The Reader & Shame

I read the book The Reader LONG before a movie was in the making.

CAUTION:  Spoiler Alert.  If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, you may not want to know the details I’m going to talk about.  Just click away!

I remember being shocked when I found out, at the same time Michael did, that Hanna was illiterate.  She had done unspeakable things in the Nazi camps, but the shame of her illiteracy was far greater than the shame for her participation in the killing of Jews.

Shame is a theme that permeates the entire movie, and it shapes the choices the characters make.

Hanna has shame that she cannot read, and goes to great length to conceal it.  She winds up works for the SS because she quits a job rather than take a promotion and be ashamed when illiteracy is discovered.  She “admits” to planning a strategy to exterminate Jews in the concentration camps,rather than providing a writing sample and being subjected to the shame of illiteracy.  And finally, it is true shame, for her behavior in the camps, that leads her to suicide.

Michael also has his share of shame, beginning with his affair with Hanna at the age of 15.  He then experiences shame that he knows a Nazi war criminal, shame at the things she did in the camp, and finally shame that she seems to feel little remorse for her actions.  His shame (that he did not intervene and provide information that would have helped her at trial) is assuaged by his reading and send her tapes of books.  He feels less like he has abandoned her this way.  After Hanna’s suicide, his shame is greater as he realizes how much more he could have done for her.

Any therapist worth their salt would tell clients that shame is a negative and unhealthy emotion to operate with.  It is insidious in its destruction, and little good can ever come of it.  If you had any doubt of that principle, this movie drives it home.

I think most people have had bouts with shame, to some degree or another.  Far better to come to terms with our actions and process them, than to live with a shame death sentence hanging over us.

Let’s all leave shame behind us.

Photo credit:  Amazon