Little Man, What Now?

“I didn’t know you were like this. I thought you were gentle.”

Johannes and Emma still do not know each other well. As they enter the new apartment, Emma’s negative reaction shows a side to her personality that surprises Johannes. He is not only seeing Emma in a new light but also his marriage, realizing that she is not so gentle and their marriage not so idealized as he might have assumed.

“I’d never be able to forgive you.”

The one demand Johannes makes in his relationship with Emma is based on pride. She must never ask him to return to the Bergmann store, he says, because he would never be able to forgive her. To Johannes, pride is an essential part of existence, and he cannot forgive a wife who does not respect him. He will eventually return to Bergmann to beg for his job, but not because Emma asks him. Rather, he will do so out of desperation, suggesting that he will never forgive himself.

“The Nazis were anything but boring.”

Lauterbach is representative of the many alienated young men who joined the Nazi Party due to a sense of boredom. Weekend violence, antisemitism, and a sense of fraternity gave men such as Lauterbach a purpose after the economic hardship and the lingering effects of World War I increased their disaffection.

“I’m still not sure which of the three of you I’m going to let go.”

Kleinholz sets up an elaborate game in which the three employees know that one of them will be fired, but they do not know which of them it will be. This game grants Kleinholz a modicum of power. His reason for setting up this game is similar to Lauterbach’s motivation for joining the Nazis: to entertain himself with a small amount of power, becoming a bully to avoid any self-reflection on his failings.

“She’s my wife, all right.”

The moment when Johannes finally acknowledges in public that Emma is his wife comes in the midst of a heated exchange. Rather than telling people about his wife because he is deeply in love, Johannes shares this information out of spite—he wants to win an argument. His decision to finally make the announcement, much like his decision to get married, is impulsive, and it has similarly lasting consequences.

“The ugly little Jew, not one of the Almighty’s finest creations, gives him a sidelong look.”

Johannes looks down on men like Lauterbach for joining the Nazis, who he sees as a band of violent bullies. The antisemitism which forms the foundation of so much of the Nazi ideology, however, is prevalent in the society. Johannes may not think of himself as a Nazi, but his criticisms of Bergmann are rife with antisemitic insults. Johannes is angry with the shopkeeper and he is ashamed of his failure. To feel better about having to beg for his job, he subconsciously elevates himself—a white German—about the Jewish shopkeeper. The spread of Nazism preys on the prevalence of antisemitism in post-war Germany.

“‘My God, the dear boy,’ she thinks, sentimentally, because she knows she ought to feel moved, otherwise going to the station is just a chore.”

Mia’s first appearance in the novel reveals her dispassionate relationship with her son. She understands that, as a mother, she “ought” to feel concerned for her son’s well-being when, in reality, she is more concerned about having to travel all the way to the station.

“Some are very slim indeed, some are acquiring a little weight, none are exactly fat.”

The folders on the desk in the personnel department are symbols of the competitive job market. In the aftermath of the economic downturn, people are struggling to find work and stores look for any excuse to fire people so that they can cut costs. The result is that each file is as slim and as weightless as the lives of the temporary employees. No one stays long enough to build up a sizeable file, while their financial circumstances are as thin and meager as the files themselves.

“It’s not an easy matter to say goodbye to one’s dreams.”

Johannes is bitter about his financial circumstances. He accepts that he will likely never be rich and he understands that his work is precarious, but he resents that he is not even allowed to entertain a dream for his future. Even the smallest, most realistic dream is obliterated by the next financial emergency. It may not be easy for Johannes to say goodbye to his dreams, but his poverty means that he gets a great deal of practice.

“Nothing so confronts a woman with the deathly futility of her existence as darning socks.”

Darning socks is difficult, time-consuming, and futile. As soon as Emma finishes darning her husband’s socks, she needs to do so all over again. Whereas the rich can buy socks of better quality, Emma and people of her financial station are forced into spending time and money on repairing what little they have, exacerbating their misfortune and reminding them of how expensive it is to be poor.

“This is a disgrace to the menswear section. You can’t have a punch-up here!”

The fight between Johannes and Kessler highlights the absurdity of the department store. The men hold themselves to high standards, so much so that they fight because they are bringing disgrace to the store. The supposedly illustrious menswear section is degraded by this act of petty violence, in which only the men’s pride is wounded.

“Not to be exceeded under any circumstances whatsoever!!!!”

Emma’s budget begins with the proviso that they must not break from the strict rules under any circumstances. To demonstrate her commitment to the budget, Emma includes four exclamation points. She wants to be serious about financial planning, but she and Johannes are both terrible with money. The four exclamation points illustrate that they have very few ideas on how to actually change their circumstances.

“Everything you enjoy in life costs money.”

The unfairness of existence is summed up in Johannes’s complaint about their free time. They have a strict budget that they want to follow, but the budget leaves no room for leisure. Every leisure activity costs money, which limits leisure to the rich.

“Next year Markel will see the tree with us.”

Emma looks ahead to the future, trying to create rituals and traditions that will gather meaning as the years pass. Her efforts are as doomed as her financial planning, however, as the first Christmas tree becomes covered in cat urine, and must be destroyed before it can be truly enjoyed. Even their simple attempts to add meaning to their lives are undone by their poverty.

“We are free beings, Pinneberg.”

Heilbutt is a nudist whose lifestyle surprises Johannes. Though Heilbutt insists that he feels no shame, he hides this part of his life from his colleagues. Heilbutt claims that humans are “free beings,” yet his silence and his secrets suggest that he is not free to be who he wants to be in public. Heilbutt’s nudism encapsulates the desire to be free, tempered by the demands of Economic Collapse and Societal Breakdown. Heilbutt may claim to be free, but his actions suggest otherwise.

“It’s a good feeling to have everything clean and bright for the beginning of a new life.”

When Emma returns home from the hospital with the baby, Johannes has cleaned everything. The cleaning is not just to prepare the home for the new baby; Johannes and Emma are also beginning new lives as parents. The immediate reality of the baby means that their lives have changed forever. The clean house is a fresh start for them as well.

“What do you think my Germanic forefathers did with their wives!”

Johannes listens to the other new fathers discuss their children and wives. Even in this seemingly mundane conversation, hints of fascistic nostalgia emerge. The reverence of idealized forebears plays on the Nazi imagery of the glorious past, with the new fathers basing their actions on imagined identities of their Germanic ancestors. They are standing in a modern hospital with modern amenities, yet conditioning their actions on some vague ideal that they do not truly understand but which, to them, feels powerful. This same inclination toward an idealized ancient German identity fuels Nazi propaganda.

“The little boy starts to cry, and it almost reconciles Lammchen to the old-fashioned thing, the fact that a child could conceive such fondness for it.”

When they are purchasing a secondhand stroller, Emma is struck that the previous owner’s child feels emotionally attached to an object. The stroller itself is not remarkable, but Emma recognizes its emotional value and would like to replicate this with her own son. Emma is willing to buy the chair not because it is necessary, but because it evidently has the power to create and foster the kind of meaningful memories and experiences that she wants in her life.

“What do you think of him as a specimen?”

After Heilbutt is fired, Johannes brings a copy of one of Heilbutt’s nude photographs home. He presents the image to his wife and asks her for an appraisal. Emma knows Heilbutt, but Johannes is not asking her to evaluate Heilbutt as a person. He specifically asks for her opinion on Heilbutt as a “specimen.” The reduction of Heilbutt to a physical object speaks to Johannes’s insecurity. As he struggles in his job, as he struggles with being a father, he seeks assurance from his wife that he still has some physical value.

“Isn’t it terrifying? And we’re all on our own.”

The film has a profound effect on Johannes, who is surprised to see the struggles of the poor documented accurately on the big screen. He empathizes so strongly with the bank clerk because he can see himself driven to the same desperation through love. The portrayal of this struggle, however, only serves to remind Johannes that he and Emma are all alone. The film may be able to replicate the lives of poor people, but it cannot materially help them. Later, the same actor who portrayed the clerk with such empathy will cause Johannes to lose his job, vindicating Johannes’s belief that the poor are on their own.

“It’s a pack of lies.”

Johannes is fired, with his boss insisting that his desperation cannot possibly be caused by the demanding sales targets because such sales targets do not exist. This is an example of dramatic irony, in which the audience knows that the boss is lying. The “pack of lies” claim is a lie in itself. The workers are treated so badly that even their valid complaints and fears are dismissed as lies.

“Lammchen is the foundation of their economy.”

After Johannes loses his job, the entire dynamic of the family changes. He cannot find work, so Emma must become the family’s earner. Her earning power is far less than her husband’s, so she must work twice as hard for half as much compensation. Because they have far less money at their disposal, the “economy” of family life has also changed.

“Tens of thousands are worse off than he is.”

Johannes struggles with unemployment but he reassures himself that many other people are worse off than him. He repeats this to himself as a mantra. Not only does the idea appeal to his sense of strength and quiet determination, allowing him to endure his despair with dignity, but it also makes him feel better about himself. He needs someone to feel superior to, someone who is suffering more than him. Otherwise he might have to recognize the grim reality of his life.