Part 3 Post

         After finishing the book, I have a slightly different opinion towards Michael’s actions after and during Hanna’s trials. It seems that he exposed himself and others to such horrible images not just so that he may feel some sort of relief from what he thought was his families wrongdoing, but it also acted as a way for him to shut down his emotional responses and stop feeling the pain that Hanna had brought to his life. This can be seen in how he basically does not have any emotion toward Hanna during the time he decides to get her out of prison, he acts almost mechanically and does not try to get too attached. Also, he does not allow himself to become emotionally attached to anyone else after his relationship with Hanna as if he is afraid that the same sort of one sided emotional attachment will happen and he does not want to relive the pain he felt when Hanna disappeared. There is also another interesting thought going through my mind as I was finishing this book, and that was to think of this from Hanna’s perspective and just how much pain he may have caused her when she was in prison. This might have also had quite an effect on Michael as he was probably aware that he was being distant with her, but he was so emotionally numb at that point that it did not affect him very much. The whole parallel between the holocaust and the relationship between Michael and Hanna is kind of interesting in how it affected the development of the characters and the way in which they basically switch positions in terms of emotional harm and emotional openness. At first, Michael is the one who is very emotional about the relationship and feels the most about it whereas Hanna is very void of emotion, as is attributed to her relationship with Michael and how she acted in the concentration camps. But, in the end of the story, Michael has developed a very unemotional mask under which he hides from the pain of their relationship while Hanna has begun to look forward to finally meeting Michael again and is basically crushed when she realizes he no longer holds the same emotional bond that he once did with her.