Log #5

2017.04.25

Log #5

This week I read The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. In this log I will focus on two themes: illiteracy and sudden release. I will also share my favorite quotes.

(Book cover)

I did not commiserate with Hanna Schmitz, not at all. As an illiterate, she should have known what to do and what not to do all the same. Illiteracy does not mean ignorance. Needs must when the devil drives. Maybe the helpless Hanna was forced to burn those female Jewish prisoners to death in a locked church during a bombing raid with the other defendants. Maybe not. However, there was no denying that she was responsible for that. Even if it was not her intention, her indifference and silence made her a murderer, didn’t they? To me, there is no much difference between the ones who kill and the ones who assist in killing. Another mistake Hanna had made was struggling to keep the fact that she herself was an illiterate in the dark mitigated the other murderers’ punishments. I was speechless. Bad karma came right after Hanna. She paid for it. She was sentenced to life in prison and spent 18 whole years in the prison. But then again, I believe that each and every one of us is the most special being in the universe. We are here because we have a place to fill. I know it was kind of contradictory, but I could understand Hanna at the same time. Honestly speaking, I think we are all Hanna. We all have something hidden from everyone else that we do not want anyone to know. Hanna Schmitz reminded me of my mother. My mother is half-illiterate. She has started to make a living after she graduated from an elementary school. So what? She is the breadwinner in my family. She is the greatest person in my life, and I never feel ashamed that she cannot read and write but listen and speak.

(Hanna Schmitz)

"BROOKS WAS HERE" As for sudden freedom, Hanna reminded me of Brooks Hatlen, the prison librarian and one of the oldest convicts at Shawshank, in the drama film The Shawshank Redemption. The biggest similarity between Hanna and Brooks was that they ended the rest of their lives by hanging themselves. They had been behind bars for such a long time that they were institutionalized. They were terrified of adjusting to the astonishing changes in the outside world. Although it is not a good idea to say so, but their endings were surprisingly effective to me as a viewer.

("BROOKS WAS HERE")

Last come the quotes that I would like to share with you.

“There's no need to talk about it, because the truth of what one says lies in what one does.”

You don’t have to say much about yourself because what you have done have explained almost everything of you. I recall a story in the Confucian Analects:

(The story from the Confucian Analects)

The message behind the story is that you should not only listen to what one says but also observe what one does.

“I asked her about life, and it was as if she rummaged around in a dusty chest to get me the answers.”

I like this quote because of its word usage. It is written beautifully. Here, the word chest has double meaning. A chest can be a box with a lid, but it can also be the front of the trunk from the neck to the ab. The quote gave me a feeling that Hanna’s chest was full of dust –her guilt over the incident, her being overwhelmed by the sudden release, and most importantly, her fear of what Michael thought of her. With Michael’s help, Hanna learnt so many things in the jail that she must want to tell Michael something, but she did not know how to start and where to begin. As you can see from the picture below, Hanna, who had not seen Michael for many, many years, looked at him with a heavy heart and a pair of eyes filled with a load of secrets.

(The quote scene)

References

The Reader borrowed from the NTUST Library

明倫月刊-論語簡說