Summer of My German Soldier

Summer of My German Soldier is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, in which Patty comes to recognize others’ abuse and realize that she is not to blame. The two people who help her come to this recognition are Ruth and Anton, both of whom help her to see badness not as something inherent in her, but something that exists in the actions of her parents.

The novel stresses the importance of love and friendships in moving Patty toward a recognition of her goodness and value as a person. At the same time, the last lines of the novel occur in the wake of Ruth leaving after her visit with Patty. As Patty watches Ruth leave, she observes, “[I]t was like watching my very own life raft floating away towards the open sea” (229). Patty describes her experience in these moments as “barely managing to tread water” (230). The novel ends by stressing the necessity of independence, the process of trying to swim to shore on one’s own, even if it is a journey that never ends.

Ironically, Patty is sent to a reformatory, but the reform school does not offer the love or support that helps her to see the truth of her parents and herself. The state’s solution is similar to her parents’ abuse, and once again Patty is forced to live in a place that only houses her and does not function as a home.

The novel does not explore the moral complexities of being an anti-Hitler German soldier during WWII. This may be because Patty is unable to sift through these complexities herself or because Greene does not think they are relevant. Instead, the focus is on Anton and his relationship with Patty. The sequel to the Summer of My German Soldier, Morning Is a Long Time Coming, which picks up six years later when Patty is 18, approaches this complexity.

The “whispering” Patty hears is symbolic of her coming of age and can be interpreted in a number of ways. Ruth thinks that this whispering is God speaking to Patty, but Patty says that she thinks it might be truth: “[T]ruth growing inside like a baby, and for a long time it was just too little, too weak to say anything. But day by day it gains strength” (222). Patty’s and Ruth’s different definitions of what this whispering is may have common ground. After all, Patty is starting to understand Ruth’s sense of pride in herself that comes from believing she is a creature of God. This voice of truth that is growing in Patty articulates Anton’s insistence that Patty is a person of value, and it also articulates Ruth’s insistence that Patty is a creature of God and should take pride in her existence. The voice causes her to shift her attention away from others’ opinions and toward her internal truth, whether it be that of God or herself, so that she may come into her own existence fully.

While Patty has told stories throughout the novel, it is the internal story of her goodness to which she must listen, as if she must give birth to herself. Patty’s search for the love of her parents ends with her nurturing this “whisper” of her own goodness so that she can start the process of living as someone inherently worthy of love.