Point of View

The point of view of White Rose, Black Forest is third-person, almost exclusively through the eyes and thoughts of Franka Gerber who, aside from John Lynch a.k.a. Werner Graf, is the main protagonist in the novel. As a result, the reader is most emotionally invested with Franka and her travails through Nazi Germany. However, her point of view is not reliable, as Franka is not an omniscient narrator and often speculates about John's identity before he tells her that Werner is his cover identity. Franka is also often idealistic and has strong beliefs in what is right and wrong, though her moral compass changes throughout her life; as the reader learns, Franka goes from being a member of the German Girls as a young girl to working in the White Rose organization against the Nazis. Franka’s unreliability and moral evolution draws attention...