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Chapter 31
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Girl in the Blue Coat, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loss and Grief
Friendship and Love
Moral Compromise vs. Resistance
Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
Hanneke is shaken at the realization that Amalia is the dead girl. Christoffel arrives. Mrs. Janssen sent him to find Hanneke, and he’s confused to find her in Mrs. Janssen’s own home. Christoffel accidentally admits that he knows about the hiding place and that he saw Amalia in Mrs. Janssen’s house. He was friends with Amalia and Mirjam in school. He confesses that he was in love with Mirjam, and Amalia was in love with him. Hearing all this, Hanneke realizes that the letter she found in Amalia’s pocket was written by Amalia, and the boy she was referring to was Christoffel, though Amalia used a nickname Hanneke didn’t recognize.
As Hanneke discovers more details about Mirjam and Amalia, she continues to confirm the importance of interpersonal relationships amidst large-scale conflicts. Amalia’s murder at the hands of the Nazis began with a love triangle among students. Christoffel’s importance to the mystery is also another instance of Hanneke realizing that she has overlooked something important because it didn’t fit with her preconceived notions of the truth. She assumed Christoffel had nothing to do with Mirjam, and she never questioned that until it was too late.
Active
Themes
Christoffel confesses he saw Amalia in Mrs. Janssen’s home twice. The second time was after Amalia saw the message from Mirjam in the newspaper and asked for Christoffel’s help to escape. He explains that the night Mirjam’s family was killed, Mirjam encountered Amalia on the street. Amalia made Mirjam switch coats and identification papers with her, assuming that Mirjam could flee if she had non-Jewish papers and Amalia could simply be issued new ones. Soldiers were chasing Mirjam, so Amalia, under Marjam’s identity, had to hide before she could enact her plan. Hanneke has lingering questions, but she suspects she will never know the answers to them.
Amalia died for the sake of friendship. She took Mirjam’s place to protect her friend, and she left Mrs. Janssen’s protection to find that same friend. Hanneke, meanwhile, is coming to terms with the fact that she so thoroughly misunderstood the mystery she has been trying to solve. As she accepts how much information she was missing, she accepts that she may never have answers to all of her questions.
Active
Themes
Christoffel continues his story. When Amalia left Mrs. Janssen’s house, she went to stay with Christoffel. However, she told him something that made him furiously demand she leave, which is how she ended up caught by the Nazis. Christoffel breaks down and refuses to reveal what Amalia told him. As Christoffel tells the story, Hanneke realizes that Amalia was missing for less time than she and Mrs. Janssen thought. Hanneke thinks back to all the moments she failed to see what was right in front of her as she comes to understand that Amalia hid in a piece of furniture that Mrs. Janssen paid Christoffel to remove from her home, and that Amalia was hidden in plain sight in the hiding place even while Mrs. Janssen was hiring Hanneke to find her. Christoffel cries, and Hanneke comforts him.
Active
Themes
