Being true to you

[elizabeth miller]

In the novel there are some characters that are true to themselves through the whole duration of the book and others that don't. Marie- Laure for example doesn't change how she is, Werner on the other hand does succumb to peer pressure in some parts of the novel. One time you see this is when he and the rest of his fellow cadets dump water on a prisoner. When it is his turn he feels bad about his actions but still does the deed. Why is it that he goes through with it even though he has people in his life like Fredrick and Jutta telling and showing him that it is okay to stay true to you?

[eliasrust]

There could be two reasons that he still goes through on these actions. One of them is that although he has people in his life telling him to stay true to himself, he has many more people telling him otherwise, which could make him succumb to peer pressure easier. The second and more likely reason is that he is scared of what will happen to him if he does not follow through on the orders that he is given. He's seen how they treat people that do not perform how they are supposed to, and he does not want to go through the same punishment.