Frau Anna's Sexual Identity In 'The White Hotel'

At first, I had very mixed feelings about “The White Hotel”. The first two sections were extremely sexual, to the extent that I had to take multiple breaks from it. It was definitely something I wasn’t expecting from such a well-known book, especially from one that was supposed to be about one of the most horrific events in history. It all started to come together in the third segment where we learn more about Frau Anna G.’s background, and why she wrote the two pieces in the first place.
This made me realize that instead of just being ridiculously strange, it is a representation of emotions and experiences that are realities for people like her, who may also have hysteria and hallucinations. To take it a step further, reality in general is horrific and explicit at times; even though we like to view the world as a happy place, there are many dark things that happen, and everyone has secrets that they are not proud …show more content…
I understand that many people are sensitive to mentions of rape, murder, and suicide, but turning a blind eye does not produce results, but rather, contributes to them. Frau Anna herself has contemplated suicide because of neglect, struggles she has with her sexual identity, and a difficult past. These are not uncommon, and though her life events may be dramaticized, people need to realize that these things do happen, and that we should pay attention when they do so we can figure out a solution. This is the reason why the discussion of the events of the Holocaust are important, and why there are explicit recordings of the events. People were kidnapped, raped, burned alive, shot in massive numbers, and experimented on in the cruelest of ways. There was nothing to censor them from this brutality, so in order to truly understand what occurred, the information provided should be just as brutal. Thankfully, nothing of the same scale has happened since, because of what we know of the