The Post Office Girl
The Post Office Girl is a German title meaning intoxicated transformation. Written by an Austrian Literacy writer, Zweig, the book describes the life of a young lady, Christine Hoffehner, who works as an office clerk at a post office in Austria-Hungary. After the First World War, Austria-Hungary, her home-country is stricken by poverty, hunger, and suffering, and for her, the war took everything from her. Being an adolescent girl when the war broke out, Christine contemplates that the battle took everything from her. Zweig (34) states that “the war took her youthful decade.” Christine works to support her ailing mother, with her brother and father dying in the war. Reading through the book, it is evident that the war had disastrous effects on the Austrian people, leaving their economy crumbling to the ground, and the inhabitants languishing in poverty. In this novel, inequality is the source of most social problems like depression and low self-esteem. While I agree with the author that inequality is shown as the cause of the challenges, I differ with the author in that I view inequality as the source of poverty. In my interpretation, Zweig uses inequality to show how inequality breeds poverty. Connectedly, this paper shows the significance of inequality in showing poverty in post-war Austria.
Zweig states that the war is over, while the poverty still haunts us. “The poverty is now creeping back, broad muzzled, hollow-eyed, bold and hungry, eating anything left by the war” (Zweig, 254) After the war, the country got divided into classes, the rich and the extreme poor, like Christine’s aunt. In this statement, Zweig describes poverty as coming back for the remnants of the war. In essence, poverty is coming for the low-class people, who cannot afford basic needs. Class divisions define inequality in this war-ravaged country. Poverty affects the low-class people, who have been rendered vulnerable by inequality in the country. Christine’s mother, for instance, is sickly and does not have anyone else but Christine to tend to her. The implication is that Christine has to work in the post-office to afford to feed her mother. Secondly, because of social inequality depicted by class, Christine cannot live her social life, engaging with her lover, but instead works all her life, to care for her mother.
Because of inequality, Christine’s existence is barely living because she exists rather than live. Zweig (126) describes the situation, “only through the experience of darkness and light, peace and war, fall and rise, can someone have experienced life.” On her part, Christine had only experienced the negative parts of life. Christine had experienced falls, war, and darkness all her life, and for this reason, Zweig describes her as merely existing. Christine has two chores in life; tending to her ailing mother, and working tirelessly at the post-office. Like the numerous women of her age, she has lost her youthful days to the war, and she regrets her country indulging in the war. Christine has lost her father and brother in the war, and she would probably never enjoy life as she would have if the war did not occur with her age. Zweig uses inequality to show how it can affect the personal lives of people.
In my interpretation, Zweig uses inequality to pass a political message that his home-country, Austria, suffers the consequences of inequality after the war. Having fought in the side of the Central powers, Austria was on the losing side. For Zweig, this was a way of expressing his discontentment with the international community’s inequality in post-war affairs. Zweig uses inequality, not to depict poverty, but to pass the political message to the international community. By using poverty as part of his message, Zweig displays the consequences of neglect and inequality that the international community offers. For instance, living in America was different from the situation in Austria. If the world allowed equality, then her aunt, living in America, and her family, would be at the same level in life. While her aunt could afford expensive trips to Switzerland, Christine and her mother could barely afford to live in basic needs.
Zweig also shows inequality as an emotional aspect that traps the human mind, rendering the captive to its subjectivism. While in Switzerland with her aunt, Christine has to adopt a new name to hide her identity. In essence, concealing her real name helps prevent the other people from knowing her real identity, as the poor girl from Austria. Additionally, her aunt, also, does not want the people in this restaurant to remember her old identity; instead, she wants them to identify her as the rich American lady. In her bid to conceal her identity, Christine’s aunt has to end her trip abruptly, when a young maid identifies Christine, as the poor girl from Austria. Zweig (228) states, “don’t open your eyes, when you open them, the good things may leave.’ In this statement, Zweig shows the emotional attachment that inequality had rendered both Christine and her aunt. Due to inequality, these two ladies were not willing to go back to their old lives.