86 pages • 2 hours read
Allies
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Themes
1940s Discrimination Through Different Lenses
Gratz examines the discrimination experienced by various perspectives in Allies. The largest and most profound discrimination is that of the Nazis against Jews and other peoples throughout their occupied territories. This discrimination is one that the characters are aware of and that helps motivate them to fight against the Nazis. For example, Dee’s friend Sid is an American Jew whose heritage makes him especially enraged by what is happening to Jews in Europe. However, Gratz portrays American troops taunting and mistreating minorities as well. For example, Sid is called a Jewish slur in Chapter 1, and Dee remembers grimly that “[he] knew what happened when a Jewish guy punched somebody for insulting him. They’d seen it happen again and again in basic training. It was the Jew who got in trouble, not the other guy” (10). Henry, too, experiences discrimination from his fellow Allies because of his race at numerous points throughout the book. He hopes that serving alongside white soldiers will help ease racial intolerance.
Discrimination is not restricted to Americans in Gratz’s book. As Algerian immigrants, Samira and her mother face suspicion and discrimination from French citizens both before the war and during it (Chapter 7, Chapter 12). Canadian soldiers call Sam “chief” because of his Native Canadian heritage until he stands up to them (77-78). Each of the Ally countries harbors intolerance, in other words, not just America and Nazi Germany.
The book also addresses sexism. Dorothy and Monique face the disapproval of the commanding medical officer because of their gender. When Dorothy stands up to him, the officer can only provide a nonsensical requirement about troops needing to be physically strong enough to dig a latrine in order to serve on the medical forces. However, Dorothy claims she could complete the assignment (281), calling attention to the idea that women were excluded from difficult or dangerous wartime roles based solely on their gender and not on ability. The various types of prejudice that the characters encounter suggest that they must battle not only Nazism but intolerance within their own nations as well.
In the Author’s Note, Gratz points out that racism has endured beyond World War II: “Though the civil rights movement made great gains, the United States still struggles today with the same kind of racism and prejudice Henry faced seventy-five years ago” (320). This note increases the sense of relevance twenty-first century readers feel as they encounter the racism and sexism portrayed in Allies.
Parents’ Impacts on Their Adolescent Children
Parents affect their adolescent children in Allies in a variety of ways, even if the parents themselves do not physically appear in the story. This dynamic is most apparent in Bill’s story. Bill has never met his father, yet he feels an emotional connection to him. His father’s legacy of dying while fighting the Germans in World War I inspires him to enroll in the military, and he is determined to get to the city of Amiens to add his own name beside his father’s on a rock there. By his internalization and adoption of his father’s dedication to his country, Bill’s story suggests that parents can influence and motivate their children, even if they are deceased. Bill is also expecting his first child with his wife Maggie, underscoring the importance of parent-child relationships in the book.
Samira, like Bill, enjoys a relatively uncomplicated, positive relationship with her mother, who she admires and assists in aiding the French resistance. Her relationship with her mother motivates Samira to continue trying to find the resistance, which ironically goes against her mother’s stated wishes for Samira to find safety rather than continuing on. Samira “wasn’t going to do what her mother told her. She was going to do the exact opposite” (35). Her rebellion, however, is still influenced by a parent: her deceased father, whose death she blames on the Nazis. Samira reflects that “[she] had already lost her father…and she wasn’t going to lose her mother too” (35). Both of her parents, in various ways, compel her to continue on with her mother’s mission.
In contrast with Bill’s wholehearted admiration for his father and Samira’s for her mother, Dee feels somewhat ambiguous about his own parents’ actions. For example, Dee assesses his parents as “running away” from Hitler rather than fighting him (18) and perceives D-Day as “atonement” and his chance to “undo what his family had allowed to happen” (20). He clearly feels uneasy and guilty about what his parents’ actions. However, Dee also expresses admiration for the profound changes his parents were willing to undergo for him: “His parents had left behind everything they knew and everyone they loved to get Dee out of Nazi Germany. They’d learned a new language and started new lives and made a new home for their son” (20). These competing ideas create complexity in Dee’s feelings about his parents.
In all three cases, despite that the characters are approaching adulthood, which is generally understood to entail developing an identity of one’s own, their parents continue to play an important role in their motivations and self-conception, which in turn affects the plot of the book.
Solidarity as a Way of Overcoming Challenges
Gratz incorporates the idea that solidarity can help individuals and communities overcome adversity into almost every level and storyline of his book. For example, James and his classmates band together to stand up to their school’s bullies, a strategy that is more effective than each of them trying to do so individually. James concludes that “[w]e’re stronger together” (90), a statement that can be applied to many other situations in the book. The solidarity must extend across nationality as the Allies confront the Nazis. When James and Sam rescue the French family at the Nazi headquarters, rather than celebrate privately, James says that the group should do so together (131), emphasizing the sense of solidarity and connection that the soldiers feel with the people they are trying to free from Nazi oppression.
On the battlefield, the Allies must stand together as well. Bill despairs of being unable to move Achilles with only one other British soldier: “There was no way he and Thomas together could dig out enough sand […] Not without the rest of the tank crew to help” (167). However, when he gets out of the tank and discovers American soldiers hiding underneath it, the larger group is able to move the tank so it can get a shot at the German gun (172). Because they all contribute to a common mission, the group achieves its objective. Many of the most important battlefield maneuvers in the book require the point-of-view character to work together with someone else, from James and Sam modifying the explosives (122-123) to Dee and the other soldiers helping Henry get a wounded Sid to safety (219). And when Monique hesitates about taking medical supplies so she can help the wounded soldiers, Dorothy encourages her (276). The two work together as a team to treat the soldiers’ wounds and carry them to the medical tent.
These relatively small-scale acts of solidarity mirror the larger one going on during the time of the story as America, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and many other countries joined forces to fight the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). The multi-national force that Dee observes as his unit is preparing to head for shore in Chapter 1 reflects this relatively unified force of many countries working together for a common cause. This relative inclusion and cooperation (which is not, as Gratz’s narrative make clear, free of racial and gender biases) contrasts with the Germans’ vision of a “pure” Aryan state, which would have been antithetical to collaboration or solidarity among diverse people. By rooting his ideas of solidarity at the individual level, Gratz adds a human dimension to the larger, more abstract ideas of solidarity between nations.
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