49 pages • 1 hour read
Armando Lucas CorreaThe German Girl
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 33-36Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 33 Summary: “Hannah, 1953-1958”
On a very rainy day, there are police clashes and student protests outside of the Faculty of Pharmacy building at the university. There is a sound like a gunshot and someone yelling to the students to get on the ground. Hannah does, and the boy who had yelled tells her she can get up. The boy is holding her books and says he won’t give them back until she tells him her name. She tells him it is “Ana, but pronounced like it begins with a J” (264). When she leaves the building after class, the boy is waiting for her. His name is Julian. He says, “it’s the J that unites us” (265). He studies law. His hair is long and curly. He finds her in class the next day, and she tells him her family name, Rosen.
Hannah finishes her studies and opens her own pharmacy, Farmacia Rosen, in Havana. She employs Hortensia’s sister, Esperanza, who is good at interacting with people and listening to their stories and woes. Esperanza’s son Rafael helps with home deliveries. Hannah feels the pharmacy is her escape from her mother’s unhappiness. During the evenings, Hannah spends time with Esperanza and Rafael. They chat and listen to boleros on the radio. A few years later, Gustavo begins to study at the law school. He comes home less and less. One night he comes home dirty and with his shirt torn, as though he’s been beaten up. He doesn’t leave the house for a week. At dinner, he speaks passionately about “deaths, dictatorships, oppression, and inequality” (271). He doesn’t understand why the family is indifferent the local Cuban affairs. That night he packs his suitcase and leaves.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Anna, 2014”
Anna goes out to lunch at Diego’s house, where she is served “white rice, a dark-looking soup, and a colorful plate of scrambled eggs” (274). Anna notices a mezuzah, a menorah, and old portraits in the room. Diego’s mother says that the photos are of the family that lived in the home before them. Thirty years earlier there was a crisis that forced many Cubans to leave. Many went to the United States. Those who left were called “worms,” just like Hannah’s family had been called in Berlin. At a bookcase, Anna sees a copy of Robinson Crusoe. Diego tells her she can keep it.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Hannah, 1959-1963”
On the eve of 1959, Hortensia announces that there is no government in Cuba anymore, that “they” left on an airplane the night before. Gustavo flings open the front door without knocking. He is wearing “olive-green fatigues with a red-and-white armband—that fateful combination of colors” (281). He has with him a woman he introduces as his wife. Her name is Viera. They’ve just gotten married that day. Additionally, he announces, Viera is pregnant. Over the next few days, more soldiers appear in the street with the same armband as Gustavo. That October, Viera appears at the house with her newborn. His name is Louis. When Hannah gets to the pharmacy that day, Julian is there. He has been away in the United States, where his family sent him to study during the crisis in Cuba. He’s back in Havana to help his father with his practice. His relationship with Hannah grows. Julian comes to the pharmacy every night. They hold hands. After his parents leave for the United States on an exit permit, Julian calls Hannah over to his apartment. He cries when Hannah arrives. They kiss. Hannah spends the night; “from that day on, at lunchtime I went to smell the sea from the eighth floor and to lose myself in his arms” (286). Things continue like this until one day Julian says they can’t meet that week. Soon after, “soldiers came to seize the pharmacy in the name of the revolutionary government” (287). Julian tells Hannah that he must return to New York to be with his family. Hannah promises herself never to let anyone into her life again.
With her pharmacy now in the government’s hands, Hannah starts a new life giving English lessons to children. Viera and Gustavo are constantly working and leave Louis, who is now three, with Hannah and her mother. They speak to him in English, and soon his English is better than his Spanish. Hortensia remains distant from Louis. Hannah receives an envelope from Julian in New York. It simply contains a photograph and a farewell message: “For my Ana with her J. I shall never forget you” (290).
Chapter 36 Summary: “Anna, 2014”
As the days pass, Aunt Hannah seems be getting weaker. Anna’s mother says it’s nearly time to get back to New York. Anna continues to play with Diego in the streets. He hugs her “in broad daylight” and takes her to Aunt Hannah’s old pharmacy, which still has “traces of yellow paint on the damp-covered walls” (293). They watch a ballet class from a rooftop and feed sugar to ants. Diego asks Anna, “Do you want to be my girl?” (295). Anna replies that she lives in New York and asks Diego if he’s crazy, but nevertheless takes his hand. They plan to swim at the Malecón the next day.
Chapters 33-36 Analysis
These chapters chronicle scenes from the Cuban revolution, which took place between 1953 and 1959. During the revolution, Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement managed to oust Cuban President Fulgencio Batista and replace his military dictatorship with a revolutionary socialist state, which would later become more communist in its ideals and organization. Gustavo, in his “olive-green fatigues with a red-and-white armband” (281), is part of Castro’s movement and assists in the overthrow of the standing president. When Hortensia says that “they left in an airplane, after midnight” (280), she is referring to Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, who was finally forced out of office by Castro and his movement. This is cause for celebration in Cuba as well as a source of anxiety, as Hannah narrates, “Uncertainty reigned” (280). While the overthrow of the oppressive government certainly provides citizens hope that living conditions might improve in the country, the new government is untested, and no one can say for certain what will happen next.
Such conditions are mirrored in Hannah’s relationship with Julian. His appearance in her life provides her with hope and the possibility of a new love. As with the new government, there are moments when it appears that Julian represents a new way forward with her life. However, just as the government seizes control of her pharmacy and shows signs that it is not the ray of hope it seemed at first, so too does Julian turn out to be a disappointment. He flees the country and moves to New York, leaving Hannah behind. This hurts Hannah so deeply that she says, “I promised myself that, from then on, I would let nobody else into my life. That kind of hope was not made for me” (288). This situation foreshadows a disappointment involving the new government regime that awaits Hannah and her mother later in the novel.
