Andrew O聮Connell
Reflection Paper over
聯The Artificial Silk Girl聰 Pgs 1-82
聽
This story is a narrative by Doris, a beautiful young lady
in Germany.聽 The year is 1931.聽 She lives in the Rhineland
with her father and mother 聳 who are not wealthy, but she only used their house
for a place to sleep 聳 a room in the attic.聽
Doris asks her mother why she married
her father, and he mother says that she needed to belong somewhere.聽 Doris is
good at manipulating men, and throughout the story we get accounts of the men
that she manipulates in someway or another: Pimple Face, Leo, Red Moon, White
Onyx, the hunk, etc. 聽Doris works for an
attorney, whom she calls 聯Pimple Face,聰 he sends everyone home from work 聳
except for Doris 聳 and Doris uses their 聯relationship聰/sexual harassment to
blackmail him for 120 marks.聽 She gives
her mother 40.聽 She not longer works for
Pimple Face.聽 She is pressured into
聽
Doris then takes up
acting.聽 To gain respect, she tells the
other girls that she is in a relationship with Leo Olm眉tz, the director.聽 She finally gets a line in one of the plays
by taking the place of another girl, Mila von Trapper, whom Doris
had locked in a bathroom.聽 Despite having
only one line in the play, Doris receives the
most flowers of any actress 聳 she had spread the word to all of the men she had
dated.
聽
Therese is Doris聮s best
friend.聽 On a night of one of the productions,
she tells Doris that Hubert had called and
that she had a date with him that very night.聽
Hubert is a man that Doris dated, and
still loves.聽 He is older, and had left
her to go marry a prominent figure聮s daughter (so: he went to marry into
money).聽 She decides to meet him, but she
doesn聮t like her rain coat that she is wearing, so she steals a fur coat from a
sleeping woman.
聽
Doris flees her home
because she is wanted by the law.聽 Therese
gives Doris her life聮s savings, and Doris goes to Berlin.聽 She changes her name.聽 She goes to stay with Tilli Sherer.聽 She has only one dress, that she washes every
morning, and her one 聳 stolen 聳 fur coat, and she wears both everyday.聽 She goes out with men, looking to establish
contacts in different circles.聽 She
writes her mother, telling her that she misses her and Therese, and that Berlin is not as
familiar as home.聽 She meets a man we
know as 聯Red Moon.聰聽 He favors a return
to the regime of the Kaiser 聳 from before World War I.聽 He is old and married.聽 She goes with Red Moon to his place, and hides
(&steals) his wife聮s 5, Bemberg, silk undershirts in her clothing while he
is talking to her.聽 Tilli arranges for
her to take care of the children of a wealthy couple.聽 We know the man as 聯White Onyx.聰聽 He offers her an apartment and money, and
they start a relationship, despite his wife and family.聽 She 聯cheats聰 on him with a 聯the hunk,聰 and he
kicks her out and calls her a whore.聽 She
moves back in with Tilli, knowing she will have to leave when her husband
returns.聽 The man living upstairs is a
pimp with 4 girls that work for him, but he beats them.聽 He grabs Doris
in the stairwell and she chastises him for beating those girls.聽 He spits on her suede shoes, and 聯says he finds
women disgusting.聰
聽
Doris & Tilli have no money.聽 Doris can聮t
find work because she has no papers, but she can聮t register with the police to
get papers because she is still wanted by the police.聽 But she likes Berlin 聳 聯Berlin is like Easter and Christmas
combined聰 - although she doesn聮t know what she is going to eat the next day.
聽
The most distinct feature of Irmgard Keun聮s style is her use
of the hyphen.聽 This causes the story to jump
from one thought to another very quickly and abruptly.聽 It can offer more information to a scene, but
I found that I would be reading a sentence and it would change entirely to a
different topic.聽 It jumps between the
story our narrator is telling, and her thoughts.聽 (i.e. pg 10: 聯And he has been gone for an
entire year 聳 God, I聮m so tired now.)
聽
Similar to the summary I聮ve just written, this story is very
fragmented because we are getting entries from Doris聮s
journal. She is our narrator, and we get her perspective on everything.聽 She seems to mean well in all her actions,
but whenever she does something that is suppose to turn out well for herself,
it turns out badly.聽 And all we see is
her opinion of everything, which has us saying: 聯oh, that is so unfair.聰
聽
Through this recounting of all this experiences that Doris has, I do think we see a unique perspective of Germany in
1931.聽 The role of the family seems to
not mean much to Doris.聽 She loves her mother, but has no feeling
towards her father 聳 the traditional head of a German household.聽 And her mother tells her that she married her
father so that she could belong somewhere 聳 just to have a man.聽 Doris
rejects this notion of needing a man as a place to belong.聽 She has dated innumerable men, and doesn聮t
look like she is going to slow down, but perhaps she will聟
聽
There are important political and social questions addressed
in the story as well.聽 I have already
mentioned 聯Red Moon,聰 who is an ultra-conservative writer who does not like the
current democracy and is in favor of a return to a more centralized government
like the one during the 2nd Reich with Kaiser Wilhelm II.聽 Racist comments are made against Frenchmen
and Jews, and Doris doesn聮t know why.聽 She says she is Jewish because a man asks her
if she is and she thinks he is interested in her only if she IS Jewish.聽 He then gives her a tongue-lashing for being Jewish.聽 She asks the navy-blue married man about Frenchmen
and Jews and what it is about them, and he ignores her question and starts
talking about Christmas presents.聽 I
think this shows that people in Germany
at this time either foster direct racism or choose to ignore it altogether.
聽
Questions:
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What do COMMAS mean to Doris?
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Is Doris trying
to make everyone happy?聽 If yes, why?
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What is the meaning of all of the relationships
in her life?
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Does she have any chance of making her life
better?聽 How can she do that in the world
in which she lives?
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It seems like Doris gets whatever she wants or
could convince someone to help her or give her anything that she wants, so why
is she in such a poor situation?
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What does this story say about Germany聮s
status in 1931, politically, socially, economically?聽 What does Doris
think about this?聽 What does Keun think
about this?