Kafka, The Wannsee Conference, And Shadows and Fog
Kafka's protagonist of "The Metamorphosis," Gregor Samsa, perfectly embodies the totalitarian mindset in the sense that he is colonized by the desires of his employer, his family, and even the room in which he lives to the point that he can hardly think for himself. The room in which Samsa dwells is so small; the man becomes a virtual prisoner of its confines. Samsa turns into an insect seemingly as a result of the limiting pressures of his physical space and cramped social and emotional life. In fact, his life is so confining, he can only think of returning to the office, even after becoming transformed into a huge and hideous insect.
Over the course of the short story by Kafka, Gregor's own family rejects him after his physical alteration, despite the fact that Gregor has long been giving up his own life's pleasures and health to support his parents in their old age and to support his sister's musical and marriage prospects...
Gregor dwells in a kind of totalitarian urban landscape, where all he can think about is the daily grind of his life, and the only ideology that matters is routine -- an insect like existence that eventually utterly subsumes and captures his humanity as well as his form on a literal and metaphorical level.
The limiting nature of confining physical space and dialogue that renders the human mind and body into a totalitarian framework, however, is hardly limited to the totalitarian climate of Kafka's fictional works of literature. The 1984 film, "The Wannsee Conference," takes place in a similarly confined, though more pleasant and ambient space, where events take place over a highly concentrated time frame. The 'groupthink' mentality creates, over the course of the film, propelling mutual direction of common thought and action amongst the Nazi officers at the conference. This dangerous collective totalitarian climate changes not just one man's life and family,…
