And when the novel was written, it did suggest that the dissidents had not lived or died in vain. The fact that they achieve very little material success against the Nazi regime is portrayed as secondary to the idea that they defeat the regime in ideal and even metaphysical terms, by preserving their moral integrity both as individuals, and as representatives of a better Germany who justify the nation’s survival. This means that Every Man Dies Alone examines for one final time the recurring tension in Fallada’s works between how people struggle with—or, as in The Drinker, are destroyed by—the
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