Hanna's Selfishness

Hanna is selfish and insecure for many of the same reasons, some of these reasons include, why she will not testify, why she does not argue to protect herself, and why she had Michael read to her. In her actions, Hanna can be viewed by the reader as insecure because of her incapabilities to read and write. Hanna seems to take control of Michael when they were together, but in court she seems shy and conceded with her lawyer. Also, when Michael went to see her at work, she was timid and hesitant around the conductor of the train. Furthermore, during the trial, she only speaks in turn and makes sure she does not have to prove she can read or write. Hanna does not deny her involvement in any of it, possibly because she might have to read hers or someone else’s testimony and she …show more content…
He had started to wonder why she was so angry about her past and why she took it out on him. Michael was only 16, so he never questioned her behavior until she was gone. After she left, he analyzed everything she had done and came to the realization that he needed her more than she needed him. During law school, Michael sees hanna after approximately a decade and he learns that she became a baracks officer in a concentration camp and is now on trial for the many murders she has been a part of. Hanna attempts to conceal her illiteracy to protect herself from a punishment she feels is greater than death. She believes that if her inadequacies will bring pity on herself and she does not want people to pity her, she never has. Hanna left her house one day and never contacted anyone for 10 years later, when she was already in prison for her crimes. She had learned to write, but she still did not want anyone to believe she could not read or write until then. She thought she was saving herself by not telling people the whole