Divided Heaven Essay

        Manfred is presented as the pathological product of a fascist upbringing- he is a man whose egoistic and cynical world view clearly makes him unfit for life in the new society.  Manfred believes that the only way out of the incompetence of political leadership in the GDR is to flee to the West. He believes his own career is more important than the collective well-being. Manfred feels alienated from the East German society, as displayed in a Christmas party scene. At the gathering, Rita appears to enjoy the laughter and mockery of the many young party-goers, unlike Manfred. After some time, Manfred goes with Martin to an adjoining room where Martin informs Manfred that their month-long “Spinning Jenny” project has been rejected. Manfred sees this as a sign that nothing will succeed and he will not be needed.

        In addition, Rita and Manfred’s relationship suggests an attempt by the author to portray feminist and gender issues. It is interesting to note that, in this pro-Socialist novel, it is the woman who stays in the East and opts for the values of community and socialism, while the man leaves for the West, preferring individualism, competition, and materialism. Moreover, when Rita enters the train car factory, the male workers are baffled: what can this woman possibly be good for? Rita then quickly learns to handle screws and drills and proves herself to be a competent coworker. Manfred’s mother, Frau Herrfurth, a dependent, non-working housewife who disapproves of employment for women and who nags Rita to vacuum rugs, represents the negative female type. The positive characters in the novel, all committed communists, are, besides the heroine Rita, men. Nevertheless, because Rita is the heroine, because the novel is about her education, and because Manfred leaves for the West, a connection is created in the reader’s mind between women and socialism, and between men and capitalism.

        Manfred and Rita are divided not only by gender, but by a generation gap held accountable for the former’s cynicism and the latter’s optimism and idealism. Manfred, unlike Rita, grew up under the reign of Hitler- the so-called “Third Reich” generation. His father was an SA member who opportunistically joined the Communist party after the war and rose to the position of factory director; his mother is a non-working wife who aggressively pushes her husband’s career, hates the GDR, and wishes herself in the West. Rita, the daughter of an artisan who was killed in the war, saw the war only as a child and grew up with her widowed mother.

        Rita and Manfred’s differences are also displayed through the positions taken by Wendland and Manfred in their dispute over their respective philosophies of history. Wendland’s believes in the essential goodness of people, while Manfred believes that people are motivated not by morality but by “greed, selfishness, distrust, and envy.” Rita ultimately sides with Wendland, further worsening the rift between her and Manfred. Because of a lack of father figures in her life, Rita’s relationships with Meternagel and Schwarzenbach serve as a kind of paternal influence.  As Rita gradually grows apart from Manfred, who lets himself be persuaded by his mother to “go West,” she slowly comes to identify more and more with an ideological universe represented- she thinks- by the principles of Meternagel, Wendland, and Schwarzenbach. Early on, Rita realizes that Meternagel’s eyes have always provided her with a sense of security and identity. For example, the narrator describes Rita and Meternagel, “…sometimes, when she felt most desperate, those eyes were what kept her going.”

        With the political division of Germany and construction of the Berlin Wall as a backdrop, the relationship between Rita and Manfred demonstrates that internal differences estrange lovers more than external ones. Before the actual construction of the Berlin Wall, a metaphorical wall was erected at the beginning of Rita and Manfred’s relationship. This metaphorical wall is symbolized through Rita’s decision for the “harder, sterner life” and “the attraction of a great historical movement” in the East, with its values of community and idealism, while Manfred holds a pessimistic view of man and leaves for the West, where individualism and competition rule and material rewards stimulate productivity. This distinction leads to their unfortunate break-up and Rita’s suicide attempt.