The Motif of Death in The Reader Anonymous 12th Grade

Suicide is a dark subject, usually avoided in every-day conversation and in Youth Literature. This is understandable. Some topics require a developed level of maturity in order to be fully comprehended. However, the darkness of a subject, while understandably deeming it a taboo topic, should not render it impossible to discuss in a society which desperately needs to understand it. The importance of being comfortable shrinks in comparison with the importance of trying to save lives. Society must face its fear of discomfort in order to achieve the greater good. Hence, in the novel The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, the author uses Hanna’s suicide as a motif to analyze differing attitudes toward death.

One motive for Hanna’s suicide appears to be the need to escape the moral weight of her wrongdoing. After Hanna learns to read, she spends time studying “a general concentration-camp bibliography, and… some books on women in the camps, both prisoners and guards” (Schlink 205). With the knowledge she gains from these books, Hanna fully realizes the implications of her actions at the Nazi guard camp. She cannot escape the truth in written ink, and this truth convicts her. She is weighed down by the loss of life she had caused, which...