How the Berlin Wall Affected Berliners
Peter Schneider's book The Wall Jumper is about the Berlin Wall and how it affected people’s worldviews. Being a fictional tale, this book is not true;however, this book offers insightful ways on how the wall was viewed and how it affected people. The narrator, who is never named, travels back and forth between East and West Berlin and tries to get stories of people jumping the wall. In doing so, the narrator actually offers us readers insight into how the wall affected Berliners worldviews. We can best see these affected worldviews by: Lena, who moved from East to West Berlin,and longed for acceptance that she could never find in West Berlin, Robert, who also moved from East to West Berlin, still sees…show more content… This book allows us to see how the Berlin Wall affected people's world view. Lena, who is the narrator's girlfriend, moved from East to West Berlin. Lena grew up in East Berlin but moved over before the wall got put up. Lena longed for acceptance that she could only find in East Germany. On page 98 the narrator says, “her need for uninterrupted closeness was only increased by her sense of constant rejection by life in the West.” ” So, first off ,she wasn’t feeling accepted in western society. Lena’s reasons for why she does not feel accepted shows on the same page, when the narrator says “ For her the West was a tangle of contradictions,half hearted gestures, and empty promises.” Lena viewed the West as hypocritical, claiming to be ‘right’ or ‘good’, yet really just being bad. This view led to her not feeling accepted in West Berlin. Without living in East Germany Lena would not know any different about how to perceive West German society. Another character affected by the wall is Robert. Robert moved from East Berlin to West Berlin just like Lena. Robert especially exemplifies a Eastern mindset,when he and the narrator see a riot take place. Robert’s reaction shows what an Eastern mindset sees. . On page 91 Robert says, “We’ve been sitting here for an hour now, and there isn’t a police van in sight, not even a patrol! You can’t fool me! This was set up!” Basically, Robert uses that East Germany communist frame mindset and sees this riot as staged or pre programmed. Robert sees something simple as a riot as something that the state planned. Robert definitely gets this worldview from East Germany, where everything is controlled by the state. Pommerer, who lives in East Berlin, is a friend of the narrator. We see Pommerer’s world view vividly,when he and the narrator are talking about a West Berlin news broadcast. Pommerer and the narrator get into a heated argument over the start of communism in
