Chapter 137: Boulangerie – Werner Encounters the Blind Girl
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
A full day passes before Werner can find time to return to the house at 4 rue Vauborel. Standing in the dense morning fog, he fantasizes about being invited inside by the elderly Frenchman he once heard on the radio, discussing science and the transmitter. He also imagines the darker possibility of arresting the man as a terrorist. Werner rehearses French phrases—Avant la guerre. Je vous ai entendu à la radio—and struggles with his conscience. However, the door opens not for an old scientist, but for a slender, auburn-haired girl wearing glasses and a gray dress, carrying a knapsack. Her roving cane and opaque lenses reveal she is blind. She walks gracefully toward him and passes within arm’s reach. Without thinking, Werner follows her. She turns a corner and enters a bakery. Werner waits outside, his hands shaking and breath short. When the girl emerges with a loaf of bread, she walks back past him, her footwork precise as a dancer’s. He presses himself against a wall, hypnotized by her vulnerability and purity. She continues up the street until the fog swallows her from view.
Key Events
- Werner returns to rue Vauborel after a day’s delay, his mind full of conflicted intentions.
- He rehearses French phrases and imagines either a friendly reception or a forced arrest.
- Instead of the expected old man, a blind girl emerges from Number 4.
- Werner watches her walk with a cane and realizes she is blind.
- He follows her to the bakery, then waits outside as she enters and exits.
- The girl passes by him a second time, and Werner is overwhelmed by a feeling of purity and vulnerability.
- She disappears into the fog, leaving Werner shaken.
Character Development
Werner Pfennig is caught between his ingrained military duty and his human empathy. The chapter reveals his inner turmoil: he rehearses both a peaceful greeting and the violent act of reporting the antenna. His intense emotional reaction to the blind girl—shaking hands, difficulty breathing—shows how deeply his isolation and forced hardness have affected him. The memory of his sister Jutta’s letters to “The Professor, France” connects his past curiosity with the present moment, suggesting that his quest for knowledge and connection is still alive.
The blind girl (Marie-Laure LeBlanc, as known from the broader novel) is introduced from Werner’s perspective. She embodies grace, innocence, and resilience. Despite her blindness and the wear of war—runs in her stockings, too-large shoes, stained dress—she moves with ballerina-like precision. Her ability to navigate the city and the bakery independently contrasts with Werner’s paralysis and confusion.
Jutta Pfennig is briefly invoked through Werner’s memory. Her childhood letters to “The Professor” reveal her own longing for connection and mirror Werner’s current desire to reach out to the man he once heard on the radio.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Fog and Mist: The dense fog that surrounds the street symbolizes Werner’s moral blindness and his inability to see clearly what he should do. It also physically obscures the roofline, mirroring the hidden radio antenna that could condemn the old man.
- Blindness: The girl’s physical blindness contrasts with Werner’s own metaphorical blindness—he cannot see his way out of the war or his duty. Her inner sight (grace, counting steps) highlights his confusion.
- Purity and Innocence: Werner thinks of the girl as “the pure they were always lecturing about at Schulpforta.” In a world of war, her unselfconscious presence strikes him as a kind of untouched goodness.
- Connection and Isolation: Werner’s desire to discuss the broadcasts and the transmitter represents a longing for intellectual and human connection that war has denied him. The girl’s isolation (blindness) and his own (soldier’s uniform) are momentarily bridged by his silent observation.
- The Radio: Though not present in the scene, the radio from earlier chapters hovers as the reason Werner is drawn to this street. The girl’s dwelling (Number 4) is the same house where the signal originated, linking sound, memory, and fate.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter marks the first direct encounter between Werner and Marie-Laure, though they do not speak or interact. It sets the stage for their eventual meeting and mutual influence. Werner’s intense reaction shows that he is not yet fully consumed by the Nazi ideology; his humanity remains alive, triggered by this vulnerable girl. The chapter deepens the novel’s exploration of perception, fate, and the unseen forces that guide people toward one another. It also reinforces the motif of fog as both literal and symbolic obscurity.
Study Questions
1. Why does Werner imagine both a friendly welcome and an arrest of the old man?
Werner’s conflicting fantasies reflect his internal struggle between the humane curiosity that drew him to the Professor’s broadcasts and the brutal duty imposed by his military training. He still yearns for intellectual kinship, yet he knows that reporting the antenna would bring approval from his superiors. The two possibilities show war’s erosion of his moral compass.
2. What does the girl’s walking style reveal about her character?
Her “ballerina” steps, her counting deux trois quatre, and her ability to avoid a dog’s mess indicate a learned, graceful adaptation to blindness. Despite poverty and war, she has not lost her dignity or precision. Her independence and quiet confidence contrast with Werner’s agitation.
3. How does the memory of Jutta’s letters function in this scene?
Werner recalls Jutta writing “The Professor, France” on envelopes, hoping her voice would reach his ear as his had reached hers. This memory links the siblings’ shared past of radio fascination to Werner’s present situation. It reminds him of a time when human connection seemed possible, deepening his longing to speak to the old man and now to the girl.