Coming Out By Heiner Carow

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

The idea of being ruled by a totalitarian power has never ceased to scare an audience that fears of being controlled. It is in this case that we can establish from the reality we see today in certain countries, that we create our own story of how dystopian societies can many ways be seen. Dystopian societies in movies and novels have played a huge role in our lives, from: Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games, Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World and Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Cementing humanities faults by exploiting them through harsh ideals of suppressing power. But among those movies and novels and many more, two have resonated in our minds; not only mimicking what is seen today in Syria and North Korea, but also presenting foreshadow of what is possibly going to be. The film 1984 and the novel Fahrenheit 451 use fear and illusion to capture the horror of dystopian societies that use totalitarian power to control the masses.

Listening is ‘Not an attempt to understand something that is being said’ but ‘Just an attention to the activity of sounds’

In Wolfgang Staudte’s (1951) film, Der Untertan, the main character named Diederich Hessling develops from being a meek and cowardly boy to become a manipulative and self-involved man. The film uses many instances of imagery and subtle moments of foreshadowing to convey the ideals of the people of that time which lead up to the World Wars. Diederich is a typical Prussian citizen who blindly follows, supports the true “German values”, and bows to his superiors while stepping on his subordinates. The film illustrates Diederich’s character development, his shift in personality, and political confrontations through carefully crafted camera techniques that also highlight the time period that the film was set in as well as produced in.

Michael Gow's play, "Away" expresses the idea of going through changes and receiving help from people around you. The key characters of the play experiences change and renewal as a result of their relationships with others ad the summer vacation. Coral and Gwen is two characters that undergo the most changes throughout the trip. Coral manage to moved on from her's son death while Gwen changed from a snobby person to a person who is more understandable. Tom is one of the critical character that help Coral and Gwen realised their issues and surpasses it. The play showed lives of people and their own struggle during the 60s and how they overcome it.

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, it’s 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

Funder’s use of symbolism in order to explore themes relevant to her own personal struggle with finding comfort and security within the former GDR is a concept central to Stasiland. The author’s more abstract use of darkness enables Funder to draw parallels between her own difficulty living in the former GDR and those who endured the true terror of the Stasi Regime, particularly in the retelling of Miriam Weber’s attempted escape to West Berlin. ‘It was dark...’ on the Eastern side of the Wall, and ‘...in the west the neon shone.’ West Berlin is painted as a safe haven, away from the dangerous and frightening ‘dark’ GDR.

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’

The novel 1984 and movie Divergent share the dystopian characteristics of an oppressive government, prevailing conformity and strict divisions. The oppressive government in 1984 is known as the Party. The Party expects full loyalty; families, free thought, individuality and many more natural rights are prohibited, in fear that the Party will lose power. It insures this by monitoring all the actions of people through “telescreens” and “thought police”. It also instills guilt and fear with endless propaganda. Everywhere Winston, the protagonist in 1984, went he saw nothing “except the posters that were plastered everywhere...”(Page 2, 1984). The people of Oceania are brainwashed into believing that this

Teju Cole’s phenomenally written original novel majorly takes place in New York City. Cole character was easy to relate to because of his Nigerian American decent being that I am a Ghanaian American. Cole is a Nigerian American. He was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and came to the United States in 1992 at the age of seventeen. Cole is also well educated and is a graduate student at Columbia University. I found it insightful how in the novel Cole met several various types of people, including other immigrants. He met and shared stories with a Haitian shoe shiner, at work in Penn Station; a Liberian, imprisoned for over two years in a dentition center in Queens; and a Moroccan student working at an Internet café. I enjoyed the fact that the narrator was well stocked minded. He touched on the topics of art, music, and interesting books. He had a very eclectic set of interest.

The values presented throughout George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ are heavily influenced by the time period and historical context when they were composed. 1984 was written in the 20th century, after WW2, in 1948 and Metropolis was also composed . For the most part of the 20th Century, fear of fascism was strongly perpetuated throughout the world and instigated unprecedented anxiety among society. Deteriorating social conditions decreased morale as the globe was plagued by near consecutive wars. As society transitioned into eras of pre World War II unease and Cold War tension, values such as the loss of human values and the manipulation of society became prominent.

A brutal totalitarian government with a torture-laden attitude, and a German man dealing with the repercussions of turning into a bug. Whilst both 1984 and “The Metamorphosis” have countless themes, the common theme between them is appearance v.s. reality. Overlaying a fragile moral environment, the Party in 1984 claims to be helping society with its ruthless misdeeds, while it’s ulterior motive is actually based around controlling the population by any means necessary, even constant surveillance. While it doesn’t look at the intricacies of totalitarian government, “The Metamorphosis” looks at the intricacies of family life masquerading as an allegory for society casting out someone for no good reason at all.

The literal dislocation between East and West Germany was a major factor in the suffering of German cinema

As we look deeper into the historical contexts that came about in Germany during the 1920’s, Germany was confined due to the isolation the country was experiencing during World War I. During this solitude, the German government banned foreign films. German Expressionism was formed in result of the conclusion of World War I which compelled Germany to establish its own style of cinema. German Expressionist films produced in the Weimar Republic

Therefore, this film is not only a testimony about the German past but also the German present. It displays the irrational annihilation of six young Germans at the end of WWII, summoning up a very agonizing recollection of Nazi Germany’s futile effort to turn back the Allied invasion by hurling teenage boys into the