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Michael’s Father
The daughter (nameless in the book) who had survived, with her mother, in the church fire in which Hanna was complicit. During Hanna’s trial, she gives testimony that the secret activities between Hanna and the younger, weaker girls in the camp was that the girls would read aloud to Hanna in exchange for slightly better care. The daughter also wrote a book about her time in the camps; the book was made available to the people involved in the trial, including Hanna, but was only published after the trial. When Michael reads it, he finds that the book “creates distance” and “exudes the very numbness” that Michael feels from being exposed to the trial’s horrific evidence. After Hanna dies, she leaves Michael with instructions to send her money to the Jewish woman. Michael visits her in New York, and describes the woman as “matter-of-fact.” She refuses to grant absolution to Hanna or to accept responsibility for her money, but she keeps Hanna’s tea tin, which reminds her of the tea tin that was stolen from her at the camps.
The Jewish Woman / The Daughter Quotes in The Reader
The The Reader quotes below are all either spoken by The Jewish Woman / The Daughter or refer to The Jewish Woman / The Daughter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 8
Quotes
During the trial the manuscript was available, but to those directly involved. I had to read the book in English, an unfamiliar and laborious exercise at the time. And as always, the alien language, unmastered and struggled over, created a strange concatenation of distance and immediacy. I worked through the book with particular thoroughness and yet did not make it my own. It remained as alien as the language itself.
Years later I reread it and discovered that it is the book that creates distance. It does not invite one to identify with it and makes no one sympathetic, neither the mother nor the daughter, nor those who shared their fate in various camps and finally in Auschwitz and the satellite camp near Cracow…. It exudes the very numbness I have tried to describe before. But even in her numbness the daughter did not lose the ability to observe and analyze.
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Part 3, Chapter 11
Quotes
I told her about Hanna's death and her last wishes.
"Why me?"
"I suppose because you are the only survivor."
"And how am I supposed to deal with it?"
"However you think fit."
"And grant Frau Schmitz her absolution?"
At first I wanted to protest, but Hanna was indeed asking a great deal. Her years of imprisonment were not merely to be the required atonement: Hanna wanted to give them her own meaning, and she wanted this giving of meaning to be recognized. I said as much.
She shook her head. I didn't know if this meant she was refusing to accept my interpretation or refusing to grant Hanna the recognition.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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The Jewish Woman / The Daughter Quotes in The Reader
The The Reader quotes below are all either spoken by The Jewish Woman / The Daughter or refer to The Jewish Woman / The Daughter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 8
Quotes
During the trial the manuscript was available, but to those directly involved. I had to read the book in English, an unfamiliar and laborious exercise at the time. And as always, the alien language, unmastered and struggled over, created a strange concatenation of distance and immediacy. I worked through the book with particular thoroughness and yet did not make it my own. It remained as alien as the language itself.
Years later I reread it and discovered that it is the book that creates distance. It does not invite one to identify with it and makes no one sympathetic, neither the mother nor the daughter, nor those who shared their fate in various camps and finally in Auschwitz and the satellite camp near Cracow…. It exudes the very numbness I have tried to describe before. But even in her numbness the daughter did not lose the ability to observe and analyze.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 11
Quotes
I told her about Hanna's death and her last wishes.
"Why me?"
"I suppose because you are the only survivor."
"And how am I supposed to deal with it?"
"However you think fit."
"And grant Frau Schmitz her absolution?"
At first I wanted to protest, but Hanna was indeed asking a great deal. Her years of imprisonment were not merely to be the required atonement: Hanna wanted to give them her own meaning, and she wanted this giving of meaning to be recognized. I said as much.
She shook her head. I didn't know if this meant she was refusing to accept my interpretation or refusing to grant Hanna the recognition.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
