Eye of the Needle

“The song spread through the crowd until everyone was singing. Godliman joined in, knowing that this was a nation losing a war and singing to hide its fear, as a man will whistle past the graveyard at night; knowing that the sudden affection he felt for London and Londoners was an ephemeral sentiment, akin to mob hysteria; mistrusting the voice inside him that said, ‘This, this is what the war is about; this is what makes it worth fighting’; knowing but not caring, because for the first time in so many years he was feeling the sheer physical thrill of comradeship and he liked it.”

Percy is introduced as a distracted historian who is interested only in his current project. Yet, this moment during an air raid shows another side of Percy. He is clearly a lonely man, widowed and anxious for human connection. This touches on the theme of Isolation and Community in Wartime, showing that even though Percy has friends and coworkers, he still feels isolated by the death of his wife, and this moment reminds him he is still a part of a community, inspiring him to join MI5 to hunt for German spies.

“Driving through England in the blackout was a weird experience. One missed lights that one hadn’t realized were there before the war: lights in cottage porches and farmhouse windows, lights on cathedral spires and inn signs, and—most of all—the luminous glow, low in the distant sky, of the thousand lights of a nearby town. Even if one had been able to see, there were no signposts to look at; they had been removed to confuse the German parachutists who were expected any day. (Just a few days ago in the Midlands, famers had found parachutes, radios and maps, but since there were no footprints leading away from the objects, it had been concluded that no men had landed, and the whole thing was a feeble Nazi attempt to panic the population.)”

Follet sets the scene by describing how the war has impacted the country roads, making driving at night dangerous. This foreshadows the accident that is about to take place. Not only does this show how the war impacts the lives of those living in Britain, but it also introduces one of the many ways Germany is getting their spies into the country without the risk of being stopped at the border. This begins the look into the ill-trained and inexperienced spies that Germany sends to Britain.

“Foreigners have spies; Britain has Military Intelligence. As if that were not euphemism enough, it is abbreviated to MI. In 1940, MI was part of the War Office. It was spreading like crabgrass at the time—not surprisingly—and its different sections were known by numbers: MI9 ran the escape routes from prisoner-of-war camps through Occupied Europe to neutral countries; MI8 monitored enemy wireless traffic, and was more value than six regiments; MI6 sent agents into France.

It was MI5 that Professor Percival Godliman joined in the autumn of 1940.”

Follet gives an explanation of the military intelligence division in Britain during wartime to better help the reader understand the agency for which Percy works. This explanation also gives a brief overview of the complicated roles required to keep track of the activities in intelligence associated with wartime. This information is important for the reader to understand what role Percy and Bloggs play in military intelligence and why Colonel Terry is in charge of their department.

“This is a hard place. Only hard things survive here: hard rock, coarse grass, tough sheep, savage birds, sturdy houses and strong men.

It is for places like this that the word ‘bleak’ has been invented.”

Follet introduces Storm Island with a description that foreshadows the events that will take place here. The island is described as a place where only the strongest survive before bringing Lucy and David Rose here. It has not yet been revealed that David loses both his legs or that Lucy will decide to fight for her marriage despite her unhappiness, or that both Lucy and David will fight for their lives on this island. Yet, the description Follet gives the place sets the scene for these moments and foreshadows Lucy’s heroic deeds at the end of the novel.

“Yes, it was his way of being strong. And perhaps she could be strong, too. She might find ways of patching up the wreck of her life. David had once been good and kind and loving, and she might now learn to wait patiently while he battled to become the complete man he used to be. She could find new hopes, new things to live for. Other women had found the strength to cope with bereavement, and bombed-out houses, and husbands in prisoner-of-war camps.”

Lucy struggles with David’s frame of mind in the aftermath of the car accident that took place on their wedding night. When Lucy realizes that things are not going to change quickly, she struggles with the decision to remain in the marriage or leave. This moment is Lucy’s decision to stay and wait for David to come back to her, showcasing her strength of character and The Cost of Loyalty. The context of the war impacts her decision, as she realizes that many people are being forced to endure extraordinary difficulties.

“‘Unsolved crimes,’ said Godliman. ‘Look—a spy is bound to break the law. He forges papers, he steals petrol and ammunition, he evades checkpoints, he enters restricted areas, he takes photographs, and when people rumble him he kills them. The police are bound to get to know of some of these crimes if the spy has been operating any length of time. If we go through the unsolved crimes files since the war, we’ll find traces.’”

Percy recognizes that Faber is more intelligent and better trained than the other German spies they have been dealing with lately. Percy also understands the psychology of a spy, making him the ideal person to be hunting Faber at this point in time. Percy also foreshadows Faber’s actions later in the novel by suggesting a spy might sneak into restricted areas and take photographs, something Faber does in the following chapters.

“‘My father-in-law is a German Jew. He came here in 1935 to escape Hitler, and in 1940 you put him in a concentration camp. His wife killed herself at the prospect. He has just been released from the Isle of Man. He had a letter from the King, apologizing for the inconvenience to which he had been put.’

Bloggs said, ‘We don’t have concentration camps.’

‘We invented them. In South Africa. Didn’t you know? We go on about our history, but we forget bits. We’re so good at blinding ourselves to unpleasant facts.’

‘Perhaps it’s just as well.’

‘What?’

‘In 1939 we blinded ourselves to the unpleasant fact that we alone couldn’t win a war with Germany—and look what happened.’”

Follet uses history throughout his novel to ground the reader in the time and place of his setting. This discussion of concentration camps acknowledges the atrocities Germany committed against Jews during World War II, but it also suggests that Britain’s own actions have been far from unimpeachable.

“The captain slowed, then collapsed into a bush. Faber came up to him and turned him over.

The captain said, ‘You’re a…devil.’

‘You saw my face,’ Faber said, and killed him.”

Faber kills often, and each time, he gives a reason. Just like when he killed the German spy in London, Faber tells the captain of the Home Guard who caught him coming out of a restricted area that he saw his face. Faber clearly is interested in protecting his anonymity in order to keep himself safe as working as a spy, but his desire to kill everyone who has seen his face, using the same weapon every time, leaves a trail of victims that allows MI5 to trace him across the country. Faber’s behavior reveals the ruthlessness of his character, but it also shows a crack in his ruthlessness in that each killing causes him to become physically ill. This foreshadows a moment later in the novel when Faber cannot bring himself to kill.

“The possibility that, having discovered the most important secret of the war, he might die and his secret die with him, was too awful to think about.”

Faber reveals a part of his character when he thinks of the photographs he has taken of Patton’s fake First United States Army Group. Faber is clearly a patriot, and he wants Germany to be successful in World War II. His patriotism is what has driven him to become a spy and to fight to get this information. Faber’s thoughts here not only touch on the theme of The Cost of Loyalty, but it also foreshadows the end of the novel when Faber comes close to rendezvousing with the U-boat.

“‘Did I ever tell you they called her Fearless Bloggs?’

‘Yes, you did.’

Bloggs finally looked at Godliman. ‘Tell me, where in the world will I find another girl like that?’

‘Does she have to be a hero?’

‘After Christine…’”

Bloggs and Percy discuss remarriage after the death of a spouse. This conversation is significant not only because it touches on Bloggs’s motivation for continuing the search for Faber, his desire to make sure Britain wins the war, but also because it foreshadows the conclusion of the novel. Follet plants the idea here that a woman can be a hero, and he also suggests that Bloggs will eventually remarry and that his new wife will be just as heroic as Christine had been.

“So that was the man who had discovered what Die Nadel looked like.

An amateur.

Well, he would make amateur mistakes. Sending Billy Parkin had been one: Faber had recognized the boy. Godliman should have sent someone Faber did not know. Parkin had a better chance of recognizing Faber, but no chance at all of surviving the encounter. A professional would have known that.”

The comparison of amateur and expert has been batted around in the novel from the moment Percy joined MI5 and Terry explained how most of the German spies were untrained and inexperienced, making them easy to catch. Now the concept has been reversed with the expert German spy, Faber, labeling Percy as the amateur in the aftermath of Parkin’s death. This moment is important because Faber uses this experience to underestimate Percy in a way that will come back to haunt him at the end of the novel.

“The danger of being stopped by someone who was looking specifically for Henry Faber, fugitive spy, was another problem. They had that picture—

They knew his face. His face!

—and before long they would have a description of the car in which he was traveling.”

Faber’s survival depends on isolation. Faber knows that once people have the means to recognize him, he will lose his ability to move around Britain without hinderance. This is why Faber has told his murder victims that they are dying because they saw his face, and why the idea that MI5 has a picture of him upsets him so much. This foreshadows Faber’s decision to return to Germany despite his success as a spy.

“It was not a boat anymore, of course; that was what was so shocking about it. All that was left were the large timbers of the deck and the keel. They were scattered on the rocks below the cliffs like a dropped handful of matches. It had been a big boat, Lucy realized. One man might have piloted it alone, but not easily. And the damage the sea had wrought on it was awesome. It was hard to detect two bits of wood still joined together.

How, in heaven’s name, had their stranger come out of it alive?”

Lucy’s assessment of Faber’s boat in the aftermath of his shipwreck is important for several reasons. First, it reveals to Lucy that Faber’s story of a shipwreck is true, but the size of the boat should cause her to wonder what he was doing out in the storm on such a large boat alone. Second, the sight of the broken boat at the bottom of the cliff foreshadows the moment later in the novel when she will find David’s body at the bottom of the cliff and when she will toss a rock at Faber to cause him to fall off a cliff. Finally, this moment underscores the isolation of Storm Island and the terrible effects of the storm that is brewing both physically and metaphorically around her.

“But he knew something that neither Barbara nor her son was aware of: Peter was going to France on D-Day.

And whether or not the Germans were there waiting for him depended on whether they caught Die Nadel.”

Percy reflects on a new relationship with a woman he’s met in London and her son, whom the woman introduced to Percy. Everyone has a motivation for the work they do during wartime, and Percy is no exception. However, he has new motivation in this relationship and the fact that his girlfriend’s son will soon be deployed to France. This increases Percy’s determination to stop Farber and shows a depth of loyalty he feels not only to his country, but also to those he cares about, touching on the theme of The Cost of Loyalty.

“‘I’m Henry Baker.’ Faber did not know why he had said that; he had no papers in that name. Henry Faber was the man the police were hunting, so he was right to have used his James Baker identity; but somehow he wanted this woman to call him Henry, the nearest English equivalent of his real name, Heinrich.”

Faber has been isolated by choice due to his profession, exploring the theme of isolation, without giving any indication that he would prefer things to be any different. However, the toll of isolation is beginning to show on him as he settles on Storm Island with Lucy and David and finds himself drawn to Lucy. The fact that he wants her to call him by his real name shows a crack in his control and professionalism that foreshadows a deeper issue when Faber struggles to survive conflict with Lucy.

“It was the kind of wish that, in her scheme of things, afflicted men but not women. A woman might meet a man briefly and find him attractive, want to get to know him better, even begin to fall in love with him; but she did not feel an immediate physical desire, not unless she was…abnormal.”

Lucy struggles with her sexual attraction to Faber not only because he is not her husband, but also because she has been taught that women do not have these kinds of feelings. Women seek love, not sexual gratification. David has reinforced this opinion by chastising her before their wedding for wanting to have sex with him. This moment not only explores Lucy’s loneliness, unhappiness in her marriage, and sense of isolation, but it shows an almost innocent side of her character that starkly contrasts with the strength she displays in later chapters.

“He has been assigned to assess the strength of the First United States Army Group under Patton’s command in the eastern part of England. If he finds—as I am certain he will—that that army is large, strong, and ready to move, then I shall continue to oppose you. However, if he finds that FUSAG is somehow a bluff—a small army masquerading as an invasion force—then I shall concede that you are right, and you shall have your panzers.”

General Rommel has a discussion with General Guderian about moving more German forces to Normandy in order to protect the area during an invasion by Allied forces. Guderian’s reasons for not moving the panzer division are based on intelligence that the British have manipulated. This moment illustrates how important it is for Percy and Bloggs to stop Faber from reporting in with the pictures he has of FUSAG. It is clear that if Faber were to be successful, D-Day would go much differently from how history remembers it.

“‘It’s not fair,’ he screamed, and then his hand came away from the crevice.

He seemed to hang in midair for a moment, then dropped bouncing twice against the cliff on his way down, until he hit the water with a splash.

Faber watched for a while to make sure he did not come up again. ‘Not fair? Not fair? Don’t you know there’s a war on?’”

David’s sense of fairness has been under strain ever since the accident that cost him his legs. David had been looking forward to going to war and becoming a hero, and the accident deprived him of that opportunity. It is clear from his coldness toward Lucy and his son that he feels this change in his life was unfair. His death at Faber’s hands looks to him like a final unfairness. Faber’s incredulous response illustrates his worldview: In wartime, notions of fairness are irrelevant.

“He needed to invent a lie to explain to Lucy what had become of her husband. She wouldn’t have heard the shotgun so far away, he knew. He might, of course, tell her the truth; there was nothing she could do about it. However, if she became difficult he might have to kill her, and he had an aversion to that. Driving slowly along the cliff top through the pouring rain and howling wind, he marveled at this new thing inside him, this scruple. It was the first time he had ever felt reluctance to kill. It was not that he was amoral—to the contrary. He had made up his mind that the killing he did was on the same moral level as death on the battlefield, and his emotions followed his intellect. He always had the physical reaction, the vomiting, after he killed, but that was something incomprehensible that he ignored.

So why did he not want to kill Lucy?

The feeling was on par, he decided, with the affection that drove him to send the Luftwaffe erroneous directions to St. Paul’s Cathedral: a compulsion to protect a thing of beauty. She was a remarkable creation, as full of loveliness and subtlety as any work of art.”

Faber reflects on his reluctance to kill Lucy, foreshadowing a time when killing Lucy might have avoided trouble for Faber. Throughout the novel, Faber has appeared to be a hard man with no conscience. His tendency to be sick after a killing was the only indication that he might have regrets for his actions. In this moment, however, Faber reveals that he does have a soft spot for things of beauty, showing a part of himself that allows the reader to connect on a human level. This moment not only foreshadows Faber’s fight with Lucy, but it also makes him more sympathetic on the day before he meets his end.

“Lucy suddenly realized that Henry simply had no conception of the complex tangle of loyalties and obligations that constituted a marriage. Any marriage, but especially hers.”

Cracks begin to form in the relationship Lucy is developing with Faber as she becomes aware of his lack of understanding when it comes to her relationship with David. While most people would observe Lucy and David’s relationship and assume there was little affection there, it is clear by this observation that Lucy still loves David. She has remained by his side for more than four years, hoping to wait out his anger from the accident and repair their relationship, showing her sense of loyalty despite the struggle David has created for her. It is loyalty that she sees lacking in Faber, an issue that will begin to help Lucy see the truth about him.

“The conclusion came first, like a punch to the stomach, winding her; the reason followed a split second later. The shipwreck, the odd-shaped knife he was so attached to, the crashed jeep, the news bulletin about the London stiletto murderer—suddenly everything fitted together, a box of jigsaw pieces thrown in the air and landing, improbably, fully assembled.”

Lucy begins to put the pieces together and realize Faber is not who she thought he was. This is the beginning of the end, and Lucy shows her true character when she puts it all together but doesn’t allow Faber to know that she knows. Lucy’s actions foreshadow the end of the novel in which she becomes the hero of the story by saving herself from Faber.

“She slipped in the wet mud and fell to her knees. She began to cry. For a second she was tempted to stay there, and let him catch her and kill her the way he had killed her husband, and then she remembered the child in her arms and she got up and ran.”

Everyone has motivation for what they do. Percy is motivated not only by a sense of community with his fellow Londoners, but also by a desire to protect the son of his new lover. Bloggs is motivated by a desire to get revenge for the death of his wife, Christine. Lucy is not only motivated by a desire to live, but by a need to protect her young child. Having Jo to protect makes Lucy both more vulnerable and more determined to survive her current situation, underscoring the purpose of Jo in the narration.

“Faber looked at the empty light socket with the chair beneath it. He frowned in amazement.

She had done it with her hand.

Faber said: ‘Jesus Christ Almighty.’

Lucy’s eyes opened.

She hurt all over.

Henry was standing over her with the gun in his hands. He was saying, ‘Why did you use your hand? Why not a screwdriver?’

‘I didn’t know you could do it with a screwdriver.’”

In Lucy, Follet has created a character who is both strong and innocent. Lucy has suffered through dark years of a bad marriage and isolation on a bleak island only to come face to face with a ruthless German spy. She has exposed her innocence in her naivety in regard to sexual relations and her adolescent-like crush on Faber. Now she shows her determination to save herself and Jo from Faber, placing her own life in danger due as much to ignorance as to a lack of alternatives. Again, while showing Lucy’s innocence, Follet also showcases her strength.