Bernhard Schlink

In regards to literature by authors with a different native language, I have read some short stories by a German author, Bernhard Schlink, and also The Reader, by the same author. The Reader is my favorite book that I’ve ever read. A piece of romantic historical fiction, it discusses the complexity of morality after the end of World War II in Germany. It touches on the pain and guilt felt by those who participated in the Holocaust and their loved ones. This book did a wonderful job of illustrating a period of hardship within another country. I myself could not understand what it would be like to be in that place at that time, but that was part of the beauty of reading that story. It helped me learn about something that I would never be able to even begin to understand first hand. This is why I am excited about studying world literature. I believe that by reading stories…

As college students, textbooks serve one of the most important jobs in understanding the material that the class is covering. However, sometimes students do not use their textbooks and only focus on the lecture to study. Using only the lectures makes the purchase of a textbook seem pointless and the lack of use of a textbook raises questions about the reasons for not using it. In the social problems class offered here at the University of Oklahoma, the textbook used is Social Problems written by…

“The Reader” written by Bernhard Schlink, is an inconspicuous and easy to read novel; however, there are many underlying themes in the story that are truly complex. Hanna is one of the two main characters in the story, she seems to be the epitome of what a strong German woman would be portrayed as in Nazi Germany. It doesn’t come to light till much later in the story that her hard exterior was more of a mask and her insecurities are hidden behind it. Hanna comes across child-like, seemingly…

twilight in Unterach” (Bernhard 22-3). Twilight is the stage of evening in between daylight and night. Unterach comes from an Austro-Bavarian word meaning “between waters,” which geographically describes the village. This is where Bernhard’s nameless narrator wants to be, in a liminal place where he has no definition. He sends the servants home and closes the shutters, trying to escape anything with meaning to which he could compare himself to. Then one day, he finds a cap on the ground. “A cap…

Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader explores the individual and collective pasts of Michael Berg and Hanna Schmidt. Highly analytical and reflective, Michael’s are the eyes through which the narrative is told. He becomes infatuated with Hanna from a young age, but revelations further in his life reveal Hanna’s dishonourable history. The novel is set post-WII Germany, a society in the midst of a moral debate regarding the actions of its past. Through the combined use of setting, characterization,…

Through the use of settings, Bernhard Schlink emphasises the central ideas of the novel The Reader. The central ideas of human behaviour and guilt, responsibility and justice, looking beyond actions and insight are each explored through the use of settings. Settings such as Hanna’s bathtub, the concentration camp and the courtroom and the woods are each used to emphasise a central idea. Schlink uses stylistic devices such as symbolism, analogy, allusion and narrative point of view to communicate…

eliminate the wrong answers. Using Hanna’s admitted illiteracy, Bernhard Schlink is able to create a tense and dynamic situation which pushes the readers to think about how we approach the exploration of right and wrong and also express his own opinions on how unreliable the law system can be. The line that separates right and wrong and the line between Hanna’s exploration of her guilt and her morals are blurred so that they no longer resemble black and white issues. In The Reader, author…

Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader uses the literary device of contextual setting to convey the central ideas of the novel. In part one of the novel, the setting is heavily based around Hanna and her life, the two predominantly interact at her house, the building on Bahnhofstrasse, demonstrating Michael’s level of secrecy and emotional distance between himself and Hanna as he does not involved Hanna in his personal life. The setting of the court room, a symbol of right and wrong, conveys the central…

they should forgive themselves for falling victim to the Nazi Party’s deceptions and the suppression of societal ideologies. This is also a negative stipulation that is experienced by Michael in the novel The Reader, by German novelist; Bernhard Schlink. Regarding this, it can be proven through Michael having loved Hanna, despite feeling the guilt of whether he should forgive himself for falling in love with Hanna. He tries to approach this through sexual gratification, however…

One night everyone stopped in a church to seek shelter from the cold. The prisoners stayed in a church and members of the SS stayed near-by in the priest 's house. That night the Allies came and air raided the church where the prisoners were staying. The church caught on fire and most of the people inside were burned to death (Schlink 39). As a result, two of the survivors of the bombing are taking five members of the SS to court for allowing the death of the prisoners. The survivors claim the…