The Reader

Text type = Novel

By = Bernhard Schlink

Text about =

Apocalyptic Germany giving way to the new or emergent post world was Germany. How do the crimes of four bears effect the children ? This is the central theme of Schlink’s “The Reader.”

Idea 1 =

Michael represents innocence and his choice of sexual relationship with an older women demonstrates both his journey into ‘adulthood’ and the interlocking of two generations. The oedipus complex is used to demonstrate Hanna and Michaels relationship. Hanna’s nickname for Michael was “kid” and for her the appeal of Michael was his innocence. Hanna is archetype for the horrors of the holocaust, the bears of guilt and strain of illiteracy. Michael wanted to gain experience and understanding and go from viewing himself as as a child, “I had run away like a child, instead of keeping control of the situation, as I thought I should. I wasn’t nine years old anymore, I was fifteen” to someone who had experience and knew their “ … way around women, and could be comfortable and open in a friendly way.” Michael’s journey to enlightenment and adulthood had a massive effect on him, “ It wasn't that I forgot Hanna. But at a certain point the memory of her stopped accompanying me wherever I went. She stayed behind, the way a city stays behind as a train pulls out of the station.” The metaphor ?? demonstrates how much of an impact one person can have on one’s life.

Can I use “The Odyssey is the story of motion both purposeful and purposeless, successful and futile. What else is the history of law?” ??? Where and how ?? what does it mean ??

References to Odyssey and him reading it and sending the recordings to hanna ! interesting, should i put it in and should it go here or should it go in the point about reflecting on past ??!!

Idea 2 =

A journey to overcome something difficult is often confronting and hard. In Hanna’s case ignorance and not knowing occurred due to the fact “Hanna could neither read nor write.” Hanna loved being read to but could never face people knowing she was illiterate. “Read it to me!” “You have such a beautiful voice, kid, I like rather listen to you than reading myself.” Hanna refused to confront her problem, of illiteracy, which altered the journey of the rest of her life dramatically. It leads to her ‘burning down 300 people in a church,” because at the time she didn't know any better. As her journey progresses and she is sentenced to life in jail she realises that what she did was wrong, “It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead,” and decides to change the path of her journey. “Kid the last story was especially nice. Thank you. Hanna.” Hanna decided to learn to read and write in order to gain understanding of what she has done. “At first glance, one might have taken it for a child’s handwriting. But what is clumsy and awkward in children’s handwriting was forceful here. You could see the resistance Hanna had had to overcome to make the lines into letters and the letters into words.”

Idea 3 =

Memories are a conduit to a journey within oneself. Through pass recollections the persona explores the impact of lessons learnt as a child on it’s present self. Michael wrestles with all the guilt and meaning of his experiences he experienced, “Why does it make me so sad when I think back to that time?” Michael guilt was something he was constantly reflecting on. “In the first few years after Hanna’s death, I was tormented by the old questions of whether I had denied and betrayed her, whether I owed her something, whether I was guilty for having loved her. Sometimes I asked myself if I was responsible for her death.” The reflective narrative allows the metaphor of intergenerational interaction between the guilty and the innocent. The innocent feels guilt because they are touched by it. Ten years after Hanna’s death, Michael frees himself from this guilt that accompanied him most of his life by writing the story down. He started to move on with his journey, reflect on his past and move on from it.