Analysis Of Monica Hesse’s Book "Girl In The Blue Coat"

Picture this: a person is the happiest they could be while being with the one thing that they love the most. Then unexpectedly, that one thing, which that person loves, is gone forever. Imagine the feeling of emotional distress that one may be experiencing— wondering why and how this came to be. It is an unbearable thing to be faced with. And although many experience this feeling, coping with it has to be one of the most difficult tasks a person can do. This way of moving on is referred to as grief; in fact, grief is a typical response when dealing with a loss, and there is no right or wrong way to grieve. How one might grieve is affected by things such as life experiences and how significant the loss was to a person. Grieving can also be seen as a healing process that occurs over a period of time. Whether it takes a few weeks to a few years, it all depends on the person. In Monica Hesse’s Girl In The Blue Coat, the concept of grieving can easily be represented within the novel; especially, through characters such as Mrs. Janssen and Laurence Olivier (Ollie) Van de Kamp.

Mrs. Janssen is a middle-aged woman, who lived in a “large blue house where she used to live with her husband and three sons” (Hesse 11), as well as being one of Hanneke’s black-market clienteles. Unfortunately, Mrs. Janssen’s youngest son, Jan, was killed on the frontlines while he tried to protect Netherland’s borders from invasion. Additionally, her husband died due to providing refuge to a Jewish family, the Roodveldts, after the Nazis invaded Netherland. Along with all the grieving, Mrs. Janssen puts her focus on finding a missing person: a Jewish teenager, who Mrs. Janssen has been hiding in a secret room and suddenly vanished. That missing person is named Mirjam Roodveldt. Throughout the story, Mrs. Janssen is determined to find Mirjam, as well as figuring out how she managed to disappear. She is desperate to find Mirjam due to the fact that her youngest son is dead, her husband died trying to protect Mirjam’s family, and Mirjam’s family died trying to protect Mr. Janssen. In the novel, Mrs. Janssen states “I have no one now, and neither does [Mirjam]. Mirjam and I must be each other’s family” (26). This shows how Mrs. Janssen does not want to lose another person she loves and is willing to risk everything just to find Mirjam.

Laurence Olivier Van de Kamp, who is often referred to as “Ollie,” is a student at The Municipal University of Amsterdam. He is the older brother of Hanneke’s past boyfriend, Sebastiaan (Bas) Van de Kamp who died on the Dutch frontlines while protecting the Netherlands from a Nazi invasion (similar scenario to Mrs. Janssen’s son, Jan). When he is first introduced in the novel, readers realize that this is the first time Ollie and Hanneke have seen each other since Bas’s funeral. In fact, Ollie and Hanneke’s encounter leads to a progression in the development of the novel. This is shown when Ollie visits Hanneke — asking her, “What did [she] want at the Jewish Lyceum?” (61). By being involved and helping Hanneke, Ollie is risking his own life, as well as the lives of his friends in order to find Mirjam Roodveldt. And although Ollie is jeopardizing his life while helping to find Mirjam, he is also in danger due to him arranging secret meeting in a way of resistance towards the Germans. These meeting were comprised of discussions and tactics on forged ration-cards for foods and goods to benefit Jewish people and resistance workers, locations in order to provide a “safehouse” for Jews, and creating counterfeit identification papers.