One pattern I noticed in reading ‘Guten Tag’ is the inclusion of the different peoples/cultures that make up Berlin society and interestingly enough, many of these short pieces are concerned with people who are not native to Berlin or Germany. Just to give a few examples that Ugresic mentions- a Moroccan woman who signed up for a beginner’s German class, a Chinese neighbor who seems to despise every place he has ever traveled to, and Russian and Croatian writers who share their negative opinions about Berlin. I think these Ugresic presents these short narratives, in part, to portray Berlin as a kind of metropolis where lots of people with very different backgrounds and ethnicities are interacting with each other and influencing the society that they live in. Perhaps Ugresic is trying to have the reader think about the nature of German (or maybe just Berlin) identity. Given the wide array of cultures and ethnicities, which form that society(from Russian to Chinese), one cohesive sense of ‘German’ identity is hard to form.
-Ravi Nulu
I didn't make this same observation at first, but now that it is pointed out, I definitely notice what Ravi is saying. A great number of the people the author interacts with are not native to Berlin. I'm not 100% sure why, but I like Ravi's idea about how its addressing the nature of Germany, or Berlin.m
ReplyDeleteAll these different people are being thrown in a single city. With their different backgrounds and different stories and problems they are adding to the melting pot identity of Berlin which is rather eccentric in and of itself. It makes you wonder what Berlin is like and all that people that make it up, because once you see two or three characters who are "out-there" then it makes you curious about the who and the whats of the story and the setting.
ReplyDeleteYou could go even farther with your claim, and say that its characteristic of the entire area during this time. The novel seems to have many instances of stories or people who quite don't fit in with one singular identity.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you brought up the differences and similarities of the yugoslavia people and those from Berlin. The great differences really seemed to negatively affect the narrator.
ReplyDeleteI like how the idea of Berlin being a melting pot is being illustrated in the book. The interactions that Ugresic talks about in the book compound on the idea that people come from everywhere.
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