The "Others"

The title of the movie, "The Lives of Others," refers to the lives of people like Dreyman and Christa-Maria. The government and the Stasi classified these people as "others;" they were meant to be watched and not trusted. Yet again, we encounter a group of people that manages to alienate another group and classify them as the "other." In this case, the others are artists, but in East Germany, an other could basically be anybody who went against the government. In fact, a person didn't even have to commit any crime to be classified as an other. If someone in the government simply disliked you, bam!, you were an other. What is strange about this case is that the others are actually the majority of the people; much of the population of the GDR could easily be labeled an other. Most people, in fact, would think of the government and the Stasi as the others. They were the ones who weren't normal, leading lives based on spying and incriminating people. The majority of the population wasn't different. They were. So though we see "The Lives of Others" as Wiesler's journey of becoming one of the "others," it would almost be more accurate to see it as his journey of no longer being an "other." Or, perhaps the best would be to see it as his journey of simply becoming human, and transcending those labels of "other" or "not-other." Wiesler managed to break through that barrier. And isn't that exactly what happened when the Wall came down?