Part 3

                Overall, I did enjoy The Reader. Bernhard Schlink offered a complex and unexpected relationship between two seemingly random strangers. While I still cannot fully understand or accept Michael’s relationship with Hanna, I think I now have a little bit of a better grasp having read the final portion of the story. One thing that I had been confused about since Part 2 was why Michael had never defended Hanna by explaining that she could not read. He always claimed to love her, so I found it a bit odd that he would not help her avoid jail by providing information that would probably help her. However, I think I understand it a bit more clearly now; he was hurt and he didn’t want to get attached to her again. Hanna was the first person that Michael ever claimed to love, so her sudden departure permanently scarred him. I think that Michael did not want to get hurt once again because of Hanna, so he tried to remove himself emotionally from the situation, which could also explain his robot-like behavior in court.

                The debate between whether or not Michael confused sex for love is one that I still cannot decide completely on, but I do believe he cared about her, and I think he always will. Michael may not have truly loved Hanna, but there is a tremendous amount of evidence to show that he cares for her. One of the most notable occurrences is his sending of audio cassettes so that Hanna can hear him reading. Hanna’s illiteracy is clearly one of the things she is most insecure about, so the fact that Michael sent her recordings of him reading to her would surely mean a lot to her. Even though he was so hurt by Hanna’s departure, Michael still cared about her. His constant comparisons of other women to Hanna further prove that he cares too much about her to forget about her completely. On another topic, I did enjoy the comparison of Hanna’s involvement in the Holocaust to her relationship with Michael. I think this was a very unique way of providing some historical presence in an otherwise unique love story. In addition, I believe that this background gives the reader a better perception about the dynamic of Michael and Hanna’s relationship.