Echo

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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Part 1, Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Friedrich Schmidt prepares to head to the harmonica factory where he works. It is his father Martin’s first day of retirement, so he will no longer protect Friedrich from the people who stare at the large birthmark on Friedrich’s face. His father, a cellist, is looking forward to starting a chamber music ensemble, and hopes his daughter Elisabeth will play piano when she returns from nursing school. Father and son speculate on whether or not Elisabeth miss them, and they agree that she must.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

Friedrich heads to the harmonica factory. On his walk, he thinks about the Nazi demand for a “pure German race” and experiences he’s had because of his birthmark. On his walk, he passes the music conservatory that he hopes to attend in the fall, and wonders, which would be worse: “to be accepted or to be refused” (47). He runs into his Uncle Gunter, who escorts him to work.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary

This chapter relays how Friedrich, at twelve, came to apprentice at a harmonica factory rather than attend school. At eight, he walked to school conducting; his sister Elisabeth warned him not to draw additional attention to himself, and risk nicknames such as “Monster Boy” (50). However, after conducting in the schoolyard, he is beaten up. When his father speaks to the headmaster, the headmaster implies that Friedrich is mentally unwell, and should be sent to an asylum. His father pulls him out of school, and Friedrich begins an internship at the harmonica factory, where he also receives lessons from his father and other employees.

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Friedrich begins his first day of work at his uncle’s workstation. A new employee, Anselm, harasses him, asking if it’s “nice to have private tutors,” and tells him that favoritism is looked down on in the “new Germany” (60). Uncle Gunter agrees that Friedrich is a favorite but offers this label as praise. With his boss, Ernst, Friedrich discusses the Star of David that adorns their harmonicas, and they wonder how long they will be able to keep it on their instruments. Uncle Gunter assures Friedrich that Ernst is not a Nazi, although he still cannot openly oppose Hitler’s policies.

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Uncle Gunter invites Friedrich to join him for lunch, but he goes to a pond to practice conducting. However, when he hears Braham’s Lullaby coming from a nearby building, he follows the sound. He is led to “the graveyard,” the place where old machinery from the harmonica factory goes to die (70). He enters, and the music ends, though he cannot find any people nearby. He opens a drawer, where he finds a harmonica ingrained with an “M.” Uncle Gunter assures him it is fine to keep it, and he begins to play it, noticing that its beautiful sound makes him feel safe: “He felt protected by the cloak of music, as if nothing could stand in his way” (77).

Part 1, Chapters 1-5 Analysis

The first five chapters introduce Friedrich Schmidt, a young man coming of age as the Nazi Party ascends in Germany. The large, plum-colored birthmark that covers half of his face is one of the many kinds of difference that are drawing increasing attention—and ire—due to Hitler’s hateful rhetoric. Therefore, it is established that the rise of Nazism poses a threat to Friedrich and his family.

Friedrich’s feeling of exclusion makes him both eager and afraid of auditioning for the music conservatory. He hopes that he will find acceptance but is afraid that this is impossible. While his father and uncle seek to increase his confidence in his talent and his likeability, he has doubts, especially when Anselm begins to harass him. He knows that there is a safety in accepting Nazi ideology, but like his family members, he is opposed to the hate that the Nazis espouse—hatred he has experienced firsthand.

When Friedrich finds Otto’s harmonica, however, it is implied that it may save his life. It seems to seek him out, and it gives him an unfamiliar sense of confidence and safety. Friedrich is already a musician, suggesting that the harmonica seeks out individuals who already know the power of music to free an individual mind or embolden someone to take a risk.