The Reader (novel) Study Questions

GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. 1. Why might Schlink have set the novel largely in Heidelberg?

   2. What is the significance of the first-person narration? For example, Michael’s thoughts about the Holocaust are deeply intertwined with his personal situation regarding Hanna. What problems does this create for him and for us? Also, how do the different time frames interact (their affair, the trial, and the “now” from when he narrates events)?

   3. What role does Homer’s Odyssey play in the novel? Why this book? Are there other Greek texts that might apply? What is the significance of classic literature in general?

   4. Discuss the relationship between the Nazi-era generation and Michael’s generation. Look especially at Michael’s thoughts in Chapter 4 of Part 2. Also consider Michael’s relationship with his father. See especially his visit to his father in Chapter 12 of Part 2.

   5. Discuss Michael’s sense of guilt throughout the novel. For what and why does he feel guilty? Does he represent his generation in this respect? Also comment on his tendency, as he says, to oscillate between numbness and extreme sensitivity.

   6. Is Hanna guilty of what she is accused? To what extent? What is the evidence of her guilt? Does she feel guilty? Does she ever seem to feel guilty or uneasy about her actions with Michael?

   7. Reading, of course, operates on several levels in this novel. Aside from the question of literacy (addressed elsewhere), consider the following issues: What kinds of books does Michael read to Hanna? What is the importance of reading aloud in general (consider the issues of testimony, confession, admission of guilt, and so on)? What is the importance of reading and writing in terms of documenting and understanding the past?

   8. Michael says that, while many stories could have been written, the one he has written is the right one because he wrote this one and not the other ones. Comment on this assertion, both in the case of this novel and in relation to the larger question of memory, history, and Holocaust representation.

   9. What role does illiteracy play in Hanna’s life? In what ways does illiteracy function as a metaphor (for Hanna, for Michael, for Nazi-era Germans, the post-war generation, etc.)?

   10. Does this novel present a dangerously sympathetic picture of perpetrators?
       Does it inadequately represent real Holocaust victims?

PART ONE

Chapters 1-6

1. What does the narrator (Michael) say in Chapter 3 about his memories of Frau Schmitz? How might this affect our interpretation of his narrative?

2. What does he say about the difference between deciding and doing, thought and behavior in Chapter 5? How do these ideas relate to the novel’s larger context—Nazi Germany?

3. Do you find it significant that there is little dramatic narrative build-up to their first sexual encounter in Chapter 6?

Chapters 7-12

1. What might be the significance of his father’s profession?

2. Comment on the fact that they do not know each other’s name until the 6th or 7th day. Keep the issue of names, identity and identification, personal detail in your mind as you progress through the novel.

3. What makes Michael sad to think about the past in Chapter 9? What does this suggest about memory, about history?

4. In Chapter 9, we learn a few details about Hanna. Is it significant that she comes from a German community in Rumania and not Germany proper?

5. Comment on each of their reactions to the streetcar episode in Chapter 10. Why does each of them react in the way he/she does?

6. How does Hanna react in Chapter 11 when Michael returns? Does her reaction have larger implications?

7. When Hanna scans Michael’s father’s books in Chapter 12, Michael notes that this is one of his special images of her. What does this suggest about memory, about the construction of narrative and history itself? (It’s worth noting that he opens the chapter telling us what he doesn’t remember).

Chapters 13-17

1. One of Michael’s school friends is named Sophie. Go to page 148 and then look up this reference. Compare this as well to the Nausicaa reference.

2. What does Michael admit in Chapter 14 about Hanna’s love for him?

3. Why does Michael feel he has begun to betray Hanna? Consider his feelings in the larger context of betrayal during the Nazi era.

4. What does Michael admit at the beginning of Chapter 16?

5. In Chapter 16, Michael refers to a classic Western film in which a character says, “Your whole life in one night?” Consider this in relation to any attempt to encapsulate one’s life in a compressed space (pages) or time (hours).

6. What is Michael’s reaction to Hanna’s disappearance?

PART TWO

Chapters 1-4

1. How might Michael’s comments about himself following Hanna’s departure also apply to his generation as a whole, who grew up in the post-Nazi era?

2. What does Michael say in Chapter 2 about his generation’s view of the Nazi-era generation? Also comment on the following quotation: “When I think about it now, I think that our eagerness to assimilate the horrors and our desire to make everyone else aware of them was in fact repulsive” (93).

3. Do we really believe Michael in Chapters 3 and 4 when he says he felt nothing upon seeing Hanna again in the courtroom? What might account for his lack of feeling or for his telling us that he felt nothing?

4. We learn that Hanna served in a camp near Cracow, though it is not identified specifically. Schindler’s List takes place in an actual camp located in Cracow (see the reference on page 148). Do you think this was a conscious choice by Schlink and a comment on different representations of the Holocaust that have become part of our collective views of the Holocaust?

5. In Chapter 4, Michael comments on the numbness that develops in the court and is also characteristic of both survivor and perpetrator accounts of the Holocaust. What bothers him about seeing them linked in this way (see page 103)?

6. How does Michael summarize his generation’s predicament on page 104? To what extent do these questions still apply to all of us?

Chapters 5-9

1. In Chapter 5, of what is Hanna charged? What is the source of these charges? What might this suggest regarding justice for Holocaust crimes?

2. How does Hanna behave at her trial? Does she have the right to ask the judge the question, “What would you have done?” Is Schlink right to ask us that question?

3. How do Hanna’s co-defendants behave?

4. How does Michael describe the daughter’s book in Chapter 8? What are its notable features? What does it lack, if anything? Is it important that it has not yet appeared in a German translation at the time of the trial?

5. We learn about the damning SS report in Chapter 9. What does this suggest about issues of documentation in relation to Nazi crimes?

6. What is Hanna’s version of events? Does her version show her to be guilty? Does Schlink (or Michael) present this chapter in a way that makes her seem more or less sympathetic?

Chapters 10-14

1. In Chapter 10, Michael wonders whether Hanna’s secret explains, if not justifies, her behavior. What conclusion does he seem to reach? Do you agree with his judgment?

2. In Chapter 13, what does Michael point out about people’s knowledge of the Holocaust at the time of the trial? How does he compare that with the present (mid-1990s)?

3. What does Michael hope to learn by visiting a camp? What then happens on his journey to the Struthof camp? How does the Mercedes driver explain perpetrator behavior? Comment on this explanation. Do you think Michael accurately surmises that he was involved in the Holocaust?

Chapters 15-17

1. What does Michael say in Chapter 15 about his reaction to visiting Struthof (on either occasion)? Is there any significance that this leads to reflection about his uncertainty regarding his judgment of Hanna?

2. He says that he can either understand her or condemn her, but not both. Why?

3. Why do you think Michael does not visit Hanna in prison? What feelings does he express about her at the beginning of chapter 16?

4. What does Michael say about justice in relation to Hanna?

5. What happens when Michael goes to visit the judge? What feelings does he express at the end of the chapter.

PART THREE

Chapters 1-6

1. In Chapter 1, what does Michael say about his generation and the notion of collective guilt?

2. What direction does Michael pursue in his career? What is the significance of his choice of profession in general and his focus in particular?

3. Discuss Michael’s comments on the Enlightenment on page 181. What attracts him to their views? How do his views then change? What does he say about the Odyssey related to this?

4. Why do you think he begins to read again to Hanna and send her tapes?

5. What does Michael say about Hanna’s illiteracy in Chapter 6? About her decision finally to learn to read and write? Why does he never write back to her?

Chapters 7-12

1. Discuss Hanna’s comments on pages 198-199. Do we sympathize with her views of herself?

2. What ambivalence does Michael express about Hanna in Chapter 9?

3. Why do you think Hanna commits suicide?

4. How does the warden summarize Hanna’s prison years? What had changed about her in recent years and why? Does the warden place any blame on Michael for her suicide?

5. How does the Holocaust survivor respond to Michael’s visit and to Hanna’s “gift”? How does she respond upon learning of Hanna’s relationship with Michael?

6. Comment on the depiction of the Holocaust survivor. Is this meant to be stereotypical? Why is she never given a name? (Also, recall the characterization of her book in Chapter 14, Part 2).

7. She asks Michael whether he thinks Hanna knew what she had done to him. Do you think she did, and how does the answer to this question affect our judgment of her?

8. In the last chapter, Michael notes that the past of our own lives is not “fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive” (217). Comment on this insight in relation to Holocaust memory and to modern German society.