Zelig: I am what I am and that I know not.

Comparatively, the strivings and utter lack of identity that Leopold Zelig possesses or does not possess in Allen’s film Zelig expresses the conflict of an entire nation, or perhaps class. Leopold’s incessant behavior of morphing into the environment he is placed can be found in one symbolic fear. The “Outsider” fear, the anxiety of having anyone pointing out a difference in you that could disenfranchise, humiliate or distress you. Zelig’s fear of being an outsider can be attributed to a character void of self-confidence and knowledge of his identity in addition to intensified neuroses. Zelig’s super-human “chameleon-man” tendency acts as a defense-mechanism in order to avoid having attention brought onto him as he mentally and physically transforms into characters with stronger, firmer, more distinct identities that are in close proximity to. Inevitably as the public turns against him after praising him as a novelty earlier, his enclosed world begins to crumble and his gift of transformation becomes the very culprit of the stain he was effectively, at least for a period, avoiding. The stigma, the stain of standing out is not only Zelig’s angst but the restlessness of an entire society chasing after identification and acceptance of others, eagerly conforming to any and everything. As his talent becomes the very thing that alienates him and distinguishes him from the rest of society, Allen is stringing along a forceful discourse on the power of persuasion, the deteriorating Individual and the pressure to NOT be “unique” or to not act yourself that is associated with the affluent and debauchery-ridden era and society of the 1920s.



Guiding and aiding Leopold into an identity and leading him out of the foreboding position as a novice and an uncommon freak is his therapist and the scientist who observes him Dr. Eudora Fletcher, and looks at him, not as a cipher, empty of any solid beliefs and thoughts, but with sympathy and quite simply, as a human in need. Her ability love him as he is sheds his skin of conforming and is the foil to the sensation-grasping society around him. Love, which is summed up as acceptance and faithfulness despite the flaws and weaknesses, frees Zelig and was the one thing needful that society in the 1920s had forgotten and had suffocated.