The Political Fanaticism of the Character Jojo in the Jojo Rabbit Movie

 

Politics right is a right for everyone. Everyone has a voice in politics. Everybody can  choose their own choice in politics. But, it did not work in an authorized government. Since many years ago, there are many countries in the world that have an authorized leader, including Germany. He was Adolf Hitler. Then how if this leader was adored by a 10 years old boy. The movie Jojo Rabbit was written by Taika Watiti, and also directed by Taika Watiti. It was a comedy-drama movie. This movie told about a boy called Jojo who was fanatic with his country’s leader named Adolf Hitler and he wanted to be Hitler’s personal guard. So, Jojo was joining training to prepare for a war. This movie took place at the time of World War II. The movie depicted how a war at that time happened in Germany, how Germany wanted to hunt and kill Jews as their enemy. This movie also gives a picture of people who did not obey the government and were hanged in the city, so everybody can see their unfaithful. But, a kid boy Jojo still adored Adolf Hitler at that time. And his adornment became excessive and he became a fanatic one. So, this essay will discuss the political fanaticism in the character Jojo in the Jojo Rabbit movie.

The definition of Fanaticism can be defined as, “Fanaticism is extreme enthusiasm, emotion, and a sense of excessive love and interest due to people’s belief in a fanatical object (i.e. politician or public figure), and they tend to defend their beliefs.” (Aribowo et al., 2020) People who had this Fanaticism in their self called Fanatic, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, stated, “a fanatic as a person with uncritical enthusiasm, extreme belief, whether in religion or politics." (Aribowo et al., 2020) Also in fanaticism, we can know, “There are some types of fanaticism such as the fanaticism of religion, group, ideology, ethnicity, race and political fanaticism” (Aribowo et al., 2020)

The fanaticism in the Jojo character can be seen in the scene below,

Rosie   : “Besides the doctors are confident those scars will heal and you’ll get most of the movement back in your leg. But I’m just happy to have you back home.”

Jojo     : “I’ll never be in Hitler’s SS Guard now.”

Rosie   : “You’re fine as you are.”

As the reference said, that Fanatic is a person with highly enthusiasm, also can be defined as a person with highly belief about a religion or even a politics, then make that person cannot be criticized. A character of Jojo in the Jojo Rabbit movie represented this attitude of a Fanatic person which implied a Fanaticism. He was a fanatic of the leader of that time, Adolf Hitler in his 10 years old age. He had high enthusiasm for being Hitler's private guard in his 10 years old. But he cannot be that because of the accident that hit him when he was in training for preparing a war. See from the person Jojo was a fanatic of, it can be said that Jojo was in political fanaticism.

            The second scene that can be an evident if Jojo was a political fanaticism is the below,

Jojo     : “Imagine catching one and giving it to Hitler. That’d be a sure-fire way to get into his personal guard.”

Yorki   : “He’d be so impressed.”

Jojo      : “Then we would become best friends.”

As the reference above stated, one of the Fanaticism characteristics is having an extreme love and interest in someone then wanting to defend that beliefs. Character Jojo has those characteristics, he was fanatic with Adolf Hitler, as he wanted to be Hitler's personal guard.  In the scene, when he was chatting with Yorki, he said that he wanted to be Hitler's personal guard. then it made him want to catch, kill, and give a jew to Hitler. At that time, the Jew was an enemy of Germany. So, Jojo thought then Hitler would make him as Hitler's private guard because Hitler was impressed with Jojo catching a jew. Jojo, a 10 years old boy thought that he wanted to be Hitler's best friend. Hitler was a leader of Germany at that time. So, it can be concluded that Jojo represented a political fanaticism.

            The fanaticism in the Jojo’s self also was realized by his mother, Rosie, and it can be seen from the scene below,

Rosie   : “You don’t know him. He’s a fanatic. It took him three weeks to get over the fact his grandfather wasn’t blonde.

Elsa     : “Yet you let him go to the Hitler Youth, you encourage it.”

Jojo as the representation of a Fanatic person also was realized by his Mother, Rosie. In the scene, when Jojo's mother came to Elsa, a Jew who was hidden by Jojo's mother and also she was Inge's friend, she was asked Elsa to not make noise because she was afraid that Jojo would know that Elsa, a jew was here in his house, remembering that Jojo was a fanatic of Adolf Hitler. Rosie, Jojo's mother stated directly that Jojo was a fanatic, and gave evidence that he needed three weeks to accept that his grandfather was not blonde. So, this directly showed that Jojo was a representation of Fanaticism in politics.

            As the conclusion, fanaticism is an excessive emotion and enthusiasm of adoring something, it can be person, politic, or religion. This fanaticism can be seen in the character Jojo in the Jojo Rabbit movie. Jojo as a fanatic of Adolf Hitler, he was admiring Hilter so much, it can be said that he had a political fanaticism. So, the character Jojo in the Jojo Rabbit movie was a representation of political fanaticism because he had an excessive enthusiasm for Adolf Hitler.

 

Reference

Aribowo et al. “Fanaticism Category Generation Using Tree-Based Machine Learning Method.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 2020. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1501/1/012021.