Philip Kaifer Post 2

Hanna’s reemergence into Michael’s life in part two of The Reader changed my opinion of the Novel as a whole. Part 1 seemed to me to be rather shallow, the complexity of the relationship between Hannah and Michael seemed fake. I also realized early on in the story that Hanna was most likely illiterate, when she believed that Michael had abandoned her at the hotel on their bike trip. However, Part 2 revealed a portion of her past and explored how she had been using Michael. Her exploitation of “the weak” as a Nazi prison guard sheds light on Michaels roll in her life. The parellels between Hanna’s relationship with Michael and the children she exploited as a Nazi also lead to the question: If she sent all those she used as a guard to Auschwitz, what is going to be the equivalent for him? And if this parallel ends at just the reading, what exactly is the significance for Hanna?