The READER 朗读者 心得.doc

A Book Report of The ReaderBy Guo Shudan ,10Foreign Trade, NO.33I have recently read a novel named The Reader, published Yilin Press. This novel is written by a German jurist and writer Bernhard Schlink, who was born in Germany in 1944. Schlink became a judge at the Constitutional Court of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1988 and in 1992 a professor for public law and the philosophy of law at Humboldt University, Berlin. His most famous book The Reader is an internationally best-selling novel ,which was an Oprahs Book Club selection. Briefly, The Reader is a story about love, morality, humanity，shame, guilt and the gap between Germanys per-war and postwar generations. It explores how the post-war generations should approach the generation that took part in, or witnessed, the atrocities. These are the questions at the heart of Holocaust literature in the late 20th and early 21st century, as the victims and witnesses die and living memory fades. The story starts in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair. Michael discovers that Hanna loves being read to and their physical relationship deepens. Hanna is enthralled as Michael reads to her from famous books. Despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears one day and Michael is left confused and heartbroken. Eight years later, while Michael is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he is stunned to find Hanna back in his life - this time as a defendant in the courtroom. Hanna s crime as a defendant in a trail related to Germanys Nazi past is uncovered. As Hannas past is revealed, Michael realizes that Hanan is keeping a secret, which she believes is worse than her Nazi past, that is she cant read or write. At last, Michael doesnt say anything to testify for Hanna, and Hanna is sentenced to life in prison. Discovering the books he had read to Hanna decades earlier, Michael re-establishes contact with her by reading the books into a tape recorder and sending them to her in prison. Using them as a guide, Hanna teaches herself to read and write. She sends him letters in return but he never responds. Finally Hanna commits suicide in despair when she is going to be released.This is a brilliant philosophical love story. After reading the whole story, I was moved by the painful love between Hanna and Michael. But soon some questions appeared in my mind. First, why Hanna would rather admits more crimes that she hadnt done in order to avoid exposing as an illiterate? Could Hannas shame at being illiterate be sufficient reason for her behavior? Quoting from this book, Michael says that he was no stranger to shame as the cause of behavior that was deviant or defensive, secretive or misleading or hurtful. Indeed, shame is a part of humanity and have important special value to the traditional morals culturally. However, if someone bear too much shame and guilt, he or she would be very likely to lose balance, the balance of value. The second question is what you would do if the one you love is a criminal. After WWII, the gap between two generations formed. Kids found that their parents were criminals, and the whole world was criticizing them. What should they do? I guess most of them kept silent, like Michael. The post-war generations disengaged from the per-war generations.The innocent and educated people, like Michael disengage from the guilty and illiterate people, like Hanna. And The Reader describes exquisitely two generations mental and emotional struggle. From the authors view, people will not become devil because they once did something evil, or no one will be guilty because the person they love is criminal. My last question is a question asked by Hanna. In the trial, Hanna can not answer why she send the people to be killed. She asked the judge back, What would you have done? It is not the custom at German trials for defendants to question the judge. The judge side-steps her question, he just want it to be over as soon as possible. Hanna thinks it seriously and be honest, but other guards let Hanna to take the blame. Of course, the woman who survived the fire in the church is sympathetic. Hannas illiteracy explains but doesnt totally excuse her behaviour. For Hanna, a ignorant person, what she can do at that time is to follow the orders and be responsible for her job. In some ways, Hanna is a person with one-track mind. But we all know war is a tragedy in the past. Who can tells which one is innocent and which is criminal? How can we judge the criminals with the current law? Therefore, we can find that, sometimes, our law discord with humanity and morality. The story that touched me the most is the ending. I f