Re-humanization

First of all, to "re-humanize" is not a word, but I think it should be; it's what happens to our anti-hero, Gerd Weisler, in The Lives of Others. Being trained by the GDR's authoritarian government has reduced Weisler into a robotic minion of the state who can't think for himself and follows government orders without questioning their morality. But after listening in on Georg Dreyman and Christa-Maria Sieland's lives, we begin to see life behind Weisler's eyes again. We see how conflicted he feels upon hearing about Sieland's pain over her affair and the tension it causes between her and Dreyman; we witness that Weisler empathizes with Dreyman's feeling of powerlessness and frustration over wanting to make changes but not feeling like he can. Weisler's transition from unfeeling automation to sympathetic human is smooth for the most part, but the audience isn't sure of his conversion to "the good side" until one particularly defining scene: the one in which he asks the little boy in the elevator for the name of his ball. Although the little boy makes it obvious that his father is an enemy of the state, Weisler's conscious decision to let this unknown man walk free makes it clear to the audience that his ethical conscience has kicked in and he's deliberately making the decision to disobey his orders.