The Reader
參賽者：江〇涵（應外三）
名次：第二名
書名：The Reader
得獎作品：
A short but breathtaking story with inspiring and meaningful subjects: The Reader. Michael, a little boy haunted by illness, madly fell in love with Hanna, who was almost twice of his age. Not until Michael found out that Hanna loved him reading to her did their relationship deepened. Their love, passion, and desire bonded the secret affair. Reading, showering, and making love had become their meeting ritual. However, one day, Hanna left without any clues.
Next time when Michael saw Hanna, who was accused of murder, was in a court. The reunion was hard for both of them. For Hanna, she was about to be discovered a long-hidden truth: she was illiteracy. For Michael, he was pulled himself into a dilemma between different views of justice which determined whether he could save Hanna or not.
The book gave me the feeling that the relationship between one and the other was so volatile and vulnerable, but the opportunity to shorten and tense each relationship was in our hand. In the first glance, Michael and Hanna seemed to build up enough trust and dependence so that they never tried to intervene in or intended to gain the power to control each other’s private life. To a certain level, they were perfect match and the love was transcendent and impeccable. However, Hanna’s leaving changed everything. Originally, Hanna was a misanthropic woman because she was illiteracy, which caused a sense of inferiority to her. This negative self-image isolated her from the world, and finally made her an outsider in the society. Neither did she easily believe in people nor did she get enough security. As a result, she seldom told Michael her past, her family, even what she thought in mind because she was not familiar with trusting people. Once she gave people recognition, she would be so anxious that the person would betray her. That was the reason why she got so angry when she woke up but could not find Michael in the morning. The same thing can also be seen in Michael himself who experienced a difficult time to accept Hanna’s leaving. That healing process turned Michael into a defensive and sensitive person. He neither trusted Hanna nor himself anymore. When Hanna backed to his life, he supposed to be happy but it turned out to be retreated. On the one hand, he had not forgiven Hanna’s unsolicited leave and he was not sure whether Hanna still loved him or not. On the other hand, he was afraid of not being able to make Hanna happy so that Hanna would unhesitatingly leave him like the previous time. The confusion and uncertainty finally led Michael to the path of escaping form Hanna. Actually, the main reason that caused the tragedy was Hanna’s sense of inferiority. Because of illiteracy, she cannot receive higher education. Because of illiteracy, she can only find a job requiring no reading and writing skills. Because of illiteracy, she was unwilling to be labeled as lower class and be discriminated by the society. Therefore, with strong sense of inferiority, she regarded illiteracy as a shame. To protect her dignity, she would rather commit to a crime she was not supposed to be responsible for than tell the truth. Honestly, I admired Hanna’s courage to protect what she valued the most, dignity, but I did not agree the way she saw herself. I believed that discrimination is formed by both sides: Hanna and others. In other words, although other people probably despise Hanna, if she did not see herself that way, discrimination did not exist at all. We cannot control how people judge us, but we can decide the way we see ourselves.
The story also raised another issue: justice. Hanna worked as a guard in the concentration camp, when WW ǁ finally came to an end, she was charged with murdering the Jews. Germans who did not join Nazi’s massacre blamed those who worked for Nazi of cruelty, lack of humanity, and even deserving imprisonment. Hanna, unfortunately, was the pathetic sacrifice after the war. Actually, the Jews, the victims, probably had the right to fight for justice from Nazi, but others did not. Ironically, the post-war German society was the opposite way. The minority could not speak out for themselves; instead, the main accusers of Nazi’s crime just were those Germans who were not the members of Nazi. However, did they entitle to blame others? In the critical time, how many of them had tried to stop the slaughter, how many of them had tried to save the Jews regardless of their own safety? If they acted like bystanders and did not try to offer help, what was the difference between them and the Nazi? What they both did was looking people dying without offering help. In other words, people who should be responsible for the tragedy were not only the Nazi, but also those who had the opportunities to do something yet chose not to. Justice is hard to define or strike a balance satisfying both sides. Be aware that when we criticize others, do we do the same thing as theirs?
I learned two lessons from the book: First, the importance of learning to believe, to love, and to forgive. Instead of tormented by the past, we have to learn how to let go at the right time. Second, do not criticize people until you make sure that you are not responsible for the outcome. With the tangled but appealing plot, The Reader undoubtedly depicts human nature directly and realistically. The nature shared by all human beings when it comes to love and separation. It will be the book I would like to read all over again.
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