Thank you! The "What are we doing?" response has been bothering me. Frederick was such a bright and deep thinker before the attacks by his peers. I was hoping his comment meant more than confusion. Your interpretation has more meaning.
After being stimulated by the rare visit of an owl, an old passion stirs so deeply in him that he questions the meaning of the world around him. Those words offer a glimmer of hope that a significant part of his identify still exists and the author's addition of "...he is happy" brings the reader comfort.
Frederick's mother was not shocked by the question and answered in a rather banal way. She never saw the world as her visually-impaired son did. She did not have empathy for the Jewess. She did not see that her son was in grave danger, when he returned home on his holiday covered in bruises. She could not see the panic in her son's face as Werner could, or she chose to ignore it. Too concerned over superficialities to protect the son she so dearly loved. Frederick could have been removed from the school. Other children had left already.
Her atonement was to care for her son as a widow without luxury or status. She was lucky to still have a living son after WWII. Frederick's purity, like Marie-Laure, kept him alive. His parent's sins and the evil of Nazi Germany are responsible for his traumatic injuries. Frederick is like the wagtail bird, he "doesn't look like much" but is still capable of seeing a light other's cannot whether by choice or capacity.
After being stimulated by the rare visit of an owl, an old passion stirs so deeply in him that he questions the meaning of the world around him. Those words offer a glimmer of hope that a significant part of his identify still exists and the author's addition of "...he is happy" brings the reader comfort.
Frederick's mother was not shocked by the question and answered in a rather banal way. She never saw the world as her visually-impaired son did. She did not have empathy for the Jewess. She did not see that her son was in grave danger, when he returned home on his holiday covered in bruises. She could not see the panic in her son's face as Werner could, or she chose to ignore it. Too concerned over superficialities to protect the son she so dearly loved. Frederick could have been removed from the school. Other children had left already.
Her atonement was to care for her son as a widow without luxury or status. She was lucky to still have a living son after WWII. Frederick's purity, like Marie-Laure, kept him alive. His parent's sins and the evil of Nazi Germany are responsible for his traumatic injuries. Frederick is like the wagtail bird, he "doesn't look like much" but is still capable of seeing a light other's cannot whether by choice or capacity.