The Reader

As an adult, Michael doesn’t remember the discussions during Friday seminar meetings. At university, Michael uses Fridays and Saturdays to catch up on schoolwork. On Sundays, he wanders around nature. In the woods, he realizes Hanna’s secret: She can’t read or write. She ran away from the streetcar and Siemens-factory promotions because management jobs require reading and writing. She admitted to writing the report to avoid exposure; she’d rather be known as a criminal than a person without writing or reading skills. He wonders if she sent prisoners who read to her to Auschwitz to prevent them from revealing her secret.

He considers that Hanna might not have acted intentionally or surreptitiously. She incidentally wound up as a guard and, returning to Michael’s earlier conclusion, chose the readers to make their last days alive easier. Hanna isn’t crafting a narrative; she’s accepting accountability and fighting for her truth. In any case, Michael feels guilty: He loved a criminal.

The villagers can’t confirm or deny that Hanna was the leader, but the claim that Hanna was in charge makes the villagers look better. It makes it seem like they couldn’t have tried to rescue the women in the church because a menacing authority figure (Hanna) was in their way.