The Reader, By Bernhard Schlink, And Was Later Developed Into A Film Directed By Stephen Daltry

One of the most important themes in ‘The Reader” is moral and literal literacy. Hanna is a character that is defined by her inability to read. Throughout the novel we are able to observe many of Hanna’s actions that seemed unjustified until the revelation that Hanna couldn’t read which gave us an insight into the motivation and reasoning of her past and future actions. When we discovered Hanna’s illiteracy, we also discovered that Hanna

However, it is once more revealed to the audience, this time, by the interaction between Michael and Leigh Anne, of which the latter tells Michael that this is his life. She stressed that Michael is the one who ultimately makes the decision and that he gets to choose what school or team to go do. This demonstrates that the latter holds no secret agenda, that she is doing everything for the benefit of Michael and does not expect any rewards in return and once again justifies her actions. Thus, by acting solely out of her considerate nature, Leigh Anne justifies her actions in the movie in a moral

On the trip there Leah Anne stopped the car to get a eye-to-eye conversation showing that she takes great care in finding out Michaels past and how she can help him for the better. One night Leah Anne asked a simple question to Michael, if he wanted to stay? Michael responded " I don't like anywhere else" and sure enough she turned the guest room into a comfortable place for Michael with a bed, that he had never had before.

Michael struggles making friends. one way he does is in paragraph 21-28 it says Michael hadn’t made any friends the teachers barely notice him. This is probably because his parents dead and he is being quiet in class. But one day Michael went to the pet store looking for something small and living and hermit crabs where a dollar. When Michael got home he showed the hermit crab to Aunt Esther. “Where is he” says Aunt Esther. Then some eyes poke out of a shell.

The characters in the story struggle with getting along. In the beginning, they fight about how Michael doesn’t like Aunt Esther. In the middle, Michael brings home a hermit crab. Finally, Aunt Esther takes Michael to the pet store to get Sluggo a girlfriend. In the end, Aunt Esther and Michael create a relationship. This shows that Aunt Esther and Michael learned that the hardest things, can be

Michael’s character is carried through the whole book and Walter providers his reader with encounters with Michael when he was just starting to make films. Michael is involved in a scandal in his film, Cleopatra, in which he told a doctor to tell Dee that she had stomach cancer instead of what she actually had inside her, which was a baby. Michael met with one of Dee’s friends to tell him that he asked a doctor to cover up the pregnancy, and he chose stomach cancer “...because the symptoms could match up with those of early pregnancy” (140). In these first encounters the reader gets to see Michael's original attitude and goals in life. His main goal is to make money. He doesn’t seem to care much for people and relationships as we see in his actions toward Dee and his wife, “He spots Wife No. 4 through the open kitchen door, in yoga pants and tight T-shirt. He gets the full protuberant effect of his recent investments in her, the top-of-the-line viscous silicone gel sacs implanted in her retromammary cavities, for minimal capsular contracture and scarring” (90). Michael Deane is clearing only looking for his own gain, treating both Dee’s and Wife No. 4’s body’s as his

From this attachment of guilt from Hanna, Michael chooses to end his relationship with his wife instead of trying to make things work between the couple. This later harrows Michael as he alienated his daughter from the warmth and safety she needed and deserved and this is another source of Michael's guilt. Michael's negligence to defeat the guilt from Hanna continues to after Hanna's death. “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.” In this quote, Schlink uses interior monologue to express how the results of Michael's past actions are influencing his thought process and what happens in his mind. From this, the reader is invited to think in the same way as Michael is and how it would be different if he was not guilty of what happened during his relationship with

Despite women taking huge steps towards equality, the entertainment during the 1960’s was still an awful representation. Many of the topics in my 1950’s journals discussed the treatment of women in media during the fifties. I assumed as another decade passed, women would be portrayed more respectfully and accurately in many forms of entertainment. I assumed incorrectly. In a majority of what we analyzed, women were still treated like crap. Haskell Wexler’s film, Medium Cool, follows a news cameraman named John Cassellis. This character makes women look like they are just there for men to walk on and completely disrespect. Not only did he seem to be in a relationship with over 3 women, he was extremely disrespectful to them as well. John

On page 7, Michael said: “I swear, you can’t mess around anymore, Tanya. Code that thing back in and come talk to me. It’s not too late”. This dialogue shows that Michael has sympathy, because he will try his best to talk people out of doing the extreme or life-threatening. On page 8 the author wrote: Michael knew that when most people, felt as if the earth itself decided it just didn’t like them anymore, they went to their mom and dad or some relatives.

Michael Berg continuously faces a battle of dealing with his and Hanna’s relationship. Getting physically and intellectually intimate with Hanna at such a young and impressionable age influenced the way he perceived the world and himself. He became reliant on her companionship and that followed him for the rest of his life. He understood that his actions were morally incorrect and thus leaved him in an emotionally vulnerable state. Hanna became the main figure in his life and he depended on her affection. In my opinion, it became sort of an addiction that he could not get rid of. However, this addiction proved to be detrimental to his opinions on himself. The constant battle of loving an older woman who also happens to be a criminal poses a juxtaposing idea on how he feels about himself. After a night of dreaming about her, he awakens “full of longing and shame and rage. And full of fear about who [he] really was” (147) Furthermore, after learning about the full extent

He has nobody to hang out with because he is new at his school and he doesn't have any siblings to play with. In paragraph sixteen, Michael always imagines his parents sitting on the couch waiting for him to come home.’’ As Michael comes out of the shower he always smells his dad’s old spice

Michael doesn't want to live with esther,he wants to live with his parents .Aunt esther was the only one who would take him in ,none of his family wanted to have a fourteen-year-old boy living in there house .Michael did not want to move away from his friends and school .In paragraph,5 to 15 they were just fighting and yelling at eachother,until got up and ran out the door .”you hate living here,”aunt esther. Michael doesn't realize that a relationship takes time

In the novel Michael is faced with difficult situations with Hanna’s illiteracy. Being unaware of Schmitz’s inability to read or write Michael would leave notes. In one situation Michael was beaten with Hanna’s belt because he had written her a note saying where he had gone and she claim to have not seen it. “ Once or twice I wrote her letters. But she didn’t react, and when I asked her about them she would say, ‘Are you starting that again?’ ”(50). Michael would also write her letters and would not receive one in return. She would never explain as to why he would not get one back. Michael’s relationship was often stretched to new limits because he did not know that she could not read and he did not bother to pry as to why she would want him

The director of M, Fritz Lang, uses the insanity of Hans Becher to cause temporary insanity in the people. Making them challenge authority and turn against the even most well known friends. This insanity travels like wildfire throughout the city, as we see people react vigorously to even the smallest of gestures such as giving someone the time. While also challenging authority by taking things into their own hands when they do not see results.

Literacy plays a crucial role in the development of a character concerning their success or demise which is prominently seen in Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader. Published in 2008, The Reader takes place in post-war Germany, in which the main character, Michael Berg is re united with his former lover, who had left almost 10 years prior, in a court room setting where she is held accountable for the death of numerous Jews during World War 2. Through the relationship between Michael and his former lover, Hanna, Schlink makes connections and communicates the tensions between the Germans and Jews during the war. This is embodied through Hanna’s illiteracy which places great limitations on her life, though she is still able to live a normal one. The negative effects of being illiterate is seen through her inclination to gain power, which is directly related to the invasion of Nazis in Germany during the war. Moreover, her inability to read or write causes Hanna to be easily manipulated, just as Hitler had influenced the actions of numerous Nazi officials, which is greatly notable during her trial when the people convicted with her placed all the blame on her. Though Hanna’s illiteracy greatly affects our understanding of The Reader, it is important to note the greater effect that Michael’s literacy had on the story, in which he had helped Hanna to gain the ability to read and write. Additionally, Schlink correlates the theme of illiteracy with that of morality, which is utilized to