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Bernhard Schlink's The Reader

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A very important theme in ‘The Reader’ by Bernhard Schlink is the “unbearable burden of remembrance.”1 The shame and guilt the second generation from Germany was forced into by the majority of their parents who partook in the cruel actions of the Third Reich. All this began to quite down and the hardened memories slowly started to fade, the Second World War was starting to divide in time and more generations covered the horrid history. Until in 1995 ‘The Reader’ was published, this literary work had a great impact on society. It was one of the causes the Second World War, and in this case especially the post-war times, was brought back to the surface and forced again on new generations. This was however a necessity for that era to be recollected and not to be forgotten over the years. But what if ‘The Reader’ would have been …show more content…

The struggle the second generation had with their parents is described in “The Reader” and part of it in this quote, it could also be used as a reason for the population of that time to dislike the literary work. Bernhard Schlink phrases this difficulty on the point and he even questions the use of dissociation from their parents, since this was a huge topic at that time and it was close to many hearts, the people would distance themselves from such a novel. The other link could be the relationship between Hanna Schmitz and Michael Berg compared to the second generation and parents issue. However there is one mayor difference between these two and Schlink also described it in ‘The Reader’ , this is the choice Michael made to love Hanna. The parental love is something one does not choose, it is a bond that even through the greatest despise still exists. The moment Michael was mesmerized by Hanna he made a choice to chase that love and not back away from a wrong and wicked affair, as stated by

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