Natalies Reaction

I really enjoyed reading The Reader. I think that it explored two very interesting concepts: that of a first love, and the general feelings of the post-war youth in Germany. Clearly Hanna leaves a huge impact on Michael, and although I think she was trying to avoid it I believe that Michael also impacted Hanna’s life. In the second and third part I feel like Michael is constantly trying to prove to himself that he no longer had these same feelings for Hanna, but because she was his first love I do not think that he could have easily lost them and I think they are something that would always clearly be there for him. It’s weird to see how she changes to him. I when he visits her in the prison for the first time, she looks completely different. Even though he clearly is aware that time passes and people age I feel like he still thought that she would remain youthful, but clearly this is not the case as he describes her as “smelling like old woman”. I think that he also changes in her eyes because he is no longer this young boy but he is now a grown man. I think that they were both clinging onto this past and how they both were in the past but that they have grown up and changed. Clearly he still cares about her, or he would have not been sending her those audio recordings of him reading books nor would he have written this book. Despite this and despite what they had before I think they both realized that they were different people back then and are now different people. I think Hanna’s suicide seemed fitting since she realized that things wouldn’t be the same with him but also once she had learnt to read she read books written by the holocaust survivors and I think it all hit her.