Discus the following question: Does Schlink try to absolve the generation of his parents, the perpetrator generation, from their guilt by giving Hanna an excuse for her actions?
If anything, Schlink tries to prove some were guilty. He proves that a perpetrator is labeled as so, depending on who, what, where, and when. It is so different for each person. Michael sees Hanna as a victim, but fails to think about Hanna's failure to say no. She may be illiterate, but she knew what was going on, she was physically committing these crimes, and she could easily have stopped. She could have taught herself to read before, and worked in a different profession. Sometimes pride needs to step aside.
I agree that pride was Hanna's main issue. Her pride caused her to become implicated in crimes against humanity, be wrongfully imprisoned for life over those crimes, and it may have even cost her her life (if that was a driving force behind her suicide, which I believe it was).
ReplyDeletePerhaps Schlink wanted readers to see something of themselves in Hanna and her pride.