Tracing Dimensions of Changing Culture - Essay Example

20th Century Germany, prior the war, has been occupied with an atmosphere of control, where even cultural artefacts, such as works of art has been subjected to the government platform aimed at purging the country of the distortion and corruption embodied by modern art, and modern influence in general. In this sense, it was hoped that by purging Germany of these influences and introducing a more purist art form, social values, and ultimately, the German identity can be transformed to what is, at that time conceived to be the superior culture. This is exemplified in a radio broadcast by Adolf Hitler’s speech Great Exhibition of German Art 1937 announcing that: Until National Socialism came to power there existed in Germany a so-called modern art, which is to say that, almost by the nature of the word, there was something new almost every year. National Socialist Germany, however, means to have a German art once again, and this like all the creative values of a people, must and will be an eternal art. If art lacks an eternal value for our people, then even today it has no higher value. (in Chipp 476). It is the effect that this era had in the post-war culture of Germany that is the central subject of the stories in Schlink’s Flights of Love – the betrayals that resulted from it, the emotional and psychological damage it caused its people, and the past that it passed down to the succeeding generation. Flights of Love by Bernard Schlink is a book that makes an exploration into the different facets of love and the moral dilemmas they entail within the cultural-historical context of 20th Century Germany. The book, therefore, despite its title is neither a collection of love stories. Instead, like the “rock or dune, the beach, and the sea” in the painting of the Girl with Lizard; love, falling in love, being in love, and falling out of love “are not so important” (Schlink 10). With a mixture of symbolisms and historical accounts into the events at the time each story took place, Schlink illustrates a myriad of complex, yet engaging situations where human beings are affected and brought to action by the events that shape their history. Events where, despite its obvious cultural tone, has a universal meaning. The book is a collection of seven short stories beginning with “Girl with Lizard”, which tells about a boy and his obsession and desire for a mysterious painting he inherited from his parents, which drove him to unconsciously ruin his relationships with women while discovering his parent’s dark past. “A Little Fling”, a story about a husband’s political betrayal of his wife for her sake, a wife’s betrayal of her husband to spite him, the narrator’s betrayal of his friend as a result of his own naivety, and the revelation, which destroyed the intimate relationship they all shared. “The Other Man”, a story, which recounts a man’s discovery of his late wife’s affair and his realization about the truth of his marriage. The middle story, “Sugar Peas”, tells about a narcissistic man balancing his relationships with three women. “The Circumcision”, which tells of the relationship between a German man and a Jewish girl in New York, is a foray into the sensitive topic of the division caused by their culture and religion. “The Son”, on the other hand, tells of filial love, described in a dramatic fashion. The book then ends with “Woman at the Gas Station”; which narrates of a man and his decision to leave his wife. All these stories are bound by the themes of betrayal brought about by obsession, desperation, and historical circumstance – all because of and in spite of love. The themes, embodied in Flights of Love are best exemplified in his opening story “Girl with Lizard”, where the unnamed narrator tells of his life from childhood until the time he entered college. It was a life focused on his obsession with a well-kept treasure he inherited from his parents – the painting of a mysterious girl with a lizard. Through the story, Schlink presents the themes of betrayal, secrecy, and the struggles to escape mysterious pasts that echoed throughout his book told through a myriad of metaphors, the strongest of which is embodied in the painting. As described by the narrator, the painting Girl with Lizard shows a girl looking at a lizard sunning itself. The girl is very beautiful. […] The painting is really only of the girl’s head. All the rest comprising the lizard, the rock or dune, the beach, and the sea, is not so important. (Schlink 10) It was both a treasure and a secret. And just like any good secret, it embodied “a mystery, a window onto beauty and freedom”, while “at the same time a commanding, controlling power to whom sacrifices would have to be made” (Schlink 51) and the ever present danger of exposure. The focus given to the painting in “Girl with Lizard”, however, represents the centrality of the metaphor within the story and the book as well. On personal level, it represents the boy and his father’s obsession, desperation, and desire; his father’s betrayal of his mother; and his mother’s hate towards his father. It also represents the secrets the boy’s family is hiding – his father’s past crimes and the secret of his conception, among others. All of which, though manageable in the beginning, reached a point where it has “become exhausting” (Schlink 35), as warned by the narrator’s girlfriend. It was a secret embedded deep in the dark past of wartime Germany. The painting also represents the state of Germany’s cultural development in the context of historical affairs. On one hand, as described in the text, the painting concealed in Girl with Lizard is representative of the 20th century German degenerate art where “the Jew can represent the German entrepreneur as a capitalist wastrel and a German maiden as a lewd harlot” (32) and vice versa. It was an art form that was the embodiment of ridicule itself, as opposed to the expression of beauty, which art is supposed to be. On the other hand, it is also representative of the atmosphere of that time it was painted, clouded with darkness and confusion, concealed in the guise of normalcy. Like the conventional painting of the girl with the lizard, concealing the more notorious Lizard and Girl; the happily normal life he thought his family was living; or the “people from the outside world […] in ever-changing disguises” (6). This theme of concealment is also evoked in the rest of the book’s stories – Sven and Paula’s double lives as spies and intellectuals in “A Little Fling”, Lisa’s secret affair in “The Other Man”, and Thomas’ relationships in “Sugar Peas”. Furthermore, as a symbol of cultural oppression, the painting illustrates how the atmosphere at the time has extended its effect into the manner that the characters lived their lives – with or without the knowledge of the secrets entailed by the painting, at least in the case of the narrator prior to his discovery. The manner that the painting was passed down to him from his father illustrates a mechanism, at which the painting and everything it represents – guilt over the crimes of the past – was passed from one generation to the other. Hence, as illustrated by the narrators of the short stories, their lives has been affected in some way, if not entirely, by the events of the past, both in the context of their personal lives and the history of Germany, and the choices they made to conceal the truth. However, since one cannot change history, their attempts at changing or escaping it has brought neither redemption nor closure. Just like the painting of the Girl with Lizard, although “no longer in its golden frame but a canvass stretched on wood” it was for the narrator “as dominating as it ever was in his parents’ house” (Schlink 50). What was sad, however, is the manner that the narrator, upon burning the painting and seeing for the first time its real form and how it had brought him to live the life that he has now had hoped to change his life and erase the past as he erased the painting’s existence, an act, which the reader can only wonder if successful. In this respect, one is reminded of Nafisi’s phrase, “a generation with no past” (Nafisi 76), such that one cannot help but wonder, if it is better to not have a past, if it will only be as troubled as that of the narrator. The themes presented in the story, however, cannot be confined within Germany and German culture. Instead, it is illustrates a universality that is universality is echoed in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, where she writes about her life and the lives of seven women, who were “seven of [her] best and most committed students” (Nafisi 3) as they wade through the literary works of Western authors within the context of the Iran-Iraq war. As illustrated in the book, betrayal, disguises, and the attempt to control is a universal theme, such that it is almost in the nature of human beings if placed within similar circumstances. However, while betrayal came as a surprise for Schlink’s characters in the story as a result of revelations and recent discovery, Nafisi presented betrayal as a given that is to be expected. Hence, Nafisi often asks her students “Which one of you will finally betray me?” (Nafisi 3). This question, however, is not surprising given that the events of Nafisi’s book took place in a time of fear and confusion; while Schlink’s stories were set years after the dark times of their own history. This does not mean, however, that the betrayal in Schlink’s stories are less significant or of less gravity. Instead, it just illustrates the difference in psyche between the two cultures, perhaps brought about by the differences in their stage of history. Written from the male perspective, Flights of Love, however, presents a contrast from Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, which tells of the author’s feminist recount of her years in Iran. Interestingly, while Schlink presents his narrators as weak male characters desperately seeking emancipation from their problems and their past to almost no avail, Nafisi describes her characters as women, who despite being subjected “to measures … meant to render women invisible and powerless, they are paradoxically making women tremendously visible and powerful” where “[e]very private act or gesture in defiance […] is now a strong political statement” (Nafisi 1). It seems that the women in Nafisi’s book are at a better position to carve out their place in history and determine their fate as opposed to those the men in Schlink’s stories that have resigned themselves to the grips of their past. Works Cited Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. New York: Random House, 2004. Schlink, Bernard. Flights of Love. London: Orion Books Ltd., 2002. “Great Exhibition of German Art 1937.” Theories of Modern Art: A Sourcebook by Artists and Critics. Ed. Herschel B. Chipp. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968. Read More