"The Reader"‚ by Bernhard Schlink is set in postwar Germany and tells the story of fifteen-year-old Michael Berg and his affair with a woman named Hanna‚ who was twice his age. After some time‚ she disappears. When Michael next sees Hanna‚ he is a young law student and she is on trial for her work in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Their feelings of guilt and shame lead to Hanna’s tragic death near the end of the story. Bernhard Schlink is trying to portray these two emotions in his book as things
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sets. Expecting to grow properly and learn what one must when put in an unfamiliar generation‚ is as if trying to teach a person to walk through the example of a whale-both are mammals but are impossible to compare. This is evident in Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader‚ where fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is involved in a secretive‚ intense‚ and passionate relationship with thirty-six-year-old Hanna Schmitz. Hanna is leading the relationship so much so that when they fight‚ regardless of who is right
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"Leaving was her punishment." Throughout "The Reader" the relationship between Hanna and Michael changes. In Part 1 their relationship begins and develops into a very sexual and personal affair. He blames himself for her leaving him. In Part 2 it turns political and they are very separated throughout the trail‚ Michael also learns about the truth about Hanna. In Part 3 Hanna kills herself because she can’t face Michael because of what she has done. Part one is where they first meet. When Michael
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The Reader Bernhard Schlink Themes War Guilt One of the main ideas in The Reader is German war guilt - guilt felt by both the war-time generation and the post-war generation. The post-war generation‚ to which the author‚ Schlink‚ belongs‚ has struggled to come to terms with the war crimes committed by the previous generation. The novel begins with a sick Michael being comforted by the maternal Hanna. This is an obvious symbol for the idea that the post-war generation needs to confront the deeds
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movies is guilt‚ whether criminal‚ political‚ moral‚ or metaphysical. This guilt concerning the Holocaust was discussed in terms of different groups of people‚ including the offenders‚ bystanders‚ or future generations of Germans. In Schlink’s The Reader (1995)‚ for instance‚ guilt is an integral topic for the book’s main characters and they wrestle with it decades after the Holocaust. However‚ in non-fictional accounts from survivors‚ I do not think that their intent is to discuss or imply guilt‚ as some
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More than just a book‚ The Reader reminds that the concepts of guilt and responsibility are not clear-cut ideas‚ and even more so during the Nuremberg Trials. Guilt is simply one of the many human emotions‚ but the feeling of guilt is unique to everyone and there is no one meaning for guilt. Though guilt is such a strong feeling‚ judgments must not be made simply on how "guilty" one feels for their actions. If that is so‚ then Hanna would never have gone to jail at all. Judgments should instead be
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Goodwin Parker first asks the reader to listen to her story of what poverty is like. Parker then talks about the different aspects of what poverty is and what parts make it a dangerous reality. She discusses the horrible health conditions that her and her children had to go through. She then explains how the Government only gives her a small amount of money each month which is why she can not afford to buy things like healthy food or soap. Parker also describes how the outside world offers little
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Bernhard Goetz is a Subway Vigilante. On December 22‚ 1984‚ Bernhard Goetz left is apartment in Manhattan and went to the IRT subway station on 14th street and 7th avenue. At the subway station ‚ he took the #2 downtown express and sat next to 4 young black men. Two of the young men‚ Troy Canty and Barry Allen walked up to Goetz and asked him for $5.00. James Ramseur‚ the third youth‚ gestured toward a bulge in his pocket that looks suspiciously like a gun. He later stated that Canty’s eyes were
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Response To “The Reader” To what extent does Schlink in his novel “The Reader”‚ show that it is impossible to escape one’s past. In his novel “The Reader”‚ author Bernhard Schlink through the use of techniques such as structure‚ setting and characterisation reveals to an immense extent that it is impossible to escape one’s past. Schlink utilises the main protagonists of the text‚ Michael and Hanna‚ depicting their relationship‚ along with the idea of post war German guilt to further represent
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undergoes a traumatic situation‚ the ramifications of these actions seep into an individualfs psyche unknowingly. In effect this passes through memory and becomes sub-consciously buried within a personfs behavioural patterns generally. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink explores the concept of a young mans subconscious desire for a woman whom he gcanft remember to forgeth (1Memento) as she is so deeply inlaid within his soul. Critically acclaimed as gA formally beautiful‚ disturbing‚ and finally
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