All the Broken Places

Gretel reads about the life of Marie Antoinette. Research Marie Antoinette and discuss the similarities and differences between the two women.

Gretel has many personality traits. She can be funny, assertive, judgmental, and secretive. Discuss Gretel’s multilayered characterization and how it does or doesn’t create a disarming main character.

In the Author’s Note, Boyne concedes that writing about the Holocaust carries a burden but not “[t]he burden of education” (477). What does Boyne mean by this? What does the reader learn from All the Broken Places, even if the author didn’t mean to teach the reader anything?

Unpack Gretel’s reasons for killing Alex: How does her action relate to her past? What part of her past is she trying to make amends for? Is killing one person supposed to compensate for, arguably, complicity in a status quo that systematically murdered millions of people?

In the Author’s Note, Boyne claims “[I]t is easy when one is far removed from a historical episode to claim that one would not have acted as others did, but it is far more difficult to show such basic humanity in the moment” (476). Do some research and find people in Gretel’s moment—the Holocaust—who didn’t stay quiet like Gretel. What motivated them to break the silence and shine light on their family, friends’, or neighbors’ actions?

Discuss All the Broken Places as a comment on the MeToo movement. How does Alex’s behavior reflect the behavior of men in the entertainment industry? How does the focus on the entertainment industry support claims that the MeToo movement is mostly concerned with women in well-off spaces? How does Gretel bring Alex to justice?

Henry reminds Gretel of her late brother, Bruno. What do Henry and Bruno have in common? How are their situations different?

Why does Gretel’s father take her inside the concentration camp? What does she learn? What doesn’t she understand? How does the visit support the claim that she didn’t know a genocide was occurring?