
In both the movie The Lives of Others and the novel Pereira Declares there is one attribute they both possess that jumps out at me, which is the role that panopticism plays in each one. Panopticism, as we learned earlier in the year, is a system used mainly by the government, to modify, help, or even “fix” citizens through the use of surveillance. Although panopticism was used in both The Lives of Others and Pereira Declares, it is much more apparent in The Lives of Others, with Wiesler and the Stasi bugging Dreyman’s house. Using constant surveillance, they hoped to catch Dreyman and his wife, Christa Maria going against the communist ideals that were the only beliefs tolerated in East Berlin during the Cold War. 

Going against the Stasi during the Cold War was obviously not something to get caught doing, very similar to how not getting caught going against Fascism in Lisbon during the 1930’s would have been. Which is exactly what Pereira and Monteiro Rossi found out the hard way in Pereira Declares. Although the surveillance was a bigger part of the story with Dreyman and Wiesler, the punishment ended up far worse for Pereira and Monteiro Rossi, with Rossi being murdered in Pereira’s apartment by the Lisbon Police, after refusing to conform to what the government told him to do. Dreyman got luckier than Monteiro Rossi, treading on thin ice with the Stasi, and just when it seemed he was going to fall through, the cynical, lonely Wiesler had a sudden change of heart, single handedly saving Dreyman and his writing career. 

The next thing that stands out to me after the usage of panopticism is the way that almost every single character develops in both pieces, The Lives of Others and Pereira Declares. In the beginning of the movie, all Wiesler cared about in life was spending every waking hour listening to Dreyman and what went on in his house, caring about nothing but imprisoning, or maybe worse, someone just because they didn’t share the same beliefs about their government. However, as the movie continues, Wiesler slowly but surely becomes more humanized and less spiteful. This transformation of Wiesler was first apparent on the elevator when it was just him and an innocent little boy. The little boy shared with Wiesler that his dad had told him the Stasi were the bad guys and I’m sure every viewer assumed Wiesler would say something along the lines of “Where do you live?” or “What is your father’s name?” but instead this is where the whole movie took a turn. Wiesler decided to let the little kid go on with his day, and life, and not report his father which would have most likely torn apart the kid’s family. From here, Wiesler doesn’t spend his time with prostitutes, he obsesses less about Dreyman, and he becomes a better man in general, all leading up to the reason Dreyman was alive and a free man at the conclusion of the movie. 

In Pereira Declares neither Pereira or Monteiro Rossi single handedly save someone’s life from caving in like Wiesler did for Dreyman, but both of these characters certainly develop a great deal throughout the novel. Zach Rogow does a fantastic job of explaining the development of Pereira in his analysis of Pereira Declares, “Dr. Pereira's sense of decency pushes him into helping Monteiro Rossi and Marta, changing him from an intellectual who works for a pro-fascist paper into an active opponent of the regime.” When Dr. Pereira hired Monteiro Rossi he didn’t exactly know what he was getting himself into, saying Rossi’s articles were “unpublishable” in the beginning of the novel.  Pereira was brave enough to not only hire Monteiro Rossi, but to not fire him when Rossi continued writing anti-fascist articles, and as Zach Rogow said, Pereira became an opponent of the regime, much like Wiesler and Dreyman in the grand scheme of things. 

Similarly to how Rogow explained the transformation of Pereira, Matthew Bernstein discusses the changes of Wiesler and Dreyman, “In The Lives of Others, the chief irony arises from the fact that two characters most devoted to the ideals of Communism—a state-sanctioned playwright and the Stasi agent assigned to spy on him—find themselves compelled by personal integrity to revolt against the state.” These two quotes by Rogow and Bernstein are basically interchangeable. Both describing how all four of these main characters, Pereira and Monteiro Rossi, and Wiesler and Dreyman, go against what society tells them they should do based off their own personal integrity and simply knowing the right thing to do is not always the common and socially accepted thing. 

Rogow goes on to write in his analysis of Pereria Declares, bringing about comparisons between Pereira and Wiesler that it would be impossible to miss, “Pereira is far from heroic. A lonely widower, working on a paunch and a heart problem, he edits an innocuous literary page in a newspaper that supports the fascist regime. When the novel begins, we are tempted to believe Pereira’s life is virtually over.” One could replace Pereira’s name with Wiesler and the description would still be almost flawless. Both Pereira and Wiesler seem like lonely men leading bleak lives with professions that they don’t enjoy. For Wiesler and Pereira it seemed 

both of their lives were virtually over, as Rogow said. However, both men made a change in their lives which in turn created a domino effect that went on to help many others around them.

Both The Lives of Others and Pereira Declares can teach a very valuable lesson that needs to be understood by everyone, none of these four characters conformed to society and did what they were told to just because it was normal. If everyone was a little bit more like Pereira, Rossi, Wiesler, or Dreyman the world would be a better place.  

Michael told me that he thought this was my best essay yet, which was a relief to hear because I loved writing about this topic and I think my writing has progressed a great deal as the year has gone on. But him thinking that it was my best essay yet lead to little revision from him so I had to do most of it the best that I could. In the first draft, I think my transitions could have been much better, going from paragraph to paragraph was certainly a weak point that I think and hoped I fixed. I also initially had trouble with the intro, struggling to find a good way to start out the essay, but as I finished up the body paragraphs I went back and edited the intro which I think helped a lot.

