The most prevalent extract from the novel regarding atonement can be found in Part 2 of Chapter 4 where Michael, apart of a seminar, visits a trial in court once a week as a part of his studies. Although very minimalistic we will see that this behavior heightens as the characters experience more together. A week later Michael visits Hanna to apologize or to make atonement for his wrong. Hanna catches his glare and Michael instantly overwhelmed with humiliation fleas her apartment. He begins to literally objectify Hanna as “not a whole person but as a series of body parts.” (The Reader Part 1, Chapter 4 Analysis). On Michael’s way out he secretly catches a glance of Hanna changing her clothes. After Michael’s illness had been nearly cured he revisited his benefactor to thank her. After Hanna had found Michael feeling ill next to her apartment she had taken him in and treated him. The first sample of atonement we get a taste of comes rather early in the novel. The effect atonement and illiteracy have on the novel The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.Ītonement and rather the desire for atonement can be found in numerous components of the novel. The aspect of illiteracy along with the addition of the guilt that had been casted over German society post second world war make it “the novel that people will talk about for years to come.” (Krishna). However, he did so through a rather peculiar view, that of an illiterate woman.
Berhnard Schlink, a German judge and law professor known for his rather compelling German stories, took his take on the Third Reich and their effect on German society pre, throughout, and post World War 2. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink was originally published in Germany in 1995.
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