Reichstag burning
In the first story in the book, the narrator describes the burning of the Reichstag building, an event used by the Nazis to transmit the idea that the Communists were the enemy and had to be eliminated. The image of the burning building becomes an important element here and is used to portray the lengths to which the Nazi party was willing to go to achieve its goals.
The sex party
The narrator Arthur ends up in the first story going to a sex party and staying there until the early houses of the morning, having fun and consuming drugs. The image created by the description of the sex party is surprisingly an extremely carefree and liberal one. This image is thus used to transmit the idea that even though the Nazi party controlled the public life, they had little to no control over the private life of their citizens, at least at the beginning of their reign.
The run down buildings
Towards the end of the story, the atmosphere described changes dramatically. At one point, towards the beginning of the 1940s, the narrator is walking in a poor neighborhood in Berlin, which became inhabited by those who were criticized by the regime. The state of the buildings is described as being deplorable and this image is used to convey the way in which the people living in those neighborhoods were treated as well.
Soldiers marching
The book ends with an extremely powerful image, presenting what seems a sea of soldiers marching towards an unseen enemy. The narrator looks at these soldiers from afar and realizes just how much the political situation has changed since the beginning of his book. This image is also important because it portrays the dangerous nature of the Nazi party and implicitly, of its leader.
