Summer of My German Soldier

The ring is the central symbol in these chapters. Patty initially mistakes the idea of self-worth the ring represents for the fawning attention of others. She exhibits this when she shows off the ring, and the attention she receives is what leads her father to call the police. Despite Anton’s insistence that she remember she is a “person of value,” Patty continues to desperately want validation from others and to produce something of value that others want. Rather than the ring itself and the values it symbolizes, the story about the ring becomes a thing of value to her in this moment. Her father’s interpretation of her story, though, is that Patty got the ring in exchange for sex with the beggar. His reaction reveals that the only value he thinks a man could see in his daughter is the opportunity for sex. This, and his subsequent beating, turn Patty’s moment of triumph into a scene of public humiliation. Patty’s story follows the lines of her quest to give and receive love and create nurturing environments for others. Her father sexualizes and pathologizes this desire for love, rendering it “filthy” and making Patty feel once again worthless.

Patty realizes she has strayed from the real power and meaning of the ring in fabricating these stories. For Patty, the ring is “like [her] Bible,” and Ruth agrees because “[i]t tells one of them same stories the Bible do, love thy neighbor” (175). Patty is worried that the ring will be taken from her and entrusts it with Ruth, a person worthy of Patty’s trust.

Patty’s reaction to her father’s accusation of her harboring a Nazi shows how much Anton has impacted her. After the FBI agent leaves, Patty’s father is slumped in a chair, angrily pleading with Patty to explain herself. Patty has changed, though, and no longer empathizes with her father as he blows his nose and seems on the verge of breaking down himself. Patty thinks to herself that “at another time, I might have felt his grief was mine. But now his was his and mine was mine and that was burden enough” (186). This is a turning point in the novel, in which Patty differentiates herself from her father and experiences her own grief without guilt.

The next scene parallels Anton’s near-intervention in Patty’s father’s beating of her. This time, Ruth rushes in, much like Anton did previously, to shield Patty from her father’s rage, but he blames her for Patty’s “meanness” and fires her. Ruth risks both her life and livelihood to try to help Patty and suffers as a result. This shows that Ruth, like Anton, will do the right thing, even if it has consequences.

Because Patty is Jewish and helped a German POW, her whole community sees her as someone who has betrayed them. Even the non-Jewish townspeople cannot understand her desire to harbor someone they assume is a Nazi. Charlene, however, continues to support her, as do her grandparents. The charge of treason—betrayal of one’s country—is ironic, as Patty has been desperate to find people and groups she can believe in.