The Paris Daughter

Elise tells Olivier that his duty is to his family rather than to his country and tries to persuade him to abandon his work with the French Resistance (1, 5, 33). Discuss how the novel explores concepts of moral duty and culpability, particularly in the context of Collaboration and Nazi atrocities. What do the later chapters say about this theme as well?

The text is divided into three parts and many short chapters. How does this structure help to convey and illuminate the deeper messages of the novel? What role does the years-long time skip between Part 2 and Part 3 play in illuminating the text’s themes?

Elise and “Lucie” both write the phrase “Under these stars, fate will guide you home” alongside their murals of the night sky. Discuss the role of fate in the novel. How does this concept of fate relate to the frequent references to Christianity made throughout the text?

The USA has recently seen an increase in instances where books providing first-hand accounts of the Holocaust, such as Maus (1980-1991), are banned from school curriculums and libraries in favor of historical novels such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), a process that some have dubbed “pajamification” (Katz, Gwen C. “There’s a phenomenon I actually see.” Twitter, 29 Jan. 2022). This has given rise to wider debates about the tendency of many WWII novels to sanitize the atrocities of the Nazi regime to make them more palatable to a modern audience. Consider the below quote on pajamification:

The key hallmarks of pajamification are: First, shift the focus from the underprivileged to the privileged; second, emphasize the innocence of the characters; third, minimize the event’s specificity and instead render it as a sort of universal morality tale; fourth, omit details and only refer to violent and disturbing events obliquely and abstractly; and fifth, replace first-person nonfictional accounts with fiction (Katz, Gwen, and A. R. Vishny. “Banning Books Like ‘Maus’ Is Part of Sanitizing History.” Teen Vogue, 9 Feb. 2022).

How does Harmel’s treatment of WWII and the Holocaust in The Paris Daughter reflect this trend towards sanitization? What moral obligation do fiction writers have to produce an accurate reflection of past events? Analyze this in relation to the novel’s ideas of moral obligation and responsibility.

Elise’s sense of self is inextricably linked with her identity as an artist and as a mother. Discuss how descriptions of her art pieces and the process of creating them reflect on her characterization and role in the novel.

The protagonists of the novel as well as most of the significant secondary characters are female. Why might the author have chosen to focus on the experience of women during the Second World War? Does this subvert or reinforce the expected norms of the historical fiction genre?

Harmel begins each of the novel’s three parts with a quote: “‘Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.’ – Robert Browning” (6); “‘Good night, then. Sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come.’ —Winston Churchill, to the people of France, October 1940” (91); “‘Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift’ – Dante Alighieri, Inferno” (178). Explore the significance of these three quotes. How do they reflect the content of their respective parts and the novel’s themes? How does the novel play with allusions to the art and literary worlds?

Harmel uses detailed descriptions to paint a picture of important scenes, settings, and characters. How does this imagery contribute to the novel’s message? Analyze the impact and effectiveness of the literary techniques used throughout the novel.