To What Extent Does Schlink in His Novel “the Reader”, Show That It Is Impossible to Escape One’s Past.

Self-Respect or Self-Destruction Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is an exploration of how an oppressive environment can negatively affect an individual’s faith and ethics and alter the way an individual responds to injustice. Wiesel exhibits this concept with a profound statement: "Unconditional faith in an all-powerful-all-merciful God is shaken to the core by the ubiquitous brutality of the concentration camps." (Wiesel 20) Eliezer, the narrator, struggles as a victim and witness of the heinous atrocities of the Holocaust, facing the adversity where the lack of self-respect causes the people to conform to the injustices of the world. Without Eliezer’s manifestation of hope, his fate would have been negatively altered. Through pathetic fallacy, the motif

The Book Thief, written by Australian novelist Markus Zusak, follows a young girl living in Nazi Germany, and employs innovative techniques to convey the central idea of the extremes of human behavior. This central idea was explored through stylistic techniques and conventions such as Death as the narrator, juxtaposition, irony, lack of chronological order, narrative voices, and themes, namely the power of words.

Hope and courage are two feelings that are only powerful when used together. To be courageous and not hopeful is a suicide mission; on the other hand, having hope and no courage will never give one the urge to oppose the problem. In Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, the whole story is the epitome of courage and hope. During the second world war, the young Liesel Meminger is adopted by the Hubermann family, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, who teach her the power of words, as well as the importance of kindness. Moreover, one of the themes of this novel is the creation of hope from courage, and it is shown through the author’s use of symbolism, allegory, as well as irony.

The Novel Hitler’s Daughter, written by award winning author, Jackie French, is a story within a story, about a fictional young girl called Heidi; living in World War 2 in Germany and is living in isolation with no contact with other children or anyone outside her home. The story is made up by one of the main characters, Anna, who tells the story to a few other schoolmates at the bus shelter. At the end of the novel, Heidi is left alone and has to defend herself from the bombs with no food or protection. The theme of the novel is morality, which is displayed various times during the novel. The meaning of morality is knowing the difference of what is right and what is wrong. The hypothesis is that the story will end happily and Heidi will find a family.

Hanneli ‘Hannah’ Pik-Goslar was much like other Jewish children in Germany in the 1930’s, she was shunned, not allowed to go to the movies or ice skate, and was forced to attend a special school. Most of Germany was segregated against the Jewish and against her family. Hannah was born in Germany in 1928 to Ruth Klee and Hans Goslar, by the time she’s 5 years old she and her parents are already on the run from Nazi’s. When she’s 12 her sister Gabi was born. She is already friends with Anne when she hears they’ve fled to Switzerland. This is not true as they have just started their two year hiding period in the Secret Annex. In 1942 Hannah’s mom dies in childbirth with a stillborn baby. While her dad managed to get passport, they were still arrested

Hannah’s background as a Holocaust survivor is important for understanding the experience of the Holocaust. Her story provides unique insight on the Holocaust outside of concentration camps, dispels myths, and captivates the emotional aura of living during the Holocaust. Hannah’s story is one of resistance, danger, and the importance of family.

Born in Poland, Henia Weit was the youngest of nine children in her family. She lived in a town by the name of Sambor. Unfortunately, the town was bombarded by German soldiers shortly after Hitler started his reign of terror on the Jews. Henia’s family was forced to do laborious work in a ghetto until they were all deported to a concentration camp. Fortunately for Henia, she was able to escape and never went to the concentration camp herself. Instead, she had to survive for several years alone, with only her sister to turn to.

Life is a precious thing, and it is so precious that some people will undergo severe anguish to hold on to it. During the 1930’s and 1940’s in Germany, people of the Jewish religion were diabolically oppressed and slaughtered, just for their beliefs. Some Jews went to extreme measures to evade capture by the German law enforcement, hoping to hold on to life. Krystyna Chiger was only a small child when her family, along with a group of other desperate Jews, descended into the malignant sewers to avoid the Germans. After living in the abysmal sewers for fourteen months, her group emerged, and when she became an adult, she authored a novel about her time in the sewer. When analyzing the literary elements utilized in her novel, The Girl in the Green Sweater, one can determine how tone and mood, point of view, and conflict convey the message of struggle and survival that was experienced during the Holocaust, and how they help the reader to understand and relate.

Hannah has all her memories of the future, but no one that will listen to her. She realizes that she must face the events ahead of her. Hannah must believe that, for the sake of others around her, that “[she] will be brave. [She] will not take away their hope, which is all they have. [She] will not tell them that the Nazis often lied” (Yolen 93).

The recuperative power of language is revealed when Liesel begins an intrepid career in book thievery, finding solace in books and words amidst the cataclysmic historical period of Nazi Germany. Liesel’s unconscious desire to overcome her traumatic experiences is discovered within the confines of the basement. This is symbolic as, in Freudian psychoanalysis, the basement represents unconscious drives, repressed fears, traumas and fantasies. In Liesel’s journey to process her trauma and acknowledge new traumas, she psychoanalytically seeks out the comfort of the womb due to the absence of a motherly figure in the form of the basement. Zusak alters the archetypal image of the basement, picturing it as a metaphorical ‘womb’ for Liesel, a place of salvation and safety. “Liesel revisited those dark rooms of her past.” (p. 117) When Liesel discovers it is unlikely she will ever see her biological mother, she retreads underneath the table in an attempt to alleviate her pain. However, when Liesel feels psychologically strong enough to face the trauma of her abandonment, she is able to leave her place of safety and security and share her story with Max. This demonstrates the complexities of trauma and how an individual utilises differing coping mechanisms to confront their psychological suffering. Liesel, whilst opening herself to the pain of others, learns to express and

Schlink’s use of structure and setting play a major role in establishing that one’s past is inescapable within The Reader. The novel is finalized in New York, where Michael travels to fulfil Hanna’s wish to give 7000 marks to the daughter who survived the fire in the church with her mother. The daughter refuses the money because she believes that

Hanna Schmitz, former SS guard at Auschwitz and Michael’s adult lover, represents old Germany and the guilt of Germany as a whole. Hanna is an authoritative, cold, efficient, and ignorant woman that constantly struggles due to her illiteracy. In the beginning of the story, Hanna helps Michael home when he is ill, even though she does not know him. Michael later returns to Hanna’s apartment to thank her for saving him and Hanna seduces him. Hanna and Michael begin to have an affair that persists for several months. Throughout these months, Hanna insists on Michael reading to her before they have sex. Then one day, Hanna disappears without a trace. Later in the story, when Michael is attending a court case, it is revealed that Hanna

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

Reality becomes so insignificant to even remember. Hladik, protagonist of The Secrete Miracle, is a man bound to be persecuted on account of his ethnicity and political ideals. Similar to the United States, a country where so many cultures and backgrounds are crammed together, where at one point or another, the feeling of oppression or, at the very least, discrimination is sensed by many. Once the reader understands that the protagonists is human, and suffers, cries, laughs, hungers, loves like them, the bait is taken and comparison occurs between the readers real lives with the very realistic lives of those in the stories. A man determined to accomplish, another locked away at a Nazi camp awaiting execution the readers, wrapped in a comfortable cocoon. The events in the stories force the reader to make a connection with the protagonist and with the experiences they are going through.

The period between the wars was a very difficult time in Germany. The currency was enormously depreciated and there were extreme poverty, depression, and political instability. When the Nazis took power in 1933, horror was their method of achieving their goals. Fear and violence became very common among a society that was still in shock after the First World War. In the book The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, one of the main themes is a conflict with the inner-self. This is seen throughout the book when Michael is young and indecisive between spending time with Hanna or his new friends, when Hanna is on trial and does not know whether to confess her illiteracy or accept being declared guilty, and finally when an older Michael is trying to decide on whether he should save Hanna or respect her dignity.