“Jojo Rabbit” and His Emotional Life
Tonight is the movie night of TICP. The movie that is going to be discussed is “Jojo Rabbit”. Before the movie night, I want to write my understanding of the movie first.
Jojo Rabbit is a 2019 comedy-drama movie directed by Taika Waititi (also play Hitler in the movie). This movie was adapted from Christine Leunens’ book “Caging Skies”.
In the movie, Jojo is a 10-year-old boy, a Hitler Youth member. He is very keen on Nazi doctrine. He has an imaginary friend Adolf Hitler and wants to be the personal guard of Hitler after growing up. He attends the training camp which is run by the one-eye-bind Captain Klenzendorf. This camp trains the children’s bravery by inculcating hate of Jewish people and “enemies”. During a training session, he is ordered to kill a rabbit to prove his braveness. He cannot do it and tries to set the rabbit free. Everyone laughs at him as a coward just like his father and calls him "Jojo Rabbit". He runs away and sits alone upsetting and his imaginary friend is “called upon”/appears. He encourages Jojo by mentioning that he does not care about being called psycho, lunatic himself, etc. With the encouragement of Hitler, he runs back to the camp, grabs the hand grenade from Captian Klenzendorf’s hand, and throws it to a big tree. Unfortunately, the grenade bounces back and explores right at his side. He is injured badly and the injury left scars on his face and he is unable to walk properly anymore. He is very upset.
Jojo’s mother Rosie is a beautiful, optimistic, and courageous woman, also a sympathizer of Jewish and an anti-war. Anyhow, she does not want her son to be isolated. She took Jojo to the camp, kicked on Captain Kenzandorf's crotch to punish him for causing his son's injury, and gets her son a job of pasting Nazi posters and putting the Nazi propaganda letters to the mailboxes.
One day, when Jojo came home early, he hears some noise coming from upstairs. He finds Elsa, a Jewish girl, and his sister’s classmate and friend in the attic. He is terrified but he could not report her to the Nazi, either, because it would cause his mother to be executed.
He is in a dilemma: On the one hand, a Jewish girl hiding in his attic against his Nazi patriotism. On the other hand, he loves his mother, the only person he could depend on because his father is “not at home”. Therefore, he and Elsa both agree not to tell his mother that he has known the existence of Elsa. He also works through his dilemma with his imaginary friend. Hitler encourages him to win Elsa/Jew with mind power.
After his discovery, with the difficulty in suppressing his fear and anger, he starts to criticize his mother's non-patriotism for wanting to leave Germany and says he misses his father and not happy staying stuck with his mother. His mother, by pretending she is his father, tells him he should not "talk with his goddam mother like that" and makes him promise to take care of his Rosie. She also reconciles their relationship by dancing with Jojo like their dancing in a club when they met.
Gradually, Jojo and Elsa develop companionship and friendship even though Jojo always seems the role of controlling. Elsa told him about her fiancé Ethan who proposed to her at a riverbank.
One day, when Jojo and Elsa were playing at home, the Gestapo suddenly come by to search their house. Jojo urges Elsa to go back to the attic and faces the Gestapo alone. Jojo is very nervous and even more so when they want to search the upstairs. At the moment, Elsa appears and says she is Jojo’s sister Inge (who had died). She was asked to show her paper. She handed the paper to Captain Kenzandorf who came to the house following the Gestapo’s arrival. He asks about her birthday. She said, May the first, 1929. After the Gestapo left, Elsa finds out that Inge’s birthday is May 7th instead of May 1st. She realizes that Captain Kenzandorf protected her.
And Jojo found her stomach is full of butterflies.
One day, when he is doing his duty on the street, he sees his mother drop an anti-way slip on the street.
Another day, when he is doing his duty, he sees a blue butterfly. He is fascinated. He follows the butterfly. When the butterfly lands on the ground, he squats down to look at the butterfly. Then something catches his attention. Turn his head, he saw his mother's shoes. Looking up, his mother is hanging there. He holds his mother’s leg and cries. Eventually, he tied his mother’s shoelace, like what his mother used to tie his shoelace, and left.
Now, it’s only him and Elsa. He tells Elsa he loves her. Elsa tells him she loves him too as a little brother.
At the end of the movie, the Russian and American troops are fighting with German troops. All the soldiers, include the Nazi Youth members, are sent to the battle field. Jojo met his best friend Yorki and Yorki tells him Hitler had killed himself. Then his whole belief system collapsed. The German is defeated, Captain Kenzandorf as well as many other people are killed.
He walks through the ruined buildings and streets back to home. Elsa, who heard the fierce battle obviously, asked him who has won and whether she could be free. Not wanting Elsa to leave, Jojo lied to her that German won and she cannot leave. Guilt about his lie, later on, he told Elsa that he and Elsa’s fiancé Ethan has made a plan to help her to escape to Paris and she and Ethan can live happily after in Paris. Elsa told him that Ethan had died of tuberculosis a year ago.
At the end of the movie, Jojo and Elsa come out to the street. They dance on the street happily. Once before, when Jojo asked Elsa what she would do if she is scared, Elsa said dance. Therefore, the dance symbolizes the celebration of eh newly gained liberty as well as the fear of the new challenges they are going to face.
How and why Jojo, a 10 years old little boy, could be so indoctrinated by the extreme Nazi doctrine?
Jojo lives with her mother, without a father in the picture. Other people call his father a coward, he later one somebody tells him that his father is a deserter. Likely, his father is anti-war as well, like his mother, who escaped to avoid participation in the war. There is no information on how long had his father left. Because the story of the movie was at the end of the war, we probably can assume that he left a few years ago and it is right during Jojo’s phallic stage (age 3-6). During this stage, the little boy becomes unconsciously attracted to his mother and his father would become the rival at first and the little boy would be hostile towards his father. According to Freud, the hostile would cause castration anxiety. Castration anxiety helps the development of the superego of the little boy and he also becomes identify with his father and treats his father as a role model. The superego includes internalized rules, taught by parents and authority figures, and conscience.
Jojo’s relationship with his mother is intimate. His mother, a young and attractive lady raises a son alone during the war. Naturally, they attach with each other for daily life support and emotional support, and satisfaction. In the movie, Jojo sits outside the bathroom like a guard when his mother taking the bath. It is for sure he could hear the water splash and, as a 10-year-old, could imagine his mother’s nude body. When his mother, and himself, was emotionally drained, they dance together. All these could intensify the Oedipal tension of Jojo, and the Oedipal guilt, and castration anxiety.
As we know, one of the major ways of easing castration anxiety is become to identify with the father and treat the father as a role model.
While his father is not available to take the role model role, Jojo, as a resourceful boy, looks for other resources for a father figure. It is also very natural he takes Hitler, the most powerful person he knows takes to the role in his fantasy. He also looks for other sources in the reality, Captain Kenzandorf is another role model. For several times, he goes to Kenzandorf to look for advice, about Jews.
Alliance with Hitler and Kenzandorf is also a way of easing his fear. During the time of war, what he encounters every day is the death of people—the death of jews and the hanging of death of anti-way/Nazi people, and the injuries of soldiers [there were scenes of a truck full of injured soldiers and disabled people (e.g. lack of leg) at the Youth Camp]. His father is absent, his mother is also often absent (to conduct the anti-war activities), he is often alone at home, he must feel unprotected and fearful. Who could protect him most? Hitler! Being with him, although only in his mind, let alone he is his (future) personal guard. He must also feel grateful when Hitler did not abandon him, as his father did after he becomes ugly and crippled. A 10-year-old cannot comprehend the Nazi doctrine fully, therefore, it is more likely that he alliance with Nazi because of fear than because of patriotism (yes I agree a 10-year-old could develop patriotism). Same as many vulnerable and fearful adults.
The more arbitrary and dictatorial and more fear a leader causes, the more fanatic followers it is created. The deep reason for it is fear and the satisfaction of their omnipotent narcissistic need or narcissistic vulnerability. Narcissistic vulnerability is related to the dread of annihilation.
In the Youth Camp, everybody is given a knife to carry and is told that it is an expensive and beautiful tool and they should carry it all the time. The knives symbolized the phallus of the boys, same as the guns and knives that men, and women, carry, they are precious but also dangerous. When the knife is taken away by Elsa. The second time, he takes the kitchen knife to “threat” Elsa, is taken away again. Hitler scorns him what would he use to cut stuff? and when the Gestapo scorns him for losing his knife, he is very ashamed. He is castrated. He becomes a boy without phallus and that symbolizes that he could not protect his mother. We can imagine how distressed and defeated he is when he discovers his mother’s death, as a boy lost his mother and as a replaced husband unable to protect the woman he loves.
Jojo’s mother was killed after the search of his home. It is unclear to me when his mother was killed actually. Was she killed after the search or before the search? Anyhow, Jojo discovered his mother’s death after the search. He told the Gestapo that his mother was very busy. Would he feel that he is the cause of his mother’s death? Poor boy!
He lost the most important object, his mother. Coming home, only he and Elsa in the house now. It is also very natural that they would attach with each other even to survive. Jojo lost his Oedipal tie with his mother, now he transfers his most important feeling to Elsa. He said: “I love you.” He wants to keep her to himself.
From the object relation point of view, his attachment with his mother is secure. His mother encourages him, stands up for him, and uses playfulness and humor in their interactions. She provides a holding environment for Jojo and gave him space to explore. For example, even though she is anti-war, she does not forbid Jojo to attend the Nazi Youth camp because that is what Jojo wants to. She is dead, but she left a potential space for him to grow, to build relationships with others (e.g. Elsa).
(Today is the Movie night of TICP. We are going to discuss a movie called "Jojo Rabbit". The discussion will start at 7:30 pm today, Feb. 6, 2021. Now is 6:50 pm on Feb. 6, 2021. I post it here to prove that above thoughts are my original thoughts.)
Francy Wang
Feb. 6, 2021 in Toronto