Small Character Development: A Night Divided

Character development is always what makes a great story. In A Night Divided Gerta is the main character, but her best friend and secondary character, Anna Warner, changes through the book. It is not a huge change, and is not the main part of the book, but it makes the book outstanding.

Courage is the biggest theme in A Night Divided. Building an underground tunnel right below the noses of the East Berlin officers, and being wrongly framed for helping someone escape, while standing up for your rights against your country takes immense courage. Anna starts out as fearful and too afraid to think her own thoughts:

“Gerta, stop staring at the wall,” Anna whispered to me. “Do you think the soldiers don’t notice?”

“I think it’s too cold for them to bother with me,” I said. “They watch the university students, and the men whose families are on the other side. They don’t watch twelve-year-old girls on their way to school.”

“Yes they do,” Anna insisted. “Turn away, please. Look at anything else.”

When Anna’s beloved brother Peter died trying to escape to the west side, her uneasiness doesn’t get better. Anna can’t comprehend why Peter would want to leave; she doesn’t understand what if feels like to have a freedom wanting feeling. Because Peter left, Anna’s family is being monitored by the government. Though Anna won’t stand up to the officers, she tells Gerta what she feels towards her.

“You’ve seen the sun Anna. Now that you have, could you ever be content with just the stars for light? Would that ever be enough for you?”

Anna is hurt that Gerta knew of Peter’s plans and didn’t even think to warn them of what was coming. Anna then shuts herself away from Gerta and tries to be the perfect citizen. Later in the book she finds out about the tunnel but dosen’t let on to Gerta that she knows. On Gerta’s last visit Gerta asked Anna why she thought Peter would want to leave, and that is when Anna starts to change. On the night that Gerta’s family is escaping, the Warners show up. Anna says that she finally realized why Peter wanted to leave. But most of all she realized what it meant to have courage and try to think for herself and actually do something about the wrong in her world.

“If I don’t stand for freedom, than I must sit in chains.”

“Courage isn't knowing you can do something; it's only being willing to try . . .