The Reader

                                                             by: Bernhard Schlink

Characters

Michael Berg,  A German who is first portrayed as a 15-year-old boy and is revisited at later parts of his life: when he is a researcher in legal history, divorced with one daughter, Julia. Like many of his generation, he struggles to come to terms with his country's recent history.

Hanna Schmitz,  A former guard at Auschwitz. She is 36, illiterate and working as a tram conductor in Neustadt when she first meets 15-year-old Michael. She takes a dominant position in their relationship.

Sophie,  A friend of Michael's when he is in school, and whom he probably has a crush on. She is almost the first person whom he tells about Hanna. When he begins his friendship with her, is when he begins to "betray" Hanna by denying her relationship with him and by cutting short his time with Hanna to be with Sophie and his other friends.

Michael's father,  A philosophy professor who specializes in Kant and Hegel. During the Nazi era he lost his job for giving a lecture on Spinoza and had to support himself and his family by writing hiking guidebooks. He is very formal and requires his children to make appointments to see him. He is emotionally stiff and does not easily express his emotions to Michael or his three siblings, which exacerbates the difficulties Hanna creates for Michael. By the time Michael is narrating the story, his father is dead.

Michael's mother,  Seen briefly. Michael has fond memories of her pampering him as a child, which his relationship with Hanna reawakens. A psychoanalyst he sees, tells him he should consider his mother's effect on him more, since she barely figures in his retelling of his life.

The daughter of a Jewish woman who wrote the book about the death march from Auschwitz.  She lives in New York City when Michael visits her near the end of the story, still suffering from the loss of her own family.

     

     Summary

     Bernhard Schlink begins his novel, the reader, with a scene of the main character. Michael Berg, a 14-year-old boy, is on his way home from school when he suddenly vomits on the pavement. Hanna Schmitz, 35 years old, lives in a flat near the pavement. She takes care of Michael and brings him home to his family. On the same day, the doctor diagnoses Michael with jaundice. After his illness is nearly cured, he visits Hanna with a bouquet of flowers to thank her.

When Michael wants to leave, Hannah asks him to wait because she has to go in the same direction and she would like his company. While she changes her clothes, Michael is secretly looking through a crack in the door. Hanna notices this and Michael runs away. A week later, he visits her again. Hanna asks him to fetch coal from the basement and Michael gets really dirty. She gives him a bath. Afterwards, Hanna and Michael sleep together for the first time, and Michael falls in love with Hanna. For both, it becomes a ritual and Michael skips the last class of school every day to wait for Hanna, who comes homes from work at 12 o’clock. Hanna asks Michael to read to her after they sleep together. She is an attentive listener. During the Easter holidays, Michael travels by train to Schwetzingen to be with Hanna. She works as a streetcar conductress. However, they get into a conflict and Michael blames himself because he feels like he offended Hanna. As they continue to celebrate the holidays together, they embark on a bike trip. One morning, Michael decides to get breakfast and writes Hanna a note. When he returns with breakfast, she is very angry because she didn’t see the note. Again, there is a conflict between them and Michael takes the blame. When the holidays are over, Michael has a new class schedule and Michael spends a lot of time with his class at the public swimming pool. He is often with Hanna, too. Once again, Hanna and Michael have sex. Later, Michael sees Hanna at the swimming pool but does not go up to her. The next day, Hanna is suddenly moved out of her apartment and disappeared. Michael wonders if it was his fault or whether he has been betrayed by Hanna. After years, Michael sees Hanna as part of his law studies in the courtroom again. She is accused of voluntarily going to the SS and working there as a guard in the concentration camps. It is revealed that she would have young girls read to her, and afterwards, they were selected for deportation. On a hike from Krakow to Auschwitz, these deported inmates slept in a church that burned down. All of the people died except a mother with her daughter because none of the guards would unlock the door. Hanna admits that she wrote a report at that time, even though she turns out later to be illiterate. Michael goes to a concentration camp to try to understand Hanna’s situation back then and to condemn her work. When Michael discovers that Hanna is illiterate, he decides to go to the supreme judge and tell him. He manages to talk to the supreme judge, but not about Hanna’s illiteracy. Hanna gets a life sentence and Michael becomes a law clerk and marries a woman named Gertrude. The married couple have a daughter named Julia. However, when Julia is five, Michael and Gertrude divorce.Hanna has already been in prison for several years when Michael decides to send Hannah books on tape. Four years later, Michael gets the first response from Hanna; she is grateful for the records. Michael never writes to Hanna.After Hanna has been in prison for 17 years, Michael gets a letter from the prison director. She writes that Hanna will likely be released in one year and asks him to take care of housing, employment, and some leisure programs for Hannah, and she requests Michael visit Hanna in prison. Michael takes care of a home and a job for Hanna; however, he does not visit her. A week before Hanna’s release, he visits her in prison and notices that “his” Hanna from past times is now an old woman. He also shows Hanna that he has no space for her in his life. On the day of her release, Hanna is found dead. She hung herself in the morning. With the director of the prison, Michael takes a look at Hanna’s cell and they find books about concentration camps and classical literature. Hanna has learned to read and write with the help of Michael’s tapes and books. She also has written a will, the money of her bank account with a total sum of 7,000 DM should be transferred to the mother and daughter from the concentration camp. This sends Michael to New York and they transfer the money to the Jewish League Against Illiteracy in Hanna’s name. The organization thanks Hanna with a letter for the donation later. Michael takes the letter and visits Hanna’s grave to leave the letter.

Insight

     The so called novel entitle the reader written by  Bernhard Schlink, opens in post-war Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair. Michael discovers that Hanna loves being read to and their physical relationship deepens. Hanna is enthralled as Michael reads to her from "The Odyssey," "Huck Finn" and "The Lady with the Little Dog." Despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears one day and Michael is left confused and heartbroken. Eight years later, while Michael is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he is stunned to find Hanna back in his life - this time as a defendant in the courtroom. As Hanna's past is revealed, Michael uncovers a deep secret that will impact both of their lives. THE READER is a story about truth and reconciliation, about how one generation comes to terms with the crimes of another.

   Theme

Accepting Responsibilities

 Setting

Hanna's Apartment

     Hanna Schmitz lives in a furnished, working-class apartment on an upper floor in an urban tenement. The apartment is largely unremarkable although Michael Berg will remember numerous minute details about the apartment and the building even long after it is razed. Hanna's apartment door has a window through which her apartment's interior is visible. The apartment also has, at least, a kitchen and a bedroom separated by a hallway.

The Railcar

    Hanna works as a railcar conductor for about 8 years. Michael attempts to visit Hanna on the railcar while she is working, but she ignores him and, later, blames him for ignoring her. Michael thereafter equates railcars with emotional distress and avoids riding on them for many years. The railcar is the only place that Michael and Hanna's lives intersect, however briefly, outside of the bounds, which Hanna sets on their relationship.

Michael Berg's Home Town

  The said novel has been held in several different places. It was started in Michael Berg's home town this then develops into several other areas, where the Nazi Concentration camps were such as in the book we are able to see the repitition of Auschwitz and Hanna's home town and other war and holocaust related areas.