JoJo Rabbit: Navigating the Hateful "Me"

Taika Waititi & Fox Searchlight Pictures

Despite the fact that I've only just recently seen Jojo Rabbit, and am by no means an expert, you've still found your way to this page, so between you and me, who's really winning at life?

You, it's obviously you.

Spoilers ahead though.

Skip This Section if You've Already Seen the Trailer

Jojo Rabbit focuses on the tale of a young Nazi boy named Johannes (Jojo for short) living in Nazi-controlled Germany during WWII. He is enamored with the Nazi way of life, going so far as to even create his own imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler. Yada yada yada, he discovers a Jewish girl named Elsa living in his walls, and has to learn to be a better person and reconsider this whole Nazi thing. But it's also a fun quirky comedy. Sorta. 

You know what? Here's the trailer.

I can't figure out how to put a caption under a video link, so I'll just tell you that this trailer was produced and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. You're welcome, The Law.

Don't Skip This Section - I.E. Where it Gets Good

Let me give you the skinny... actually, that phrase may not have entirely innocent connotations. Here, let me tell you what I think: Fantastic Frickin' Flick.

Honestly one of the best movies I've seen. Although that's not really saying much because I actually kinda liked The Green Lantern  when it first came out so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

This film is worthy of all of the analysis it will inevitably receive over time and across the cosmos, but I think that it might be useful to analyze it through what Dr. George Herbert Mead calls, the "I" and the "Me."

The "I" is the version of yourself that is most pure, or in other words, is not really affected by society or other people. The "Me" is the version of yourself that is affected and/or created by society and other people. For example, when I was a child I used to skip everywhere I went because I loved skipping, and then society (and my older brother) told me to stop, and so I did. My inner need to romp in the fields skipping to my heart's content still exists (my "I"), but now I would feel weird actually doing it (my "Me").

Very scientific stuff.

In the film, Jojo's "I" is a very sweet and innocent young boy. This is shown when he refuses to kill a rabbit at the start of the film, talks kindly to his imaginary friend, and does various other nice things throughout the movie (like when he writes fake letters and pretends they are from Nathan, Elsa's Fiancé to try to cheer her up [it's also kinda messed up, since he did this at first to discourage her and be mean, but let's not talk about that]). His "Me" on the other hand is currently being affected by one of the worst societies to have ever existed on earth, Nazi-controlled Germany. This doesn't mean that he is entirely a victim of circumstance though, or that we should forgive him of any wrongdoing simply because he's a child and didn't really have the option to not be a Nazi-loving little hate monster. No, the entire story revolves around Jojo learning to recognize his "I" (inner sweetness) and tearing down his "Me" (all the Nazi stuff).

How is this accomplished? By becoming familiar with Elsa, a Jewish girl, whose presence he is forced to endure (at the beginning). By the end they are friends.

I'll level with you, I don't actually know all that much about Mead's theories, but I've had a thought that's really rocking my world right now, that I'd like to share with you. One of the primary go-to-gags that this film uses repeatedly, is making fun of Nazi propaganda! It was this propaganda that  taught little Jojo and other kids absurd false tales about Jewish people saying that they have horns and scales, can hypnotize Germans, are attracted to ugly things, are controlled by the devil, etc. For my purposes, I'm going to use a similar mode of phrasing as Mead, that I'm calling "You" and "You People." The "You" is going to serve in the place of the "I", but only comes as the direct result of when an "individual" perceives an "other's" true character first hand. The "You People" is what society tells the "individual" that the "other" is like.

For Jojo, the "You People" is all this propaganda about Jewish people, and the "You" are his actual conversations with Elsa, the Jewish girl.

Examples Anyone?

This concept of a real self, versus a fake self (that either society has created, or an individual has created in response to society) persists throughout the movie as a whole.

Jojo's mother lives a double life, with her inner self wanting to help Jewish people, but her "Me" constantly restrains her "I" due to her social standing. For example, she doesn't confide her "I" to her own son because of... well that's another story. Point is, she's repressing her "I."

Elsa first supports Jojo's false beliefs in what Jewish people are like, and in doing so crafts a less than pretty "me" though we as the audience know that she does not believe these stupid fantasies. We think that her "I" is a young girl in love, and is hopeful for escape, but we learn that his too was false, and was really a "Me." Her inner "I" was struggling all along, and feared to hope at all.

Captain K, a closeted gay German officer, dies defending Nazism, but saves Elsa and Jojo, knowing fully well that Elsa is Jewish. His inner "I" is gay and apparently sweet, but had been restricted by his "Me" for so long, that he could only do these good things near the end of his life, when it didn't matter if his "I" managed to peek out into the world.

Even Jojo's imaginary friend Hitler is just a childish and heroic fun-house mirror version of what the true Adolf Hitler was really like-- terrible. Although, there are moments when even Jojo's fun Hitler suddenly speaks like the real Hitler, and it is terrifying. As a character, Imaginary Hitler's "Me" is this fun and heroic personality that he uses to deceive Jojo, but his "I" is really just incredibly awful.

Ultimately, Jojo Rabbit is a film that should not work. But the writers were crafty, and the actors? Brilliant. And the cinematographer? Pretty dang good! And the editors? Fan-frickin'-tastic.

Oh and I guess Taika Waititi was also there. Maybe in like one scene.

Embrace your "I", and look beyond the "You People." You might just find someone else's "I."

Cheers.

Postscript

I know that this post, and Mead's theory, seems to suggest that the "I" is like a universally good thing, and that the society-afflicted "Me" is what causes people to go bad and do evil things, but I wonder if a persons's "I" could be inherently evil (or even slightly bad). That'd be kind of an interesting concept. Maybe I'll work that into another post, but I couldn't think of a way to do it in this one that felt really cohesive, because honestly, that's just not what this film was about. You could argue that imaginary Hitler's was inherently bad, and I wouldn't disagree, but while the film may have hinted at that, the overall takeaway of the movie supported a more positive outlook on life and the human condition. And I wanted to reflect that in my post.