Alex's Reaction to Part 3

     On several occasions throughout part 3 Michael admits to himself that he although he is not responsible for loving his parents, who seemed to have played a role with the Nazi’s, he is in fact responsible for loving Hanna- a direct criminal branching from the Nazi regime. The guilt he feels stems from the idea that he had become ignorant, blinded by love, and therefore had become a criminal himself. Guilt quickly turns into regret when Michael almost wishes he had lived with his generation instead of advancing to Hanna’s. Throughout part 3 we learn that Michael was married, had a child and divorced. He initially kept Hanna a secret to the women he met. It is almost as if he wanted to keep Hanna a secret from himself, denying that the relationship ever happened. He found that later on when he became more open about his past to women, he was unsuccessful, and stopped. 

     Michael is caught between forgetting and wanting to return to his past with Hanna. Although he seeks to avoid the thought of her, when it is awakened, he simply cannot escape it. Michael starts seeking other ways to escape by running away from the responsibility of accepting life. He feels “branded” by his past and feels unable to arrive somewhere in life because Hanna predominated even when she was “out of his life”. 

     Literature, again, connects the two as Michael starts sending Hanna tapes of himself reading. Four years later he hears back from Hanna, who still refers to him as “kid”, even though he is clearly not anymore. We learn that Hanna has had no other contact with the outside world besides Michael for 18 years, therefore Michael is responsible for situating her back into society. He, however, puts off the confrontation with Hanna until the week she is released. It is almost as if he wants her to remain unattainable, but what else could be holding him back? 

     Hanna is no longer the mirage in the desert that he had been thinking about for over 18 years. She had aged and lost her “smell”. The 18 spent in jail held her back mentally while Michael was moving forward in life, however the memory of Hanna always found ways of holding him back. 

The mentioning of Hanna’s suicide is shockingly direct. As the book comes to a close Michael mentions that he is still haunted by the guilt he feels from denial and betrayal, but enraged by her suicide, which he feels she did to spite him. 

I loved The Reader. This is definitely my favorite book I have read this year.