Katharina Blum's Lost Honor by Heinrich Boll Authors often use characters in their novels to show the consequences of challenging cultural boundaries and, in turn, show your personal concerns. It is not uncommon for characters to reflect an author's ideology regarding social groups in their contemporary time periods. It is clear that this is certainly the case with the 1975 novel The Lost Honor by Katharina Blum, (also known as How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead), written by German author Heinrich Boll. The Lost Honor is, on the surface , an attack on yellow journalism and the damage it causes to the lives of the people it writes about. However, with a deeper analysis of the novel we are able to see that Boll actually uses his characters to reflect his personal views on stereotyped social groups in contemporary Germany. Boll himself described The Lost Honor as “a pamphlet disguised as a novel”. Through the use of a seemingly “objective” third-person limited narrator, we are shown the consequences of challenging and conforming to expected gender requirements. On the one hand we are introduced to Katharina Blum, a woman who rejects most of the stereotypically feminine traits attributed to women and the resulting defamation of her name in the process. Boll, on the contrary, also shows the consequences of the abuse of power, which comes from being male, through the character of Totges, an example of a yellow journalist. It is Totges' assumptions about Blum and his vulgarly masculine ways that ultimately lead to his murder. It is important to remember that these narrative developments reflect Boll's personal opinions formed by his context...... middle of paper......le who seek work and profit from their misfortune. Although it was difficult, Boll's father worked hard enough to provide him with a comfortable life, just like Blum in Lost Honor. Considering this in relation to the nature of Blum's misfortune it can be deduced that for Boll the struggles of working class citizens trying to climb the economic ladder were of the utmost importance. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll is a perfect example. how the author's personal opinions about cultural groups in society can be reflected through the characters. Blum not only showed the struggles of women in society, but also those of lower class citizens, while Totges gave us an insight into the corrupt use of power. Coupled with Boll's contextual information we are clearly able to see his concerns about crossing cultural boundaries.