Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

In 1941, Alfons has his first doubts about going into the priesthood. He doubts his faith, though not due to the Hitler Youth many of whose leaders are Catholic. He and his friends talk about girls but they only masturbate. The Hitler Youth is puritanical because it wants strong men not in love with anything but war and conquest. Women are second-class citizens and Hitler teaches that women are mothers and guardians of the hearth.

The Hitler Youth activities keep Alfons busy. Frequent prayer and threats from the confessional usually combat lust but this becomes an uphill battle when his grandmother hires an 18-year-old female farmhand named Hanna. She often taunts him with her large breasts and one day they are alone in the vineyard when she pulls him off to the tool shed. Alfons is never in love with her, and...