Helmuth & Marika –Cell or Soulmates? #4 comparisons

The books, The Boy Who Dared, and Marika are similar in several ways. These stories are both told using flashback and are conveyed through the eyes and minds of young people growing up in the fearful time when Hitler comes to power. The main characters, Helmuth and Marika are both struggling with grown up problems at a young age. Dealing with these adult issues makes them seem older than they really are. Instead of spending time playing sports, or hanging out, doing fun things with friends, Helmuth and Marika spend their time listening to the adults in their households talk about Hitler and learning the effects Hitler’s SS have on the Jews.

Marika and Helmuth also grew up in awkward circumstances at home. Helmuth is missing his real father and loves his mother very much. She goes on to marry a high ranking official in the Nazi party who Helmuth despises. He lacks an adult in his life that he can trust to share his thoughts and questions with. Marika grows up similarly. She is not at all close with her mother, but feels very close to her father. She feels cut off from him because of the wall between them and seems to rely on her doll, Maxi to confide in. Having no reliable adult to share their deepest concerns with causes them to act on their own when they probably shouldn’t.

A common character quality they each have is their stubborn adventurousness. Throughout the story, Helmuth spends his younger years wishing he could participate in the activities his older brothers are involved in. He feels angry and left out because he can’t do things his older brothers do. When he gets slightly older, and has a better understanding about the power of the Nazis, and their extreme ways, he decides to ignore the law and do what he thinks it right. He feels a strong need to deliver the truth, even sacrificing his own life for it. From the beginning of the story of Marika, the author shows her to be stubborn, and wanting to do things her own way. From not wanting to learn French, not wearing certain clothes that make her stand out, to deciding not to not tell her best friend she is a Jew, she goes to great lengths, including getting herself sick, to make sure she gets her way. The behaviors of these two characters demonstrate that they are both fearless, heroic, and willing to sacrifice themselves for something they think is greater.

Marika and Helmuth also share the factor that they both grow up in religious households and neither can understand why Hitler hates Jews and attacks them as he does. The two characters having different faiths doesn’t seem to matter, it is their immaturity and lack of life’s experiences that doesn’t allow them to predict the horrible impact their actions might have. In the eyes of other characters in their stories, and to the reader, they come off as impulsive. They both think they are smarter than the adults around them. It would seem impossible that Helmuth could change what Hitler was doing by passing out flyers. It would seem equally impossible for Marika to get away with helping her family forge documents to evade the Nazi discrimination.