Love and Friendship
The central theme of the novel is love and friendship and it is a first experience of feeling loved for Patty. The reason for her falling so hard for Anton was simply that he treated her nicely. They were both deeply attracted to each other and formed a bond quickly. Patty also learned the truth of the adage that love is selfless; despite the fact that coming outside would put Anton at risk of being discovered, he came to attempt to rescue Patty from her father's callous bearing, which was an act that made Ruth realize how genuine his feelings for Patty were and also seemed to surprise Anton himself as he had not realized he could love another person enough to endanger himself for them.
Being An Outsider
The main characters in the novel are all outsiders and it is a theme that underpins the entire book. Patty is an outsider in her community as the Bergens are Jewish and the town is predominantly Baptist. Patty is also an outsider in her own family as her parents generally act like a family of three, doting on Patty's younger sister Sharon and making it very plain to Patty that she doesn't fit in with the family. Patty gravitates towards others who are outsiders; clearly as a German Anton is an outsider in Arkansas but he is also an outsider in Germany as he and his family never supported Hitler in the blinkered was his countrymen did. Ruth in not an outsider in her own community but since this a time of segregation she is an outsider in the social circle that Patty is expected to move in.
Cycle of Physical Abuse
Patty's father is a violent and abusive man when it comes to his older daughter and his cruelty is likened to Hitler's by Anton. He backhands her across the face, beats her with a belt and knocks her to the ground yet nobody seems prepared to intervene apart from Anton and Ruth. Anton overhears her father in the garage after he has beaten her and he is muttering aloud that nobody loves him and nobody has ever loved him which makes it likely that he also was abused as a child and has a warped view of discipline, beating his child as though he does not see anything wrong with doing so.
