In the book "Heroes like us" by Thomas Brussig, Klaus Uhltzscht (try to pronounce that!) opens up everything about how the Stasi, the German secret services, and all of their "dirt" to Mr. Kitzelstein, a correspondent of the New York times. He doesn't only say many of the secrets of the Stasi but he also says that it is his fault that the Berlin wall came down, ending communism in East Germany. He says that such event was caused by him in an accident, which also shortened the size of his genital.
Klaus is a very egocentric man. His tone, as he speaks to Mr. Kitzelstein, seems as if Klaus is superior to him, which brings up the question, "Is he telling the truth or is he exaggerating things?". Before that question can be analyzed, the book must be read to a further extent.
There's another question that must be analyzed, "What made his ego so large?". His mother is a "hygiene goddess", as Klaus likes to call her, who always expected perfection from her son. For example, Klaus urinates in a sitting position, with the toilet seat up, without touching the borders of the toilet because he is disgusted to touch the toilet and afraid he might miss and urinate where he shouldn't. This is because of all the pressure his mother put on him throughout his life to be a perfect, clean person.
There's also his father, who worked for the more "undercover" Stasi, the one with all the dirt. He never praised his son's achievements and always treated him as if he was nothing. This behavior that Klaus' father practiced lead to Klaus always trying to be better in order to impress his father, until he started to believe that his father actually envied him.
With his parents overprotection he also failed to have any relationships with the other people. This type of protection and his pursue to always be better lead him to think that he was better than anyone else, since he didn't really know how good others were. He believes that the Berlin wall fell because of him because he believes that he is the only one good enough to have caused such event. Also, he reveals the secrets of the Stasi because he also thought to be better than them, and that there is nothing they could do to him.
Thursday, November 1
Mommy!! Daddy!! You made me an egocentric!!!
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1 comment:
I like how you presented a question you had about the book and then tried to answer the question. By presenting both the mother and father’s involvement in making his ego so large, really helps to paint the big picture and explain both sides of the story. It helped me understand why Klaus would consider himself as the cause for the fall of the Berlin wall. In addition, I thought the poll was a good idea. Too bad I am the only to respond the poll. It would have been nice if other responded to it.
In noticed how in the first paragraph, you described how Klaus “says that it is his fault that the Berlin wall came down” and then in the last paragraph said that “he believes that he is the only one good enough” to cause the Berlin wall to fall. The use of the word fault confused me a bit since I first thought that you meant he was blaming himself but instead you meant he was actually proud of his involvement in the event. Also it would be nice if you included some quotes, especially in the part where you talk about the tone of Klaus when he speaks to Mr. Kitzelstein.
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