The Reader

Content Warning: This guide summarizes and discusses statutory rape, the Holocaust, and Nazi brutality, which feature in the source text.

Feelings versus numbness is a theme that propels the story. Without Michael’s intense feelings for Hanna, there is no story. Michael’s choice to be with her as a teen, his daily consumption of her trial, and his ongoing engagement with her in jail represent his strong feelings for her. Hanna stirs something inside him that no one else can—not Sophie, Gertrud, or his mother, resulting in his feelings becoming polarized. He feels very intensely for Hanna but feels numb toward others, resulting in alienation. Michael tries to hide his intense feelings and doesn’t tell Sophie, Gertrud, or his mother about Hanna. When he tells later romantic partners about her, their responses are underwhelming, and Michael states, “So I stopped talking about it. There’s no need to talk because the truth of what one says lies in what one does” (133). In other words, Michael feels he betrays his ongoing feelings for Hanna by talking about her. Other women can’t evoke the same intensity in him, and he wants to be around her. Even the older Hanna, after 18 years in jail, galvanizes him.