The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Jojo’s Emotional Life

2021/02/09 admin 870

The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Jojo’s Emotional Life

Francy Wang

 

 图片关键词

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 film first.

Jojo Rabbit is a 2019 comedy-drama movie directed by Taika Waititi (also play Hitler in the film). This movie was adapted from Christine Leunens' book "Caging Skies." The online reviews of this film is quite controversial. Here I only try to understand the character Jojo psychoanalytically.

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 Hitler's personal guard in the future. He attends the training camp which the one-eye-bind Captain Klenzendorf runs. 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 encouragement from his imaginary friend 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 badly injured, and the injury left scars on his face, and he cannot walk properly anymore. He is distraught.

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 got her son a job of pasting Nazi posters and putting the Nazi propaganda letters in 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.

Now he has a dilemma: On the one hand, a Jewish girl hiding in his attic against his Nazi rule. On the other hand, he loves his mother, the only person he could depend on because his father is "not at home." Further, he does not want to be excluded from the Nazi Youth, nor has Elsa being killed by Nazi. 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 difficulty 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. Rosie puts on her husband’s uniform, grabs the ash from the fireplace smashing it on her face. Pretending her husband, she tells Jojo "Don’t ever talk with your 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.

It is a moving and sad moment.

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 comes to search the 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). Gestapo asks her 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 1st, 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-fascism slip on a table hastily.

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, his mother's shoes are right in front of his face.  Looking up, his mother is hanging there. He holds his mother's leg and starts to cry. Eventually, he tied his mother's shoelaces, like what his mother used to do for him, 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.

Still, he tells his best friend Yorki that he has a girlfriend now and she is a Jew.

Approaching the end of the movie, the Russian and American troops are fighting with German soldiers. All the soldiers, include the Nazi Youth members, are sent to the battlefield. Jojo met his best friend Yorki. 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 home. Elsa, who heard the fierce battle, asked him who 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 had made a plan to help her escape to Paris, and she and Ethan can live happily after in Paris.

Elsa opens the door/wall and tells 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, 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 and the fear of the new challenges they are going to face.

When I was watching the movie, a question came to my mind again and again: 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 (the story implies that his father is either a deserter or died, likely hanged). His father is probably anti-war as well, like his mother, who escaped to avoid participation in the war. There is no information on how long his father had left. Because the movie story happens at the end of WWII, 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 hostility would cause castration anxiety. Castration anxiety helps develop the superego of the little boy. To ease his castration anxiety, he would identify with his father and treat 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 for daily life support and emotional support. There are several scenes in the movie to tell us their intimate relationship and Jojo's Oedipal relationship with his mother. One of them is he sits outside the bathroom like a guard when his mother is taking a 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 mentioned above, 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, a resourceful boy, looks for other resources for a father figure. It is also very natural he takes Hitler as a role model in his fantasy; the most powerful person he knows. He also looks for other sources in real life; 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 war, he encounters death or potential of death every day—the death of jews, the hanging of anti-way/Nazi people, and the injuries of soldiers [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 often busy (to conduct the anti-war activities), he is often alone at home, he must feel unprotected and fearful. Who could protect him most? Hitler! Although only in his mind, being with him, 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 cannot be Hitler's persona guard anymore. A 10-year-old cannot fully comprehend the Nazi doctrine; therefore, it is more likely that he alliance with Nazi because of fear than 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 government and the leader create, the more fanatic followers become. The deep reason is fear and the projection of  their omnipotent narcissistic need. It is the manifestation of their narcissistic vulnerability. Narcissistic vulnerability is related to the dread of annihilation—the deepest dread caused by the death anxiety/death drive.

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 boys' phallus, same as the guns and knives that men, and women, carry; they are precious but dangerous. His knife is taken away by Elsa, He takes the kitchen knife to "threat" Elsa,  it is taken away by Elsa again. Hitler scorns him how he would cut stuff without a knife? And when the Gestapo scorns him for losing his knife, he is very ashamed. He is castrated, a boy without a phallus, a man without manhood. It symbolizes his powerless and helpless. 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 so dearly.

Jojo's mother was hanged after the search of his home. 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 has lost his most important object-his mother. Now only he and Elsa left; they can only rely on each other, nobody else. At the same time, Jojo also lost the Oedipus connection with his mother. Now he transfers his most important feelings to Elsa. He said: "I love you." He wants Elsa to belong to him. When Jojo went home after the German's defeat, Elsa, who heard the battle,  asked him who won and whether she could be free, he tells Elsa that the German won and she could not leave. I felt a twist internally. On the one hand, I understand how much he needed Elsa.
On the other hand, I am scared by the dark side of human nature. Could he "become a Nazi" himself? Will he keep Elsa imprisoned?  I remember another TV show, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." In the show,  Kimmy and three other girls were kept in the cult leader's cellar for 15 years!  The Austrian girl Natascha Maria Kampusch, who was abducted and imprisoned for eight years, also comes to my mind. Will Jojo really do that? Fortunately, he corrected it soon. Jojo reads the letter from a piece of empty paper to let Elsa know that he and Ethan had made an escape plan for her to save his face. By giving Elsa freedom, he also frees himself; his, the psyche freedom; Elsa, the physical freedom.

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 provided 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. She is dead, but she left a good foundation for him to grow, to build relationships with others (e.g., Elsa).

 **********

The discussion of “Jojo Rabbits started at precisely at 7:30 pm. Several interesting points came up during the discussion of the TICP movie night of “Jojo Rabbit.” Dr. Caspary was impressed by Jojo and Elsa’s ability to express loneliness.

I also think they are lonely, but they are lonely with different ways. Elsa’s parents were sent away on a train, likely died in the concentration camp. She could not have any other friend because she is a Jew, hiding in the attic. Her fiancé died, but she keeps him deep in her heart dearly (I believe she must have many conversations with him when hiding in that dark place). Jojo’s father “disappeared,” and his mother is busy with anti-war activities. He is also lonely because he cannot join his friends for the military training due to his injury. He can only do the poster-pasting job alone. During the day, when Rosie is away, and they only have each other, lonely and feared. They both are intelligent children, holding each other with “fights,” bickering, and friendships.

Another topic that was mentioned a few times was the demonization of Jews. There is a shame of human history that another race demonizes a human race in order to defeat the demonized or show their own superiority for various reasons, and this is still continuing in some way. I think this is precisely what anti-systemic discrimination is fighting for, fight for demonized some people explicitly or implicitly.

A blue butterfly was mentioned a few times during the discussion. Someone said it symbolizes hope. A colleague (Burns) said that butterflies symbolize the psyche in Greek mythology.

I do agree the butterfly symbolizes hope, as well as Love. When I watched Jojo following the butterfly, staring at the butterfly, and then suddenly, his mother’s shoes caught his attention. Looking up, his mother was hanging there. It is so sad,  painful, and powerful. I thought of the Chinese legend story “Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.” At the end of the tragic love story, they both become butterflies, happily ever after, never being separated again. How come the same metaphor is used in different cultures? Both represent love, hope, and tragedy.

In terms of symbolism, the author and/or director use many symbols in the movie; the butterfly (love, hope, and psyche), the shoelaces (care & love), dance (happiness, attitude toward life-can dance), the rabbit (Jew), cages (imprison, prison, concentration camp),  and knife (phallus, bravery, violence).

Now I understand why this movie is called “Jojo Rabbit”. It’s not about Jojo cannot kill a rabbit; it’s about Jojo cannot report (would cause the murder) a Jew. It’s his humanity--people’s humanity defeated fascism/Nazi.

It is a movie about humanity, also a movie about how two “opposite” persons get alone, understand each other, forgive each other, and love each other. They can do it not because they are different. They can do it because they are precisely the same deep down the soul under different colors, gender, and backgrounds.

A colleague mentioned a detail: Approach the end of the movie, after his mother died, Jojo tightens the shoelaces for Elsa like his mother did for him before. I think it is his way of showing love to Elsa and his way, sadly, to be with his mother. In order to be with his mother, now he becomes his mother.


Francy Wang 王方

February 8, 2021 at 6:00 pm in Toronto

 

FWTherapy
             关注FWTherapy 微信号:FrancyWang-Toronto
             FWTherapy’s Wechat account: FrancyWang-Toronto

关注我的微信公众号:“方心理”
             Website: www.francywang.com
              Email: fwtherapy@yahoo.com; info@francywang.com
              Phone: (416) 816-9721

(此文版权归Francy Wang 王方所有,转发,敬注明出。)




首页