a teenager, she replies, 3 ” ‘ Cause I’ve been one since I was ten. Not many people know this, Ruth, but teenage actually starts when you get two numbers in your age. Don’t you see, ten is really tenteen. People don’t usually go around calling it tenteen cause it sounds too much like the gum, but that’s the only reason.” Finny also speaks his mind and has his own set of rules. This is shown when Finny talks to adults. He tells it like it is and this keeps him out of trouble because they know he does not really mean any harm, he just does not know. The way Patty and Finny word things portrays their innocence.
Patty is sheltered from the real world by her little town. Her town is small and she does not know what’s going on outside of it. Trees and rivers surround the town; the real world to her seems to be beyond the train tracks where she never goes. Even though there is a War going on around it, the town is not affected by it. They still have plenty of food and other necessities. It seems like the perfect little town and nothing could go wrong there because it is so peaceful. However, there is evil in the town as well. The evil is Patty’s father, who constantly puts Patty down and beats her. This is shown when he says, 4 ” ‘ you’re a filthy fil-thy girl.’ As he raised his hand I clamped my eyes shut.” He does this because he seems to be jealous of her when everyone likes her instead of him. Finny is also sheltered from the real world in his school. The real world to him seems to be beyond the trees to the north. They also have enough food and it is very peaceful there. Yet in Finny’s school there is also evil, and the evil there is in Gene.
Patty’s father, Harry is going through an internal struggle and he is the evil in the peaceful town. He is jealous of Patty because the people, who do not like him, like Patty. The one thing that makes him the angriest is when a man says to him, 5″I could go through this world proud and happy if only God would see fit to give me a daughter exactly like you.” This makes him angry because he doesn’t like Patty and he hates whenever other people say they like her. He thinks no one likes him as well, he says this to prove it, 6″Nobody loves me. In my whole life nobody has ever loved me.” His evil in himself never comes to an end. Harry resembles Gene, in A Separate Peace. Gene also has an internal struggle with the evil in himself. He hurts Finny because of his jealousy against him. Gene’s evil in himself gets resolved after Finny dies.
Patty does not understand the War or anything about the real world. This is the reason she is able to maintain her innocence. The first part in the novel that shows she does not understand the War happens when she waves to the prisoners as they get off the train and the lady beside her pressed her hand down, shaking her head. The next time we see she does not understand it occurs when Patty talks to the prisoners when they are brought to a store, and she becomes friends with one of them. The most important part that shows she is unaware of the dangers of War is when she hides a prisoner in her garage and risks her own life for him by doing this. 7″The reason is only that I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.” Finny is also unaware of the War. This is shown with how he is sheltered from the real world. Also, when he tells the adults that they should only bomb as long as they don’t hit any women or children, or old people and any important buildings. Then he starts to deny that there even is a War, and in the end, concludes that there is and really wants to enlist in it, but he doesn’t know the danger he would be in if he did.
In my opinion, I believe both Patty and Finny are Christ figures. Patty leaves the town and it is not until then that most people realize that not all the Germans are bad people and if a Jewish girl can befriend a German boy then maybe they are wrong about everything. It is not until Finny dies that Gene is able to overcome the evil that is inside him. Gene’s enemy is killed after Finny dies. Patty and Finny are the innocent ones in a world of evil.
