Allies

Henry is a 20-year-old US medic who is Black. He comes from Chicago, is a talented student, and has ambitions of becoming a doctor. However, from his first days in the military, Henry confronts blatant racism from his superiors, who deny him the chance of becoming an officer (182-183), call him racial slurs, and doubt his medical judgment on the battlefield.

Despite these obstacles, Henry is selfless, personable, and capable. He gives his commanding officer medical treatment, even though the officer mistreated and humiliated him and other Black soldiers. Henry regards everyone around him as his equal and deserving of help, and he views his role in the military as a legitimate way to express the value of service and as a way for him to continue learning and growing. He also connects his work of repairing bodies with the work of repairing his country’s racial injustices, reflecting, “First they fixed Nazi Germany, then they fixed the United States. No, Henry thought. First I fix this foot” (194). Rather than despairing or becoming bitter, Henry chooses to act in a selfless and dignified way. In return, the officer who previously abused him shows Henry respect by addressing him as “Corporal” rather than the racial slurs Henry has grown used to from him (193-194). Gratz uses Henry’s character to integrate historical racism experienced by minorities, particularly the Black community, in the US military (318-320). Gratz also includes themes of racial injustice in Samira’s story and through the character of James’s friend Sam, an indigenous Canadian.

Monique is a 13-year-old French girl who lives near the beaches where the Allies invade. Her identity as a local resident leads to her presence on the battlefield as she hides in the changing hut where she left her bathing suit, an identity that will yield important dividends when she knows that she and Dorothy can safely disregard the German sign warning of mines in Chapter 55. At the beginning of her section of the book, Monique is characterized as timid, submissive, and held back from helping others because of her own fears.

As the section progresses, Monique becomes increasingly self-assured and courageous, despite the fact that she encounters danger and sexism as she helps the wounded, standing up to the officer who tells her and Dorothy not to help (280-281). This character arc is completed when Monique’s old identity (an observant local who knows the area well) and new (a confident, capable nurse-in-training) converge when she and Dorothy get past the sign to help Dee.

James is an “everyman” character:

[He had] one of those unremarkable faces no one could remember. He was of average height and average build. Whenever he was told to line up alphabetically, his last name—McKay—put him right in the middle […] James was absolutely average. He had never done a single thing in his life to stand out, good or bad (76).

Gratz uses James’s ordinariness to provide a character arc for James as D-Day progresses. James will eventually earn recognition from his superiors for his quick thinking and ingenuity as the Canadians attack the Nazi headquarters, which excites him at first: “The captain called me exceptional. […] It was the first time in his life he could remember anybody ever calling him anything but average” (125). Such recognition then begins to trouble his sense of morality: “But what did that say about him? That he was average and forgettable as a civilian, but as a soldier he was exceptional and commendable? Was that the person he wanted to be?” (125). This quote also develops the motif of identity. Even as someone who doesn’t have a dual identity as the novel opens like other characters do, James acquires one: He is either the unexceptional civilian or the exceptional soldier; he isn’t certain which he prefers.

James ultimately finds meaning in his contribution to D-Day only when he and Sam encounter the French family who have been mistreated by the Nazis in Chapter 26, which moves his focus away from himself and onto the people the Allies are trying to liberate. He thinks, “He was going to keep fighting the Nazis as hard as he could until all of France was liberated. And then he was going to move on to Belgium, and the Netherlands, and everywhere else the Nazis had conquered. He was going to free every last country where If Day had come horribly true” (132). By finding a cause greater than himself, James becomes motivated to continue on in the war.