In the book She loves You by Ann Hood, and The boy who dared by Susan Campbell, both of the main characters have a lot of differences and also similarities.Trudy from the first book is a girl that participated indirectly in the Vietnam War living in the USA in the time of the protestants. She used the Beatles music as a way to distract herself from everything that was happening in the USA, for example the dead of President Kennedy and the protests that were really loud at the streets.In the book “The boy who dared”, the main character is a boy called Helmuth, that lives in Germany in the time that Hitler was applying to be their president, he was in favor of Hitler, but then his ideas started changing when he started to fell observed. The president activated an emergency decree, having access to the private information of everybody,because of the Reichstag that was burned, using the fire to claim the communists.
Helmuth used the radio as a way to feel connected to the protestants, because he wasn’t old enough to go cheer for Hitler win, starting to imagine him in the streets, just like Trudy that also used the radio to listen to the Beatles. Both of the main character used this object to feel connected to something, as a way to distract themselves to the real world.Through the stories we can see that Trudy and Helmuth always fight for their rights,not caring for others opinions, like Trudy that never gave up to go to the Beatles concert and Helmuth that it didn’t matter what people sad about Hitler he always keep his opinion, but always stayed in alert from what was happening to German not falling for his ideas.
The main characters have different perspectives of their families because Trudy has a good connection with her parents principality with her dad, having in common the types of music that they listen, like the Beatles and Frank Sinatra, wanting to go to the concerts and laugh when her mom doesn’t understand her style of music , but Helmuth is different because his father is dead and her mom is dating a guy that he hates. He was bad for her and also friend of the Nazis, being able to do anything for his attentions,not defending jewish people when they needed and also triting Helmuth with no respect, and ignoring the fact that he was part of the family too.
Both of the authors of the book designed their character to demonstrate what was happening in their lives as a way for us to learn more about the Second World War and the Vietnam War, using the perspective of the characters for the readers to have an idea of what it was happening at the time.Ann Hood create her characters in a less hard way to explain the tragedy that was happening in the Vietnam War, designing Trudy to work on a indirect participation in the conflict.Differently from Ann, Susan Campell, uses her books for us to have an idea, of what it was happening in the Second World War, for us to see the perspective of Helmuth with the conflict, using the direct participation of the character in the war for us to realize what they were being through.
So in conclusion both of the main characters are students trying to live a normal life while passing through a difficult time of war.The way that they deal with their problems is very similar, because both feel connected to something in common,like the radio, feeling distracted and in a good feeling of comfort, forgetting all of their problems while listening to this object. Helmuth prefers to intervene in politics, daring and risking his life for his country.Trudy is a normal teenager that loves the Beatles,and risks her to go to the Beatles concert. This characteristic of risk is a thing that both of them have in common,using this characteristic in a good way for them to dare themselves, like when Helmuth was living in the time of the Second World War and Trudy when she dared going to the Beatles concert alone.
