Who Is The Protagonist In Goodbye Lenin

East Germany, its demise relayed through the mass media of recent history, has in popular consciousness been posited as negative, a corrupt bulwark of the last dying days of Communism in Eastern Europe, barren and silent. The other Germany to its West, its citizens free, was striding confidently ahead into the millennium. Recent cinema has sought to examine re-unification, the Wolfgang Becker film Goodbye Lenin! (2003) a recent example of such an investigation into the past through cinema. In this essay I will look at the film and the narrative techniques it uses, probing whether it portrays the East German nation as positive or

Furthermore, throughout the film Wolfgang Becker also uses Cultural aspects of East Berlin and West Berlin. Wolfgang Becker also shows the differences between East and West living. In Goodbye Lenin Alex found it difficult to keep the reign of GDR alive, as East Berlin was becoming into West Berlin. Alex’s mother Christiane was making things more difficult for Alex as the supermarkets were emptied and it was almost impossible to find the food Christiane wanted e.g. Spreewald Pickles and Globus Peas (00:42:10). Alex uses old bottles and bottle labels that were found in the rubbish dump and fills them up with western food he buys from the supermarket (00:41:31) one reason behind this is so Alex’s mother Christiane does not find out about the changes

Set at the end of the Cold War in East Germany, the movie Goodbye Lenin is the story of a young man, Alex, trying to protect his mother, Christiane, who just spent the last eight months in a coma. Christiane is a personification of the values and ideology of socialism. She carries them out in her interactions with society, and is very hopeful towards the success of the regime. During her absence, the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the German Democratic Republic leads to a radical and turbulent change in society: the fall of socialism and the triumph of capitalism. Because of the shocking effect of such information and the danger of another heart attack, Alex creates for Christiane an ideological form of socialism. Fundamental themes in the movie are the difference between ideal and reality of socialism, as well as the positive and negative aspects of the transition to free market capitalism. Such themes are carried out through a juxtaposition of an ideal society and its reality in the form of a constructed reality of socialism. This idealized version of socialism served as an oasis from the chaotic transition from a problematic socialist regime to free market capitalism.

The political debate over the currency—tight money versus easy money—had equally bewildered early historians. Many Gilded Age farmers favored inflation to counteract the growing value of their debts after wheat and cotton prices nose-dived; some businessmen also liked easy money because low interest rates enabled them to expand operations. This issue tended to pit Westerners and Southerners, who needed cash for economic development, against the East, but it also had a powerful moral component. Those who favored a currency based on some intrinsic value such as gold stood divided from those who saw money as a flexible device for regulating the nation’s economic health. In the broadest sense, the currency debate highlighted the complexity of the national economy and the growing difference of opinion over the role of government in it. In 1964 Irwin Unger elucidated the subject in a Pulitzer Prize-winning analysis, The Greenback

Limitations exist amongst her interpretation of East Germany narrowing the audience that Funder attempts to permeate with obscure knowledge stored in the minds of endless victims. The subjective thoughts presented put a taint on the knowledge received, one can only consider her truth with a level of exactness if they too were raised in similar conditions as Funder. Therefore it provides the ability to compare the lifestyle you consider worthy of human activity with the occurrences in East Germany, whilst allowing perspective to be manipulated by experience in the environment Funder observes. The inclusion of judgements and conclusions provides us to interpret the situation further, due to her acknowledgement that we should not necessarily believe her – “You know they want to stop thinking about the past. They want to pretend it all didn’t happen”. Funder’s lack of experience prior to her journey makes her understanding of the past narrow. She is intent on the idea that revealing and using your past to create a future is necessary. The GDR controls the associated people to this day, without an appropriate explanation of the happenings it has left them with the inability to piece together the numerous aspects embedded in their thoughts. The missing parts dominate these

the lack of silver currency. It mentions how the money at the time became hard to come

In a world governed by the rule of currency has a major effect toward the amount an individual owns. The current world economy, labor is required in order to supply services to whomever is willing to buy. The amount of money distributed and earned throughout the economy feeds the nation 's GDP, which shows the stability of the overall economy of that nation. There is an imaginary sequence that must be established in an economy in order to balance both labor and revenue to stabilize a country’s economy.

Funder uses statistics sparingly, usually in great effect to impress the reader and add shock value to her research. She uses this omniscient voice as a means to convey the realities of the GDR and how oppressive it was. With facts and research contributing as background material in Stasiland , Funder chooses to demonstrate concerned involvement with the people which she interviews by making personal reflections as she investigates, thus adding a framework of rationality to her findings. Through Funder’s subjective descriptions of the ‘newly unified Germany’ , Anna herself becomes her own character ‘having Adventures in Stasiland’. As a foreigner, Anna depicts the former East Germany as a place which ‘made people feel small’ , though her insightful descriptions of the physical remnants of the communist government, additionally Anna gives personal descriptions of the former GDR’s citizens. This first person narration by Anna enables the reader to imagine the effects of the GDR’s rule, but also evokes an emotional response through Anna’s telling of the horrific stories of former East Germany’s people. These ‘portraits’ which Anna aims to uncover are told in her subjective voice, connecting the victims of the regime with the reader, and the narrator, to uncover the consequences of a ‘lost’

Chapters 7 and 8 foreshadow the the future of Lenina. In these chapters Lenina meets Linda a woman who used to be of an upper caste but was forced to stay at the reservation after discovering that she was pregnant. At first Lenina is disgusted calling Linda speaking in with derogatory terms such as “So fat. And all the lines in her face, the flabbiness, the wrinkles. And the sagging cheeks, with those purplish blotches…” (Huxley 121) But once Lenina is able to move past Lindas looks the two instantly hit it off, and talk of all the great times each had had as an upper caste woman, but the story of Linda eerily foreshadows the fate of Lenina. It can be assumed that what has happened to Linda will also happen to Lenina, as she is also of

Anna Funder’s investigative account of the traumas experienced during the totalitarian governance of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), Stasiland, presents an historical account of life under the communist regime and behind the Berlin Wall, an historical account which manifests in the personal stories, descriptions of the remnants of the East German government. Funder presents interviews of victims of the GDR to create a tangible account of the power held by the government. She further conveys the historical importance of the former Stasi operatives to be powerful in presenting a complete depiction of East German society. However, it is also through Funder’s presentation of the former East Germany to be permeated by its history that creates her powerful portrayal of East Germany.

The question of whether or not Stalinism was a logical continuation of Leninism is a difficult one. Stalinism did take significantly more drastic measures than Leninism did. There were differences in policy. But in spite of these, Stalinism still found its basis in Leninism. Even Trotsky, a friend of Lenin and a staunch opponent of Stalin, grudgingly admits that "Stalinism did issue from Bolshevism" (Trotsky). Stalin's policy of socialism in one country, his use of terror to eliminate opposition, and his suppression of democracy and the soviets were all characteristics of Lenin well before they were characteristic of Stalin. Although some of Stalin's policies were different from those of Lenin, what difference Stalinism did

It is hard to imagine what living life in constant fear of death and arrest would be like, knowing that any slight slip in actions or speech could result in the end of one’s life as they knew it. Eugenia Ginzburg is an active communist member who finds herself on the wrong side of this situation. Arrested for over exaggerated claims of being a trotskyist terrorist, she is immediately thrust into a spiral of events that will dramatically change her, her ideals, and the entire state of communism. However, while in the prisons and labor camps it is interesting to note how her perceptions of life and reality change, including her affiliation to the state. This naturally begs the question; How do Ginzburg's perceptions of Communism and the Stalinist regime change throughout

”(194).Lenina is the major character closest to the average World State citizen. Her resistance of the conditioning shows that everyone in the World State has the potential to the same, which would disrupt the social order and lead to

Identity is defined significantly by monetary circumstance. The influence of the economy is palpable in the novel, affecting each advocate in a disparate manner. With The Great

In addition, with Huxley’s successful ironic portrayal, I was able to make text to world connections. I was able to relate the surroundings created by the World State to the society in North Korea. North Korea’s dictatorship does not allow personal or religious freedom, there’s no protection of human rights, free will does not exist, and people are controlled by the government. In Brave New World, we also observe a totalitarian state where a society is controlled by conditioning individuals, taking soma and eliminating emotions. There is no war, no religious believes, no pain or hunger and “if anything should go wrong, there’s soma” (151). In both the novel and North Korea, there are ways to deal with those who don’t abide with the societal