Tamar door Mal Peet

Reading assignment: Tamar (Mal Peet) - Modern languages

A. Select one extract that struck you (made you laugh, cry, made you angry…). Copy it and motivate in more or less 80 words why you chose the extract.
Two little pieces of extracts:
- … Dart had almost reached the barn stairs when the shots – three, maybe four – split the air. He stopped dead, filled with a dreadful joy that almost made him cry out. Then he forced himself onwards, holding the revolver out in front of him with both hands. When he reached the upper floor he paused, peering through the baffling streams of light. There was a body sprawled beneath the trapdoor, half propped against the ladder. The head was thrown back over the left shoulder and Dart could not see the face. The clothes told him it was Tamar. He had obviously fallen through the hatch when Koop shot him. So Koop was still up there. Dart advanced down the aisle to within five metres of the body and stood ready to shoot him when he came down the ladder.
(p.412 – 413)

- … Dart raised his head and looked towards the stairs. He could see only the upper part of Marijke’s body. Her face was a white mask painted with huge eyes. She lowered the Sten and placed it on the floor before climbing the final steps. Dart got to his knees and held his arms out to her. She ignored both him and the man she had killed, and walked, entranced, towards the body at the foot of the ladder.
Dart said, “Marijke. My love, don’t.”
But by then she had got there and thrown her head back, and begun to howl like an animal.
(p. 415)

When Tamar was killed by Koop, I just couldn’t understand or believe it that Tamar was dead. I was dishevelled, incredulous. I began reading fast and expecting a moment when Tamar would stand up again and do a real big thing like shooting Dart just before he would get away with Marijke and, on that way, make sure that he and Marijke were safe again. It wouldn’t make any sense if he’d be dead. He was still there in the nineties with Marijke as ‘Gran’ and ‘Grandad’ of little Tamar? When that ‘saving’ moment still didn’t come, I got the suspect that all the time Dart had been William Hyde. I was of course really shocked when it actually came out. The book had a really surprising end.
(128 words)

B. What would you describe as the theme of the novel? Explain. Choose two extracts that clearly express this theme. Copy them and motivate your choice in about 100 words.
Everything together I think the theme of the book is war and its survival for the old Tamar and adventure for the young Tamar. Trying to survive in this crazy world and trying to understand all the unique people around you.
War and its Survival, Passion, Betrayal…:
- … He had no idea what to do. Something sagged inside him. It was hopeless. Marijke had been right; he had risked everything for nothing. He was exhausted. Marijke was pregnant with his child and maybe he didn’t have the energy or the luck to get back to her. His back and his arse ached. His brain ached. He was almost overwhelmed by the desire for warmth and safety and sleep. He slithered back to the pines and sat against the front wheel of the bike, savouring the warmth from the engine, the Sten across his lap. He would rest for a few minutes and then begin the dangerous journey back. (p.281)

Adventure: a word Yoyo uses in the book, is a good explanation for what Yoyo and Tamar are doing:“…So I s’pose this, this thing we’re doing, this…”
“Adventure?” Yoyo suggested.
And I thought what a ridiculous old-fashioned word that was. Typical . Yoyo. It was about right though, no denying it.
(p. 249)

Stuff got revealed in their ‘adventure’:
- … When we clambered back up the road, we heard the sound of an approaching vehicle and pressed ourselves against the hedge to let it pass. It was a dark blue Land-Rover coated in reddish dust. Sunlight flashed off its windscreen, making the driver invisible. We turned to walk back to the Saab but stopped and looked when we heard the other vehicle brake, its engine revving hard then falling to a soft chug? It had halted on the far side of the bridge. I thought that maybe it was the farmer who owned the land, and felt a little flicker of anxiety. But no one got out. We could see that the driver had turned in his seat to watch us. (p. 384) … - We walked back to the car. I was leaning on the gate, gazing back, when Yoyo nudged my arm and gestured with his head. The blue Land-Rover was parked about twenty metres on front of the Saab. The driver’s door swung open and a man stepped out. He stood and watched us for a long moment and then walked towards us. He was wearing a faded denim shirt. He had the of an old man but didn’t move like one. I heard Yoyo speak my name but his voice seemed to come from a long distance; I had that thickness inside my ears that you get on aeroplanes. And I couldn’t look at him, because I was watching the other man’s face and he was watching mine. He stopped just beyond the reach of my arms.
He said, “Tamar?”
The edges of my world melted.
I heard myself say, “Dad?”
(p. 388)

For the old Tamar, but also for Marijke, Trixie, Albert, the nuns, Dart, Koop and his men, Bibi and Pieter,… the war has been a real frightening period of their lifes. I think war and survival describes quite well what they’ve been trough. They’ve suffered from hunger, they’ve had a lot of anxious, frightening moments. 5 years of their lives they’ve spent walking on their toes to please the Germans, to not do anything that would cause any problems. They’ve been exploited, but a part of them got trough it, a part of them survived…
For the young Tamar I think adventure is a good word to describe her life on her fifteenth. She had to bear a lot with her dad, her mom and Albert, her Gran going to a home, her Grandad killing himself… But still she’d got the courage to do a big thing, to go on an adventure, while she didn’t even know what she was supposed to do, supposed to find. She changed from that city girl to a young, mature woman because of the trip.

C. Which character did you like best? Why? Motivate your answer in more or less 80 words and select an extract that confirms your choice.
Extract:
-… She turned then and faced him. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and folded her arms again, hugging herself.
“I’m so angry,” she said. “I was all right until you came back. I’d given up. So many terrible things. Relatives, neighbours disappearing. Opa. The bloody Germans coming up to … to strip us bare. Oma’s silence. Bam, bam, bam. Like being punched over and over again. You get numb. It doesn’t hurt any more. Unless you start to hope. That’s the trick, you see, you can take any amount of shit unless you start to hope.”
“Marijke, come on –“
“No, listen. If you weren’t here and Oma died, I’d deal with it. Because there’d be nothing more to lose. It’d be just me. But now it’s different; it’s worse. Because you’re yet another person to lose. You do stupid, dangerous things, and every time you go away I pray in agony that you’ll come back. It’s unfair. Hope is pulling me to pieces. I can’t stand it. I really don’t think I can stand it. Can you imagine a life for me if I lose you as well?”
(p. 229)

Marijke; she stays strong, although she had to face a lot of fear and hunger and had put herself and her grandmother in danger by letting Tamar in at the Maartens Farm. She does this because of love. After Tamar dies I think it will be really hard for her to go on with her life. The dead of Tamar was something she feared, her parents and grandparents had already died, Tamar was the only one she still had. She must have been really strong to go on with her life. She took a lot of responsibility for the education of Tamar. She takes care of half, maybe even more, of the development of little Tamar. I think she was a really persistent woman.

D. Write in about 100 words why you like/dislike the novel. Motivate your answer with arguments.
I didn’t really dislike the novel, but I also didn’t like it. It took a long time until I got attached to the book, until the action came. I’m from the opinion that the interesting pieces just began after about page 250 or so. I think the book started when Marijke told Tamar she was pregnant. From then on I started reading quicker, I didn’t get distracted anymore, because of the exciting and kind of scary moments; for example when Tamar goes searching for Koop and his group on the motorbike. I have to say I liked the book in the end. From page 265 until 434 I didn’t stop reading anymore, there weren’t any lengthy moments from then on. I liked to read all the exciting extracts, and participate in Tamar developing from city girl to a wise young woman. I think their was a good-chosen end, something nobody expected, something really surprising…
(154 words)

E. Look for a review on the Internet, in a newspaper… in which the writer’s analyses different aspects of the book. Read the review and compare the writer’s opinion with yours e.g. say whether you agree with the writer or not and add arguments. The review should contain more than 400 words. Don’t forget to mention the source.
Review:
I realized my review is coming years after this wonderful book's release, but I wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. Enough to use it in a book group I conduct. My heart was pounding from the start as I anticipated the men parachuting into Holland during World War II. The love story, the competition between underground factions as well as the competition between the two young men were well handled and riveting.

The details about the horrors the Dutch endured under the Nazi occupation educated me about something I never knew.

I believe Peet's handling of the material is well-suited for both adults and young people.

Well done!

The source: www.amazon.com ; a site where you can buy books and see the customer’s review about the book.

The writer says her heart was pounding from the start, but I have to say that I really didn’t like the book in the beginning. There was no action, everything was quite lengthy. I was distracted after half a page when I was reading it, I just didn’t get attached. From the moment Marijke tells she’s pregnant, I think then the story begins, there comes interesting stuff to read and exciting, sometimes revealing moments.
Like she does, is liked the love story. I love novels with passion in it. I sometimes empathized myself with the story; I almost wanted to tell Dart by myself that Tamar and Marijke were a couple, that he didn’t have to make an effort, and that he had to let the two lovers live their live. It think it’s horrible what Dart has done to his best friend, he killed Tamar, just because of jealousy.
The book educated me a lot too, like it did to her. I was shocked by some things the Nazis could do, for example kill Marijke’s grandfather without a reason, kill all the prisoners because Rauter was shot etc. I didn’t know at first that there was só much hunger.
I think Mal Peet has searched really good to know all those things that happened at the SOE. I have a lot of respect for him how he was able to combine all those things and learned me that much about the war.

F. Creative writing: choose one of the following assignments.
( 1) Write a letter to one of the characters in the book in which you either show your sympathy towards him/her or in which you show that you disapprove of something he/she did in the story. )

2) The box Tamar receives is of vital importance to the story. Describe the moment of Tamar opens the box and discovers part of the mystery. Add new elements to the box which in fact will lead to a new quest for the girl.

When young Tamar opened the box, her heart was banging. She took it out of her wardrobe and went downstairs really quick, so she couldn’t change her mind anymore. It must have been a really exciting moment for her, she’d waited 3 months to open it, she’d dreamed about it a few times… When she opened it and found things she didn’t even knew what it was, she felt a bit disappointed, not knowing with to do with it. She also knew that opening the box would distract her too much from her exams, but she still did it. She immediately felt regret when she’s opened it, because she knew that she had to find out what all those things meant. It’s the beginning of a whole journey for her.
(on p. 205 – 209)

If there would be lying other things in the box, I would choose for things that would lead her to Holland. Yoyo could perfectly guide her there. To get her in Holland, I could put the maps of Holland in the box. The maps old Tamar had with him of sanctuary farm. Maybe still the pass of ‘Christiaan Boogart’, because this could also lead her to Holland. I could also add for example a remainder of the Marionette House. She would head to Holland and go to the marked Sanctuary farm. In Maartens farm she’ll find nothing, but if she goes further and heads for the asylum, she’ll find Albert Veening there, on older age but still living there. He’ll tell her about Tamar and Dart and what all happened with Tamar, Marijke, Koop and Dart in the last extract of the book about the war.