Mundt And Leamas example essay topic

The novel 'The Spy Who Came In From the Cold's hows us what it is like to live without humanity. It shows us an upside-down world, in which people are disposable, morals inapplicable and love becomes the biggest danger of all. It tells the story of a spy, Leamas, who found the humanity that was buried inside him, and learned to live and to love. It also shows a conflicting story of a man, Mundt, who lives his entire life without any sense of morality or humanity.

Mundt is a man who lives the life of a spy. The life of a spy is very different to the life of ordinary people. They live in a world where the rules and laws of ordinary life do not apply. "Intelligence work has one moral law - it is justified by results" (page 13).

Simplicity and focus are the key elements to being a successful spy. Their world needs to be reduced to black and white. As such, spies cannot afford to display nor have those emotions associated with normal humanity. Any display of compassion is a complication that may get them killed.

In this sense, the spy is forced to live a life 'out in the cold,' detached and distanced from others. They need the safety such distance brings to them. Being a spy is a dangerous occupation, and lives are constantly put at risk. Agents need to be focused at all times - they cannot afford to have distractions. If a colleague is killed, there is no time for grief and no room for revenge.

They feel that, to call upon an old and overused saying, 'the show must go on'. Above all there is no room for compassion. With compassion comes the ability to see and value humanity; the ability to see humanity in the enemy and not just a cause for which they are fighting. There is a need for distance between spies and the rest of the world, parallel but very separate. If they do not, they become emotionally vulnerable, and vulnerable people get caught. This is a prominent theme of the book "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold".

In the novel, Leamas is a good spy, he gets results, but he has a fatal flaw that is present from early on in the novel; he possesses humanity - it is just very well obscured behind a well constructed, yet slowly crumbling wall. One of the first glimpses we get of Leamas' well hidden humanity is when he is conversing with Control about Riemeck. Control questions him about the emotions he experienced due to the loss of his last agent". 'We have to live without sympathy, don't we?

That's impossible of course... one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold... d'you see what I mean?' Leamus saw. He saw the long road outside Rotterdam, the long straight road beside the dunes, and the stream of refugees moving along it; saw the little aeroplane miles away, the procession stop and look towards it; and the plane coming in, nearly over the dunes; saw the chaos, the meaningless hell, as the bombs hit the road. 'I can't talk like this, Control. ' " (Page 18) The vivid image Leamas is recalling shows the reader the horrors that he has witnessed during his service, and that he hasn't been able to completely shut them out.

He has been able to shield their impact from himself, but it is still there, churning beneath the surface. Leamas tells Control that he can't talk about what he felt when Riemeck was killed. He has no way of expressing his feelings because he has hidden them for so long that he is almost incapable of vocalizing and expressing emotion. This also shows us how fragile the wall between his emotions and his consciousness is at this point. An example of Leamus' inability to be completely detached is the trust that he placed in Control and the organisation. He was forced to have this exceptional amount of trust and respect, both in the cause that they were fighting for and the organisation itself; because it was for this cause that he was sacrificing his emotions and humanity.

Leamas placed complete and blind trust in Control in particular. This trust provided a permanent link to his humanity as well as the reason for his detachment. Leamas was adamant that there was no involvement between Mundt and the British because Leamas didn't want to believe that Control could have gone behind his back with something that involved him so much; to preserve his trust and detachment, he could not believe it. Liz was what made the wall that Leamas had carefully erected to keep him safe come down completely. She was what he needed, to lose faith in the system that he had trusted for too long and gain faith in himself and his humanity. But in doing so, it was the downfall for Leamas, and in turn, Liz.

Leamas was reluctant to get involved with Liz in any capacity at all, friend or lover; he was not looking for the connection. But Liz found him, and she was prepared to offer him something that had never been offered to him before, unconditional love and kindness. "He knew what it was then that Liz had given him; the thing that he would have to go back and find... it was the caring about little things... It was this respect for triviality which he had never been allowed to possess; whether it was bread for the seagulls or love, whatever it was he would go back and find it; he would make Liz find it for him". (Page 91) Liz showed Leamas that there was more to living then being a Spy. She made his world complicated, and he loved her for it.

But it was a frightening thing for him. He had lived almost his entire life with armour, and now the armour was gone and he was open to attack; and it was hard for him to accept this new way of living. "Sometimes he thought of Liz. He would direct his mind towards her briefly like the shutter of a camera, recall for a moment the soft-hard touch of her long body, then put her from his memory.

Leamus was not a man accustomed to living on dreams". (Page 43) Despise all his best efforts Leamas' wall came down and he fell in love with Liz. But Leamas' humanity proved too dangerous, it proved to be his downfall and he could not have his life with Liz. 'In the world of the spy, the greatest danger is to have human feelings'.

As Liz lay dying, shot at Mundt's orders Leamas made a choice; he could come out of the cold, or die with the person who showed him how to come out of the cold. Liz was what brought Leamas out of the cold. But it was too soon, he was not yet safely away from his spy world and he sacrificed himself for the warmth of humanity. As such, he failed as a spy.

Mundt and Leamas fought for the same side, they were both in constant danger, but they ended up in completely different places. Leamas got his work done and he was good at what he did, but he was never a successful spy. This is because he always had humanity; he obscured and buried it but it was always there. Mundt was by far the most successful spy, but at a great cost. Unlike Leamas, there is no evidence that Mundt experiences any human feelings; he is cold and composed at all times, not connecting to anything or anyone. There is no fear against committing to feelings as he has no need for them.

For Mundt the end always justifies the means because the only thing he respects is his own life; he will go to any length to protect himself and get the job done. Mundt succeeds in having no morality; Leamas fails. But the life of a successful spy does not lead to a happy existence, Mundt sacrificed himself completely for the cause and never knew what life could be; he only ever knew one existence, the spy. Leamas may have failed at being a good spy, but he discovered life which makes him a far superior man. Leamas failed to be a successful spy; he allowed his protective wall to be eroded, and his underlying humanity to be revealed.

He was never destined to be a spy of the same calibre as Mundt; as unlike Mundt, Leamas' humanity was an ever present threat. The greatest danger to a spy is to have human feelings; the greatest danger to anyone else is to live without them. Liz showed Leamas this, allowing him to become a complete human being, and to come out of the cold.