Lola's story as an allegory
The narrator shares Lola's diary with all their friends in order to keep her legacy alive despite the unjust denouncing of her legacy by the state. This diary gets them in a lot of trouble in the fullness of time, but the contents of the diary are worth sharing because the diary is an allegory for the injustice of political corruption. Lola's defining feature is her habit of having tragic, painful sex with strangers who are basically just using her as an object. The reader is left to wonder what might have compelled her to do that? The answer seems to be related to her hyper-awareness of her subordination to an unjust government who already hates her because her father was a Nazi. It's an allegory of degradation.
The motif of paranoia
Everyone always thinks they're being watched in this novel, and not without good reason—they literally are the subject of spying and interrogation and unwarranted search and seizure, and a litany of other types of persecution. So whereas sometimes a paranoid person can work through those feelings, these characters do not get to escape paranoia, because paranoia is the correct emotional response in their case. The best instance of this motif is when the narrator realizes that Tereza seems very eager to talk about things that would get them in trouble. She suspects Tereza has been caught by the police for something, and that she is turning into a snitch as a plea deal. She is convinced that her own close friend has become a spy for the government.
The motif of suicide
There are several deaths in this novel, all of them seem to be suicides, but the narrator is left to wonder whether the suicides were legitimate or whether they were murders done in secret by undercover government employees. For instance, the university seems to be very strict about their policy to never mention Lola or her death again. Why should they care so much? Then later in the novel, when they seem to be getting away from Captain Pjele (he can't find anything to try them for), there are two more suicides. But these are even more unbelievable. Why would Georg go move to Frankfurt and then kill himself upon his arrival? The implication is that although suicide is often mentioned, in this novel, it represents the paranoid possibility that perhaps the government is eliminating undesirables.
Captain Pjele as a symbol
Captain Pjele functions in this novel as a symbolic character, because he represents the full weight of injustice in the lives of individuals. In this case, he is literally the mediator between unjust political interests and the very real lives of young adults whom he continually harasses. This symbolizes the specific brutality of totalitarian governments against young people, especially open-minded students, because the young people are historically the first citizens brave enough to speak out. The state puts pressure on universities in this story, because the students could be spurred into political rebellion. That's why Captain Pjele is so aggressive in this case.
The diary as a symbol
The diary is a symbol that symbolizes the private inner thought life of a character. This novel begins with the symbol, perhaps as an explanation for why the novelist is writing about her own life. The sad life and death of Lola is a testament to the injustice of their government, and when the students pass around her diary, they are keeping that injustice on their memory instead of forgetting it. Therefore, the diary is like a symbolic defense for the novel itself, as if the author hopes her own story will memorialize the injustice and horror of that government.
