GER 1790 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Astronaut, Nuclear Family, May Ayim
Document Summary
The family in goodbye, lenin is a kind of ideal western family (nuclear family) She was in a state of fear for her children"s state. If she took her kids, there was a chance that they could be taken away by the government. The government had placed the mother in between a rock and a hard place. She collapsed after her son got arrested because she could not bear it anymore. People traumatic situations do not act rationally: she married the state and devoted her life to making the state a better place. The state was what destroyed her life and her family, and caused her fear/trauma, so she married it. Alex, as a young child, is apathetic towards the german state. During this process, he becomes emotionally invested in the state, and almost marries the idea of the west.
