the purpose of the reader by bernhard schlink

However, she soon discovers that “the dead can…they understand even better” (167). She feels that if no one can understand her, then they cannot call her to account. Trying to escape from her conscience about the murdering of hundreds of innocent people, Hanna chooses to lock her past in a chest and bury it deep in her subconscious.

The diction, “dusty” and “rummaging,” indicates that it has been a long time since Hanna dared to recall any memory. Despite Michael’s persistence, Hanna can barely remember anything: “it as if she is around in a dusty chest” (37). At a later stage in their relationship, Michael shows genuine curiosity about Hanna’s past life. The age discrepancy between Hanna and Michael is used to connect war and post-war experiences. Hence, Michael’s longing for a woman twice his age is fundamental to his understanding of his people’s history. Michael’s association between the pain of his own romantic encounter and the postwar suffering of his entire generation shows that Michael’s post-war guilt is equally as impactful to his perspectives as his love. He likens the pain he went through for Hanna to “the fate of the generation, a German fate” (141). Michael’s affection for Hanna later turns into a historical burden as he mourns the previous generation’s negligence in preventing the Holocaust. The hollowness that Michael experiences in Hanna’s absence indicates that his original lust for her body has deepened into a desire to revisit the Nazi past that she has come to represent.

While Hanna is in jail and Michael travels to the site of the Nazi concentration camp, he feels “a great emptiness inside, as if had been searching for some glimpse, not outside but within ” (171). This sensual description of Hanna implies that Michael’s fascination for Hanna is initially rooted in her physical attributes. From the first time Michael meets Hanna, he is captivated by her “freshly washed…freshly loved” (52) body. Schlink employs Michael’s attraction to Hanna to set up a basis for Michael to understand Germany’s past. The author uses the conflict between Michael and Hanna with regards to attraction, age, deep-rooted insecurities, moral values and literacy to show Michael’s maturity, while also critiquing World War II and postwar Germany. Schlink utilizes the challenges they face as being members of the generation living during and after World War II to reveal the underlying trauma that Germans suffered postwar. The Reader, an international bestseller by Bernhard Schlink, tells the love story between Michael, a fifteen-year-old teen, and Hanna, a former Nazi camp guard. People study history to enhance their understanding of humanity.

The purpose of the reader by bernhard schlink