"Good-Bye Lenin"

Paper Summary:

This paper summarizes the film "Good-Bye Lenin" and examines its message that love, perhaps too much love, can kill the truth in the relationship between mother and son. The paper also examines the paper's other message, which reveals how over-involvement in politics can become a substitute for a real, family life. The paper then looks at how the conflict within the family in the film can be applied to the conflict between the East and the West and Communism and Capitalism. The paper relates that the unity of East and West forces Germans to confront their collective past, and to confront the incomplete nature of both of their systems. To truly move forward and to create something that is stronger and better than before, everyone must give up their fixation upon the material goods and ideals and ideas of the past.

From the Paper:

"While all of her children know that Christiane is a loyal communist, a lonely woman whose entire life revolved around the regime, the rest of society does not care, and does not 'wait' for Christiane. Christiane believed in its ideals of nobility and self-sacrifice and she was willing to give up material comforts for the chance to feel she was a part of something larger than herself, something that meant more than mere consumerism. Also, she was told that was how a good person acted, by the media and all of the culture influences around her. This is something, the film implies, that has been lost in the newly unified Germany, even though there was much to despise about the old regime, like its tyranny, shoddy goods, and the totalitarian mindset. Christiane's zealotry and love for her children is admirable, even while her admiration of communism is not."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bradshaw, Peter. "Good-bye Lenin." The Guardian. 25 Jul 2003. 1 May 2008. http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_Film_of_the_week/0,,1005279,00.html
• "Good-bye Lenin." Directed by Wolfgang Becker. 2003.

More papers on "Good-Bye Lenin":

• Analytical Essay # 6300 : "Lenin's Revolution"
• Analytical Essay # 7528 : "Brecht's 'The Good Woman of Setzuan'"
• Essay # 90836 : "The Connection Between Being Good and Being Happy"

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