The Reader Chapter 8-9

The Reader Chapter 8-9 Aaron Lam

Chapter 8- Plot Describes the relationship of Hanna and Michael, their 2 dimensionally relationship

Characterisation • Michael • -sexual awareness, he prioritizes Hanna, sacrificing his education for Hanna and wants to know her on a deeper level emotionally • - their dysfunctional relationship is brought up, as they don’t know each others name • -overthinks everything through his ‘rhetorical questions’ • -first “real conversation" page 33 emphasizing the dYsfunctionalityof the relationship • -detailed explicit sensual imagery of touch about his seuxal experiences with Hanna • -proud that Hanna thought he was “seventeen”, provides him with confidence as he appears older than he actually is

Characterization Hanna • -labeled as the 'THE WOMAN' page 30 • -views the reading and sex as a contract • -calls Michal “the kid” displaying her perception of him and how • -takes value in education, and gets worked up when Michael doesn’t attend school, shows the difference in background where one has education and is literate and one isn’t

Style • Symbolism of Washing, showering, gives both Michael and Hanna a feeling of cleanliness cleansed from his illness, and cleansed from her past • Foreshadowing issue of literacy, as it is highlighted by Hanna in Chapter 8 • Foreshadowing: Michael assumes that Hanna knows his name by reading his name on his schoolbooks but she doesn’t…..

Chapter 9-Plot • Switches between present Michael and past Michael using the narration and direct speech

Characterization Michael -sets Michael up as an unreliable narrator as he uses many rhetorical questions regarding the actions that he took while in the relationship with Hanna -relationship with Hanna allows Michael to feel like a man as he views himself as a ‘child’ -Underpins the idea of masculinity, where Michael gains 'confidence' and “respect” from his peers from being in a relationship with Hannah who is old enough to be his mum, gaining knowledge which puts him above others

Characterization Hanna -gives a greater context of her background and history, letting the audience understand who she is (Grown up in a German community, worked at the Siemens Factory, went to the army) -establish the social class difference Hanna and Michael through the description of his clothes

Style Rhetorical questions “why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths? –foreshadow events about to occur -questions his happiness at the time of the relationship -illness represent Michaels weakness, and symbolizes the condition he was in before he met Hanna, where he was an outcaste from society and alone Intertexual reference to the Odyssey, where the Odyssey is about a book of a man trying to find home? Blackbird was singing – symbol of remembrance and sorrow Light and Darkness -

Style • "is it the knowledge of what came later, and that what came out afterwards had been there all along"? Foreshadowing

The Reader Chapter 8-9