In What Ways Are People's Lives Broken or Affected by the Gdr Regime?

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In Stasiland, Anna Funder explores the extent to which the lives of both victim and prey are destroyed and adversely influenced by the GDR regime. Interchanging from first and third person, Funder examines how the victim’s lives were, and still are, affected by the Stasi, whilst illustrating how the regime impacted the Stasi men. Through her interviews with the women who experienced the harsh implications of the Stasi, Funder identifies the multiple ways in which the GDR influenced East Germany’s people. The victim’s lives are shattered due to the GDR regime and Stasi men. In the beginning of the text, Anna interviews Miriam, a woman who was an “enemy of the state at sixteen”. At the time of the Berlin wall, Miriam attempted to escape East Germany, however she was captured, interrogated, starved and sleep-deprived; the Stasi men tortured her, which caused mental scarring as well as “some strange little tics”. After her release from prison Miriam married her husband, Charlie. The Stasi took Charlie and murdered him, although, they told Miriam that he committed suicide. At the funeral the directors would not let Miriam see the body, leaving her without closure and wondering what really happened to him. As Miriam tells her story it is evident to both Anna and the audience, that her life is still broken. Anna interviews numerous victims throughout the text, one being Frau Paul. Before the Berlin Wall, Frau Paul’s son, Torsten, was born with a ruptured diaphragm and stomach, along with other severe conditions. Needing continuous medical attention Frau Paul took him to a hospital in West Germany. Once the Berlin wall divided the country, however, she could no longer see her son; “the wall went straight through [her] heart”. Although Torsten defied doctors expectations, and is now a grown man, Frau Paul missed out on the first five years of his life; she will never have

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