Goodbye Lenin was a movie about a the socialist movement in Germany. Christiane was an advocate for East Germany when she loses her husband and then falls into a coma. When she wakes up the Berlin wall has fallen and slowly East and West Germany begin good relations. Before the coma the family was very disconnected, but after Alex for awhile shields his mother from the changes in history. Alex and his sister bicker about the way he protects his mother, but in part Alex feels guilty for his mother's coma and that everything she has worked for has changed. One day Alex's mom goes on a walk and figures out that a lot has changed. The family finally embraces these changes and allows Alex's mother to know this then unites the family sort of like the new state of Germany. There are many complexities to both the family state and the state of the countries. The family goes through rough patches (coma, divorce, etc.) and then stabilizes eventually. The country goes through rough patches and then temporarily stabilizes. the irony to the situation is that in many ways Alex wanted to be out of the loop like his mother, but couldn't because he already knew of everthing that was going on. He almost lived vicariously through her, another irony is that of socialism. The Germans wanted this so called life and they dreamed and made strides in a positive direction, but the truth is there are always divisions in society so total equality is a dream. In the last part of the movie Alex's mother is playing with her daughter's baby the new hope and generation. Alex's mom and her grandaughter are both experiencing this new place for the first time, the transition. In the end Alex's mother dies and in a way it is symbolistic of the dead life that was before the new world before the fall of the Berlin wall.