“My Pal With the Long Hair” by Heinrich Boll

The name itself is an understatement. “My Pal With the Long Hair” is not about just a pal, but presumably the narrator’s wife. A common theme between the two short stories is the use of trains and allusion to Germany’s poor living conditions. The girl is described as having grey eyes and is dark, mysterious almost, and mirrors one in mourning with her dark black hair and pale face. It can be inferred that she is a Jew. Both she and the narrator are homeless and seem to be on the run. They go to a town where neither of them has ever been. The narrator gives away tons of money and cigarettes, which can mean that he is generous or knows he is about to lose everything.  The fact that he “instinctively [makes] a rough calculation as to the cash that must be lying around” (24) could uphold the image of the stereotypical Jew for the narrator, for moments before police were ransacking the surrounding block. The narrator is very calm, but he still removes himself from the situation making me believe that he is either Jewish or in opposition to the Nazis. A line that stuck out to me was “nowhere, nowhere could a fellow feel safe” (26), which leads me further to believe in my presumption.

            It can be assumed that Boll’s short stories are about the war given, his opposition to it. He alludes to the Rhine River in both of the ones I have read and the train is a common place of mystery and discovery. In both stories the women are depicted in a grey manner and he notices the legs of them. The fct that he points out the legs could have something to do with escaping and fleeing versus standing their ground, for the women in the two stories differ in that in “My Pal with the Long Hair” the lady runs away with the narrator where as in “After the Bridge” the women remain in the same place with time being the only thing changing around them.