Echo

Pam Muñoz Ryan

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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Part 1, Chapters 17-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 17 Summary

Uncle Gunter arrives, and he and Martin agree that the three must leave Germany. They make a plan for Gunter and Friedrich to go to work as normal, before leaving for Switzerland the following day. Up late at night, Friedrich worries about what life in Berne will be like.

Part 1, Chapter 18 Summary

At work the next day, Anselm once again invites Friedrich to a Nazi Youth event. Friedrich uses his ready-made excuse: he will be leaving to visit Elisabeth in Berlin. Anselm grins and leaves him alone. While the family dines later that evening, Brown Shirts knock on the door: they know that Elisabeth is not in Berlin and have deduced that the family plans to flee. They take Martin in for questioning, and Friedrich goes to stay with Uncle Gunter.

Part 1, Chapter 19 Summary

Friedrich arrives at his uncle’s house and blames himself for his father’s arrest. He plays his harmonica to comfort himself.

Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary

Martin is not released after two days; when Gunter and Friedrich check the house, it has been ransacked. Friedrich goes to work, and everyone has now heard of the arrest. Anselm invites him to a Hitler Youth event once again.

Part 1, Chapter 21 Summary

Uncle Gunter reveals that Martin was taken to Dachau on a train. They do not know how long his sentence is, but Gunter has heard that after a month, they may be able to bribe the commandant to release him. Gunter suggests that he write Elisabeth to ask for money.

Part 1, Chapters 17-21 Analysis

These fast-paced, short chapters indicate the swiftness with which the Nazi Party works to punish its enemies. In three short days—and five short chapters—the lives of the family have changed forever. Anselm is revealed to be a Nazi informant, and his continued interest in Friedrich shows the kinds of manipulation and pressure that ordinary Germans faced to join the Nazi Party.

In the midst of these events, Friedrich’s harmonica is a consolation to him. As we know the harmonica must save a life, his playing also highlights the threat he faces.

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In earlier chapters, Elisabeth is an idealist—someone who believes that Nazism can save Germany, but someone who may also be unwilling to believe or see that it has a real human cost. Martin’s life seems to depend upon her ability to see that cost, and to put her family above the rhetoric she has learned at youth meetings.