Frederick

[simonplotkin]

How does Frederick's crippling brain injury affect the theme of the novel and how Werner lives his life from thereon out?

[Ashley Yoon]

The permanent brain injury of Frederick affected Werner more drastically than the theme of the novel. The theme could be debated as "the finding of courage", or "the battle of one's mind and willingness", etc. but Werner's actions thereon out were greatly influenced by Frederick. The readers are introduced to Fredde's pure but stubborn action on page 229. "And Werner knows what Frederick is going to do. Frederick has to be nudged forward by the boy behind him. The upperclassman hands him a bucket and Frederick pours it out on the ground"(Doerr). Frederick strongly refused to throw water on a prisoner tied to a stake. Werner's emotions and feelings of simplicity and beauty through other forms were presented through Fredde's love for birds and his innocent heart. Frederick not remembering who Werner was due to the unjust injury influenced feelings of frusturation, for the one person who understood and listened was now erased, into nothing but a memory.

[grace]

After Frederick's tragic brain injury Werners perspective on Germans and his fellow classmates changes. Werner knows that Frederick was injured by his fellow class mates for his beliefs about Jews and morals this makes Werner finallyy realize that both Jutta and Frederick were standing up for the right cause and makes him infuriated with the Germans this therefore led him to the rescue of Marie-Laure.

[millaberemski]

I agree with Grace. After Fredrick's brain injury, Werner saw the German's and his classmates differently. At first, Werner was one of them. Then, he saw everything his teachers were making him and his classmates do to other people, like throw buckets of freezing cold water at them. He wasn't doing anything to stop it until he saw what Fredrick was doing. He refused to throw a bucket at the other boy, and he paid for it by getting beaten from his fellow classmates. This showed Werner what was right and what was wrong in life and that changed his perspective on how the German's were treating the Jews and how his teachers were treating his classmates and himself. His new perspective, caused by Fredrick's brain injury, lead to him saving Marie-Laure and ultimately losing his life.

[benjaminconnor]

Like many other people on this thread are saying, this altered Werner's view of his classmates and his teachers dramatically. Up to this point, every horrible action had some reasoning behind it, which allowed Werner to deny any injustices he witnessed or committed. Even throwing buckets of freezing water onto a dying tied up man was excused because the teachers stated that he was a criminal who deserved to be killed. However, once Fredrick was beaten by the other students, it took the veil off of Werner's eyes. He saw how truly horrible Hitler's Youth was, realizing that there wasn't any excuse for the horrible things the Hitler Youth was doing. "The scales of cruelty tip. Maybe Bastion exacts some final vendetta; maybe Fredrick goes looking for his only way out. All Werner knows for certain is that one April morning he wakes to find three inches of slush on the ground, and Fredrick not in his bunk" (Doerr 256).
To answer the second part of your question, Fredrick's mauling sent a message to Werner, which in turn changed the theme of the book dramatically. It became about sacrifice, and finding the will power to do the right thing. Werner began to try to right the wrongs he committed while serving the Hitler Youth. "In French he(Werner) says, 'There will be a--a Waffenrube. Stopping in the fighting. At noon. So people can get out of the city. I can get you out'" (Doerr 469). Fredrick's sufferings at the hands of his classmates led Werner to see that the Hitler Youth had done incredibly despicable things, and by first lying to everyone about being able to find the resistance broadcasters, then helping Marie-Laure escape the city, he could start to make up for the part he played in those atrocities. These actions helped to change the theme from "conformity is normal", to "its never to late to do the right thing".