The juxtaposition of dignity and freedom with happiness, suggests that to Michael’s father, you can have one without the other. Schlink’s of the nouns ‘dignity’, ‘freedom’, and ‘happiness’ connote what would typically be considered values of a good life. It was no comfort to you that your mother was always right.’ Michael’s father’s frank dialogue reveals insight into his personality and views, as well as his emotional detachment from his son. Even as a little boy you knew the difference. Michael and his father’s conflicting views are evident when Michael asks his father for advice, in the phrase, ‘We’re not talking about happiness, we’re talking about dignity and freedom.

Use of dialogue allows tone and power dynamics between characters to be clearly illustrated, making it an essential device to convey important themes, such as guilt, in the novel.ĭialogue between Michael and his father is essential in conveying how guilt has led to conflict and emotional distance between generations. Furthermore, dialogue allows Schlink to show perspectives other than Michaels, and therefore, a better and well-rounded picture. Therefore, dialogue as a literary technique allows Schlink to highlight critical moments by creating contrast from Michael’s narration. The Reader is mostly written from the first-person perspective of Michael. Throughout the novel, Schlink employs dialogue between characters as a means to convey these ideas. Schlink uses this opportunity to show that German guilt is pervasive and unavoidable as it is passed on through generations and leads to conflict. Michael’s relationships with Hanna, a woman twenty years his senior, and his family, are essential in exploring guilt. The novel, set in post-war Germany explores these ideas through the first-person perspective of Michael Berg, a fifteen-year-old boy. The Reader written by Bernhard Schlink is a powerful novel exploring the generational guilt that many German people felt after the Holocaust and World War II.

The reader bernhard schlink