Deception and Betrayal in Fatherland - Literature Essay

250-300 Word Literature Essay — 293 Words

In the book Fatherland a significant amount of deception and betrayal can be seen throughout the plot line as well as the main characters. The entire plot line of the book is based on deception. A man, in a high ranking German position, feels as if he is being deceived by the government as well as his superiors; and this launches the plot along - as this detective tries to solve the case. Xavier March fuels his will to solve the Buhler case with the curiosity as to what the government was trying to avoid. In the end, it turns out the government was playing a game of deception with their people as well as the world. The German government makes use of heavy propaganda in order to make people think that they are the greatest nation on Earth. This can be seen by the boy Pili in the story. Pili betrays his dad and causes him to suffer greatly because he believes the government is right and all March does, is wrong.

Betrayal can be predominantly seen by the main character of Max Jaeger in the book. Whilst March is investigating and discovering significant leads, Max Jaeger exposes all of these new findings to the “bad-guys” in the story - the Gastapo. Max Jaeger follows betrayal to the very end, and in the final scene of the book the audience is shown that Max Jaeger still tries to extort a dying Xavier March, in order to gain information on the whereabouts of his girlfriend. All of the information Max Jaeger exposes, as well as things that he does, end up significantly hindering Xavier March near the end of the story.

This is how deception and betrayal can be seen in the book Fatherland.