Throughout Elizabeth Wein’s Rose Under Fire, the protagonist Rose develops not only physically, but mentally as the but progresses due to the influences of the war and her relationship with the Germans in Ravensbrück. In the book, Rose has changed a lot, and it has affected her as a person. She’s not the normal Rose before World War II. Rose possesses some very serious disabilities and disorders that Wein delivers to the reader as they read the novel.

For instance, as Wein writes this novel, she provides different details and hints that one can analyze. As Rose tells her story, she says: “I am scared of anything arbitrary now- of anything that happens suddenly. I am scared of the telephone ringing... I am scared of loud noises in the street. I am scared of dogs, and of talking to people for the first time.” (Wein, 114). Rose describes how she is scared of all things arbitrary, and this is a side effect of her time in Ravensbrück. And how did she get in Ravensbrück? Because of the war going on outside the walls. Prisoners come here whether they are prisoners of war, political prisoners, or just people that defied the German law, and Rose ended up here as a prisoner of war. The Germans, and the war going on outside influence her change in the story mentally. …show more content…
She illustrates her body and her current physical state in a few sentences: “I still have this exhausting, rib-cracking cough. If I stand looking out the window for more than ten minutes, I get so tired I have to sit down. Out of an entire hotel menu, I can’t keep down anything more exciting than unsweetened rice pudding or boiled macaroni with nothing in it… even sleep is exhausting.” (Wein, 103). This is just an addition to all the problems she has mentally. The war, the Germans, and the things that happened in Ravensbrück changed Rose, and led to her development in the