
Freedom of Speech is one of the inalienable rights that all men should be given. Being able to freely talk about what is going on in the world around you is essential for building a better society. Free Speech is a building block for change because communicating and expressing ideas about what is good and bad in society is how change is brought about. The theme of Freedom of Speech being limited is present in Antonio Tabucchi’s Periera Declares and von Dannersmarck’s The Lives of Others. However, while these texts may have a similar overarching theme, their elements are very different. 

These two works are very similar in the message that they are sending to the viewer. The lesson that you are supposed to learn from each work is that one should always be allowed freedom of speech and should never allow oneself to be censored. In each of these compositions, the main character is living in a country with a totalitarian government. This makes it difficult to create art because the government only allows for positive works and will not tolerate any criticism. These totalistic governments will not allow for freedom of speech because “It reinforces all other human rights, allowing society to develop and progress” (Timms). If you are a government that does not want change, then words like “developing” and “progress” will scare you.  For Periera, he writes for a newspaper but cannot write about the actual news because it makes the government look negative. If he were to write about the actual news in the country than he would be putting himself in danger. Because of this, Periera censors himself and compromises his identity as a writer. Georg Dreyman faces a similar situation in that he lives in East Germany when it was a Socialist State. Dreyman must censor himself so as not to be jailed by the Stasi which was the secret police at the time. In both of these works, the main character is forced to decide between his own safety and his integrity as a writer. They each decide that their integrity as writers and freedom is more important than any trouble they may come across from their government. 

These two works are also similar in the fact that the main character of each story is influenced by a radical person trying to create change. Monteiro Rossi is the man that changes Periera’s perspective on being a writer. Rossi starts off by simply befriending him and then as their friendship grows he starts to discuss the problems that they are facing in their country at the time. Rossi often brings the topic up when having conversations with Periera and this forces Periera to start to think about the issues in the country more. Georg Dreyman is also very much influenced by a radical friend of his. He first starts to think of the issue of the lack of freedom of speech when this friend of his storms out of his party. He leaves the party because he is angry that a man is there who supports the socialist government and he gets angry with Dreyman for being a bystander to this problem. Once Dreyman realizes that not acting is giving into the problem he starts to devise a scheme where he will write a play and release it to the outside world. He then creates a masterpiece that tells of all of the problems with East Germany at that time and his writing helps to bring the issues the German people are facing.

Each of these compilations is trying to get across a similar message, but the situation of the main character is very different. Periera is alone and has no one to lean on when things get tough. Being lonely can affect a person mentally and physically and causes a person to lose hope. When Periera has no hope, there is no reason for him to care about telling the real news. Periera was perfectly fine with writing unimportant news that kept him out of trouble. However, the friendship that he starts to make with Monteiro Rossi starts to give him hope again. With this new found hope, Periera realizes why he is a writer again and begins to write about the actual news. Another difference between these stories is the perspective shown. Periera Declares is told from Periera’s perspective throughout the novel. The Lives of Others is different because the viewer observes the story through the eyes of Georg Drayman and a German Stasi officer named Wiesler. This pairing of the “good” and “bad” characters perspectives is used by the author to create a more effective turning point in the story. WIesler, who is the model soldier for the Stasi, seems focused on catching anyone who opposes the German socialist government. When WIesler starts to care for these people that he is watching and helps them out it makes the viewer realize which characters side to take. 

Aside from the differences in situation that each character must face, these texts use different elements in order to create a crisper story. One of the most important aspects to Periera Declares is in the repetition of the phrase “Periera Declares”. Repetition is used by authors to “encourage the acceptance of an idea” (D’Arcy). In this novel, Tabucchi uses the repetition of this phrase to give light to the fact that this story is being recalled by Periera. Knowing that the story is being recalled has the implication that the story was very important to Periera’s life. Another large element to Tabucchi’s writing was his use of personification. This element was not seen in von Dannersmarck’s work. Tabucchi used the personification of a picture of Periera’s dead wife to give more focus to problems that Periera was facing throughout the novel. Every time that he was struggling with something in the story, he would go to the picture of his wife and talk about his problem. When he talked of his problems it gave the reader an insight as to what he was thinking. One element that was present in The Lives of Others was the use of a second perspective. This was very important to the story because it helped the viewer to become more invested in the story. When we are able to see things from different perspectives, then the problem that the characters are facing become more real to the audience. 

Each of these stories investigate the importance of Freedom of Speech to a society. Both show that people need to be able to communicate about what is happening in the world around them. While these stories share a similar theme, the path that each author take to communicating this theme is very different. Antonio Tabucchi uses repetition and personification to bring focus on problems that Periera is facing. Von Dannersmarck effectively uses differing perspectives in order to bring the viewers’ attention to problems. While these two approaches may be drastically different, they are each used effectively by the author to give importance to the conflicts within their texts. 
