Tag Archives: Alex

Plot, The style

The Thin Line between Truth and Lies: The Power of the Kerner Family Relationships

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Has Alex continues to live the life he produces become increasingly outrageous. The length which she goes to 2 create these lies for his mother are likewise outrageous. When her favorite pickles could not be found he dives into the dumpsters in their neighbourhood in search of an empty glass jar from her favorite pickle brand and filled it with the new pickles from Holland. But perhaps most interesting is that he uses legitimate footage of the Berlin Wall falling and the people rushing into the west but he uses this image to twist the truth with a new commentary. The commentary states that this footage is actually depicting people rushing away from the list in order to get rid of their materialistic lives and embraced the ideals of the East. While this is entertaining in the film itself, it is easy to see how even in modern times, today, we are told or shown what things to believe in the media and they are not necessarily the whole truth.

Most interesting leave though is that the deeper Alex in bed himself in this fictional world the more convinced his girlfriend and his sister become that he is doing the wrong thing. Alex of course is not the only member of his family who has started to blend the truth. In fact the mother revealed at the end of the film that for many years she was the one who abandoned the children’s father by refusing to go with him in the West. The children had been told that their father left either in search of another woman or simply turning his back on his children but in truth the mother refused to go with him and made her children stay in the East.

Family relationships are a key element in this particular where the family is made up of vastly different characters. And as the narrative move forward the relationships between all of these characters become increasingly strained the results of Alex attempting to protect his mother with his charade. He becomes increasingly controlling and the deception he started in order to protect his mother is taken to extremes which has an impact on what his sister does for a living, which diapers her baby can wear, and who was responsible for the invention of Coca Cola. Of course in spite of all these lies there exists a strong bond between the mother and her two children. Love is what allows them to forgive one another and it allows them to start a new beginning. Both Alex and his sister forgive their mother for her deception, naturally because of their own.

It becomes increasingly clear as the film continues that the mother initially suspect her children are lying and you’re the end of the film she figures it out. As he walks into her hospital room following her second stroke it becomes clear that Alex’s girlfriend has told her what was going on and in her final moments with her son she pretends to continue believing in his lies, and act which underlies the true strength of their family love.

In reality this font is one deeply seated in Alex’s childhood. The flashbacks to his youth show him desperate to make the world right for his mother and desperate to make his mother proud of him. He often dreamed of being the second man in space from East Germany and took part in the young rocket Builders Association. His childhood anxieties about pleasing his mother and making her proud continued well into adulthood as he continued to seek out his mother’s approval by creating the perfect world for her.

Historical context, Plot

Keeping the GDR Alive: The Kerner Family after the Collapse of the Berlin Wall

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In the Film Goodbye Lenin, Christiana Kerner—the mother of Alex and Ariane—falls into a coma after witnessing her son at an anti-government rally, herself a strong advocate of Socialism and a political activist. Soon after Christiana falls into her coma, the Berlin Wall is taken down. With each newly dismantled piece of brick and dust, a new way of life enters East Germany. This event was one of historical significance and a great deal of fame in fact. The wave of change which swept over East Germany at this time brought a new social, political, and economic landscape. The residents in East Germany were suddenly overwhelmed with new rights such as the right to vote for a plethora of political parties, freedom of speech, and freedom of movement. They were free to join trade unions, to insist on better working conditions and better pay. The media including television, radio, and newspaper were no longer censored nor controlled by the state. Secret police no longer roamed the streets and political prisoners were not taken any more.

But of course such a distinct change was not without its issues. While all citizens were now free, they were not necessarily better off. The replacement of Soviet aid with capitalism meant a great deal of job loss and higher unemployment. The society security payments and welfare plans of old were reduced. Those specialists once highly regarded and highly paid by the communist state, including sports individuals, artists, scientists, and academics, were no longer paid. The government was unable to afford a large police force or army which meant an increase in political violence and crime.

Christiana’s generation relished the East German lifestyle, but the younger generation including her son were not interested. They no longer cared about politics and sought capitalism with open arms.

In the film, Alex struggled to keep the ideology of the GDR alive for his mother, especially when she craved some of her favorite delicacies like Globus Peas or Spreewald Pickels both of which were nearly impossible to find in the increasingly westernized supermarkets. The GDR products were devalued immediately by the introduction of western commodities, a legitimate glimpse into the historical turn of events, and they were equally despised by Ariane and Alex. This caused emotional value to intrinsically develop to these products, products to which the mother clung and products the children hated. Ariane, for example, wants to move beyond the old Eastern lifestyle by getting a western boyfriend and a job at Burger King.

The New East Berlin

Without the restrictions of communication, Alex and Ariane were able to take advantage of the richness brought about by the west. With their mother still confined to her bed following her waking from a coma, the two children were able to dress as they wanted and live their lives as they wanted with their mother confined to the East Berlin replicate apartment. Alex and his girlfriend Lara encounter an empty apartment with GDR food and furniture likely left behind when the owners made their way to the west when the wall came down. The two attend a party of young people drinking and dancing, enjoying drugs. This event, while seemingly normal in the West, was unheard of in the East before the wall came down. Of course, these events display the influence of the west without necessarily stating that they are good or bad. One might view the scene of the drugs and partying with disdain at the negative influence of the west while others may praise the freedoms afforded by this change.