Plot
The majority of the story is told through flashbacks, as Helmuth Hübener, charged with treason, waits in a Berlin prison for his execution. Starting with his memories as a young boy, Helmuth recounts his childhood growing up in Nazi Germany with his mother, grandparents, two brothers, his best friends Rudi and Karl and his future stepfather Hugo Nazi soldier.
As a young boy, Helmuth plans to become a soldier and fight for Germany but that changes when he grows up, and Helmuth stands out as a very intelligent young man. He becomes very opinionated about the Nazi government when he sees his Jewish classmate's father mercilessly murdered by the SA. He begins to secretly listen to forbidden enemy radio broadcasts, and enlists the help of two of his closest friends in distributing anti-Nazi propaganda. Helmuth and his brothers fight very hard to keep their family together while they argue with Hugo about Germany's laws, rules, and restrictions on all people of Germany and the rights of the Jewish people in Germany. Later, a fellow apprentice of Helmuth's turns him in to the Gestapo, and he is jailed and is killed on October 27, 1942 in the guillotine.
Read more about this topic: The Boy Who Dared
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)