The pre-Hitler Berlin short novel follows the life of a young English writer, Christopher, who goes to Germany to teach English and improve his German. Divided into six intertwining chapters following different characters, the novel's narrator shares a name with the author, Isherwood and takes us t...
The pre-Hitler Berlin short novel follows the life of a young English writer, Christopher, who
goes to Germany to teach English and improve his German. Divided into six intertwining
chapters following different characters, the novel's narrator shares a name with the author,
Isherwood and takes us through what was happening through his eyes. Isherwood is presented as
an outsider observing the situation deteriorate in the city of Berlin during the period leading to
Hitler's rule. He is depicted as a non-involved onlooker who records and tells the situation as he
saw it. I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking (Isherwood 1).
Although he sympathizes with all the polarized characters, he is depicted as a character that is
unable to meaningfully connect with them. As the narrator, Isherwood's character is depicted as a
mirror of what was happening in Berlin at the time.
His inability to connect with the polarized characters represented Berlin's inability to connect
with the realities of its inhabitant and its deteriorating situation. The city's social disease that led
to it spiritual and moral collapse is represented by his inability to achieve intimacy. But it is also
important to note that the author of the novel is gay while the narrator who takes his place in the
story is straight. The novel's setting being in the 1930s, a period when sexual orientation might
have been highly questioned by his readership, it is possible that Isherwood's sexuality was
depicted so deliberately to avoid it. Portrayed as more of an observer rather than an actor,
Isherwood is passive in his perceptions and has an ironic vision of the discontinuous world in
which he finds himself. Although he is a good friend who helps his friends when needed, like
when Sally Bowles was pregnant, he keeps his political opinions to himself in the large part and
only observes how they deal with their political problems.
Differences between the opinions of the narrator and those of the author
It was clear in the mind of Isherwood's character that the Nazi menace would soon culminate to
war and this would bring unimaginable horrors to the city of Berlin and Germany as a whole. But
although he knew this he still took an observatory position and did nothing to try and avert the
oncoming disaster. Towards the end of the short novel, the author, through his diary entries,
shares what was actually going on in Berlin at the time. In the narrator's opinion, as seen through
the novel, his friends cling nostalgically to the orderly past while passively accepting their
present predicament.
When the author, in the last chapter, sees a boxing club where Germans bet no bouts they know
are fixed he shares the narrator's opinion of the people's passive acceptance of their fate. The
main point of departure between the author and the narrator's opinion on what is happening in
the novel is on what should be done. We could argue that by writing the novel, the author has
already made a decision do something about the situation then, by telling the world about it. The
narrator on the other hand, observes passively without any real involvement in trying to change a
situation he knows too well will deteriorate eventually. When it does, the narrator decides to
leave Berlin and feels a deep sense of guilt for leaving his friends in a city and country facing
total social destruction.
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