"The Reader", by Bernhard Schlink : Guilt and Shame

"The Reader", by Bernhard Schlink is set in postwar Germany and tells the story of fifteen-year-old Michael Berg and his affair with a woman named Hanna, who was twice his age. After some time, she disappears. When Michael next sees Hanna, he is a young law student and she is on trial for her work in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Their feelings of guilt and shame lead to Hanna's tragic death near the end of the story. Bernhard Schlink is trying to portray these two emotions in his book as things that can destroy one's life, and possibly the life of those around us. Examples of them can…