How much can be forgiven? How much should be forgiven? How do we reconcile the good and evil in people? (And I do mean evil.) What role does literacy play in people's ethics and behaviour?'The Reader' made me cry, but it also made me think. The questions it posed about forgiveness are too difficult for me to tackle head-on, but I really want to read the German novel now to see how it portrays Hanna (a former SS guard and lover of the main character) towards the end. In the film, she seems like a slightly simple, confused woman who was a victim to the system but curiously enough doesn't seem to feel guilt for massacring 300 women and children even when she's forced to face her actions. (When Michael asks her, she says, "Before the trial, I didn't think about it. I didn't need to." - I paraphrase.) According to Wikipedia, in the novel she reads books written by Holocaust survivors before her suicide. In the film, she just seems frightened of Michael not being there for her.
From what I've gathered, both the film and the novel have been welcomed and enjoyed by people in various countries including Germany. I wonder if I was the only one left wondering about where we are in terms of the stigma and taboo of the Holocaust. In the past few years, some films made from the viewpoint of the Nazis have been made. We can acknowledge that there are no moral or immoral films, only good and bad ones, and acknowledge that the value of art is to make us think outside the box and put ourselves in the shoes of others. But I still think the development from complete taboo to wallowing in the misery of the victims of the Holocaust (lest we forget...) to showing kind and sympathetic former Nazis is an interesting one. Is it a sign that we're forgetting? Is it a sign that generations that had nothing to do with the Holocaust are finally shedding some of the stifling collective guilt? I don't know. But it is interesting.
I found the theme of literacy a beautiful one, a bright spark in dark times. The connection and forgiveness that is passed on along with Michael's tapes to Hanna, and the hope that manifests in Hanna teaching herself to read and trying to reach out to Michael, and finally failing. I truly do believe literacy makes a huge difference in how you perceive the world and what tools you have to judge information you're given. At the same time, Hanna's enjoyment of hearing stories read out loud made me wonder how bound to paper I am.
More superficially, I was slightly surprised Kate Winslet won the Oscar for leading role in this one. She does a wonderful job, no doubt about it, but to me the story is about Michael. Hanna motivates him and casts an ever-present shadow over his life, but the film is about his reactions, his experiences.
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