the purpose of the reader by bernhard schlink

The purpose of the reader by bernhard schlink trial#

We are all inevitably involved in this larger problem. But it is, I think, also relevant more generally to the way in which human beings get ensnared incrementally into the evils of their society.

The Reader is a profound exposition of the 'second generation' issues concerning moral guilt for the Holocaust. And, like the SS guards at a Nazi death camp, we are unaware of the moral peril of our situation, and unwilling to remove ourselves from that situation even when its h What About the Children? What About the Children? The Reader is a profound exposition of the 'second generation' issues concerning moral guilt for the Holocaust. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent and between words and silence. What does it mean to love those people-parents, grandparents, even lovers-who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue and excess in any form. The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?' As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? 'We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.

The purpose of the reader by bernhard schlink trial#

Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her Originally published in Switzerland and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading and shame in post-war Germany.

Originally published in Switzerland and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading and shame in post-war Germany.