The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Berlin Wall features in the first, last, and near-exact middle chapter of the novel. Although it only divides one city, it represents the stark divide between the Western and Communist countries, and to pass from one side to another is tantamount to entering a different world. The checkpoint is also an incongruous mixture of crowdedness and isolation. It is a busy place, with a cacophony of voices speaking in different languages, and yet it is also imposing and inhospitable. The safety and calm of darkness can instantly transform into the peril of the spotlight. While John le Carré avoids any explicit judgment on the merits of the two systems, the world west of the Wall is far more populated with crowded offices and city streets, restaurants, and hotels. The world east of the Wall is far more confined, with small rooms and empty town halls, where relief comes in walking with nature rather than society. The juxtaposition offers an ironic contrast to the purported ideologies of the two sides. The individualistic West is a noisy and crowded place that swallows up the individual, and the collectivist East is able to isolate the individual and subject them to the unchallengeable power of the state.