Thesis: The novel The Reader by Bernhard Schlink and the motion picture adapted from the novel are diverse in many different ways. While both the film and the novel explore Hana’s character and explore her relationship with Michael, many differences can be seen. In the movie and novel, The Reader, the director and the author battle the idea of love and justification in Michael and Hana’s relationship and envision Hana’s character to be drastically different.
Topic 1: Hana and Michael’s Relationship
“Why did you behave as if you didn’t know me” (47)
This is the first glimpse of how the director and author view Hana and Michael’s relationship. Not only does the director cut out the text “You don’t have the power to upset me” (48), as said by
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In the book, the scene illustrates the power and control Hana has or is trying to gain back in their relationship. The “belt scene” in the movie, however, is Hana slapping Michael after he forces her to kiss her. It seems that every action Hana did in the movie was justified when in the book some actions and scenes including the belt scene seemed unrationed. The director again is trying to express that Hana is not as controlling and manipulative as she is in the book.
Topic 2: Hana’s character
“She had a very strong, feminine body” (15), The body beneath it strong and reliable” (71)
It is apparent in the movie that Hana’s character doesn’t follow Schlink’s description of Hana. Rather than Hana looking like a strong woman with broad shoulders, the audience see’s a gentle, almost fragile type of Hana. The director may be showcasing that they don’t believe that Michael is all truthful in his retelling of the story. This idea is also consistent with the fact that Hana doesn’t show aspects of a “guard” figure, and causes the audience to question whether she really did or wanted to commit the
Michael’s character is carried through the whole book and Walter providers his reader with encounters with Michael when he was just starting to make films. Michael is involved in a scandal in his film, Cleopatra, in which he told a doctor to tell Dee that she had stomach cancer instead of what she actually had inside her, which was a baby. Michael met with one of Dee’s friends to tell him that he asked a doctor to cover up the pregnancy, and he chose stomach cancer “...because the symptoms could match up with those of early pregnancy” (140). In these first encounters the reader gets to see Michael's original attitude and goals in life. His main goal is to make money. He doesn’t seem to care much for people and relationships as we see in his actions toward Dee and his wife, “He spots Wife No. 4 through the open kitchen door, in yoga pants and tight T-shirt. He gets the full protuberant effect of his recent investments in her, the top-of-the-line viscous silicone gel sacs implanted in her retromammary cavities, for minimal capsular contracture and scarring” (90). Michael Deane is clearing only looking for his own gain, treating both Dee’s and Wife No. 4’s body’s as his
Her dramatic tone gives the reader a sense of acceptance in the face of societal norms and she describes such non-conformity in a poetic fashion. Her main rhetorical appeal in this story is pathos. As a result of such descriptive language and emotional attachment to the character she’s observing, her writing style is more effective as a result. In particular, when describing Michael, the narrator makes note of several things about him. The colors of his clothing and his overall demeanor are listed in the following:
Another significant relationship in the novel that helps shape our understanding of the idea of changing perspectives is Josie's relationship with her father, Michael Andretti. Before Josephine had met Michael, she resented him, she saw him as the man who abandoned her mother when she needed him most. The feeling was mutual. In chapter 6; Michael's first encounter with Christina, he says to her "I do not want to see her. I do not want to love her. I do not want a complication in my life, I don’t want this in my life". Marchetta deliberately uses repetition of the words 'I do not want,’ to dramatise Michael's evident disinterest in Josie.
Michael knew that there were people out there who would kill him for standing on that stage dressed as a woman, but it did not matter, he had the self-respect to continue forward. He took the stage and revealed himself to his peers and once they showed their acceptance of him, “his face blossomed/open” (32-33). Michael did what he wanted to do no matter what other people thought of him. Caving into the mold that society places us in is the easy route, Michael chose to make his own path by revealing his true self, showing crazy
4.The purpose of this writing is to make the reader understand the circumstances she, and her kids are going through, she says,” His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan -- they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to.” so they had a plan just incase if michael goes out of control his siblings are safe and his mother takes the risk of protecting the kids from michael. 5.One of the imagery used in this writing is,”He bit me several times and repeatedly jabbed his elbows into my rib cage. ”this show the circumstance she went through just to take him to the hospital and give him to the hospital. 6.The audience in my perspective are the people who have something to do with people with a mental disorder like how she says in the passage,”
Following Hanna’s death, Michael acknowledges his complicated past with Hanna free of judgment while describing the process of writing his and Hanna’s story: “I’ve made peace with [our story]... What a sad story, I thought for so long. Not that I now think it was happy. But I think it is true.” (217) Michael is finally able to objectively gaze back at his past without having the shame and guilt of having loved Hanna torment him.
She pulled it shut behind her as the car began to move. “You’re okay. We’re okay.”” She was completely off duty, and risked her safety to save a girl that she just barely knew. This shows Hwa’s great internal instinct to protect people. Sometimes in society, people of power and who protect people are feared or disliked, one example is the police, who many people are scared of and may feel targeted by. Throughout the novel, it seems people primarily interact with Hwa to take advantage of her martial arts and protective abilities, and otherwise stay away from her. This feeling that people only use Hwa can add to the feeling of being isolated from others. Hwa’s selflessness is also shown when several of her close friends die, including Calliope on page 104 and Layne on page 175. Hwa feels extremely guilty about them and tries endlessly to find out exactly what happened to them and why they died, even though she is completely not responsible to do so. She devotes much of her time to solving these deaths, in which she receives no help and draws herself away from others, adding to her feeling of loneliness and isolation.
The difference between the book and the movie is that the movie have less Melinda’s thoughts than in the book. And at the end of the book she had talked to Mr. Freeman about her being raped. But in the movie she tells her mother instead. When in the book, Andy Evans was trying to rape her again but in the movie he physically assaulted her but in the book Melinda hears about Rachel and Andy’s breakup inside the book at prom but in the movie Rachel breaks up with andy outside of his car. The movie was taking place in the Midwest.
Among the items she had gotten was a suitcase that belonged to Hana Brady. Fukimo was determined to find out more about the suitcase and its origin. In the process, she got a hold of Hana’s paintings. As time passed, Fukimo traveled to a museum and inquired about Hana. While doing so, she came across a name with Hana’s last name, Brady.
In his novel, The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje details the lives of several individuals living in Italy during World War II. The novel is centered around a villa where Hana cares for the English patient, but their lives are forever altered by their respective traumas from the war. While living at the villa, Hana meets Kip, a sapper who finds her makeshift home while searching for bombs to defuse. As the novel progresses, Hana and Kip develop a romantic relationship, but it eventually disintegrates because they are too damaged from their traumas to form a meaningful connection. During the war, Hana worked as a nurse and Kip volunteered as a sapper, and these jobs were so traumatic that their mental and emotional states are unable to recover.
character conflict. The day began with good intentions to spend the whole day together, but was soon interrupted by Michael's unrelenting wandering eyes…so much so that Frances could no longer stand it. "[L]ook out," Frances said, as they crossed Eighth Street, "[Y]ou'll break your neck" (Shaw, 1939). This use of hyperbole was her way of letting Michael know that he was caught. Frances almost brushed it off like she always did in the past, and Michael laughed it off jokingly, but rather soon enough the rising action in the narrative is built up with the growing tension between the two characters. It is almost unexpected when she sarcastically says, "[L]et me arrange a program, a planned Sunday in New York for a young couple with money to throw away… I want to go out with my husband all day long. I want him to talk only to me and listen only to me" (Shaw, 1939). It seemed like she was pleading for his undivided attention, as if they had never bonded or had time-alone before. She even wanted to decline the invitation by the Stevenson's and instead go to see her husband's favorite football team play in a game. Just as they were making new plans for the day, there was yet another distraction by another woman that took away her husband's un-divided attention from her. The climax was reached at this point when Michael finally admitted and confessed to Frances how much he liked women and
On the trip there Leah Anne stopped the car to get a eye-to-eye conversation showing that she takes great care in finding out Michaels past and how she can help him for the better. One night Leah Anne asked a simple question to Michael, if he wanted to stay? Michael responded " I don't like anywhere else" and sure enough she turned the guest room into a comfortable place for Michael with a bed, that he had never had before.
When Michael steps into a role of a woman, you can definitely notice that there’s a big treatment difference compare to when he was a man. The men in the film completely took over in almost everything in life. In relationships, the men would not tell the women the truth even if it means that they’re mistreating them, and considered them like item compare to as human beings with feelings and emotions. Just like when Dorothy (Michael) got the character and not her girlfriend, Sandy, he did not tell Sandy about it. Also, when a lady would try to talk, the men would ignore her or would simply just interrupt them. When Dorothy Michaels was trying to ask the director for questions, he simply ignored her and was she was not taken care of. When all
r hand, Frank pities Michael’s childishness, this is demonstrated through the comparison of age between Frank and his brother, because Frank sees through the lie that his mother told Michael, he knows that the promise of fish
At first, she would like Michael to be honest in their relationship but then when he is, she doesn't want to hear the truth anymore. When he says that he likes looking at other women, he tells her that she "[doesn't] have to listen to [it]" (p.4) however, "[she] wants to" (p.4) listen to the truth. Once he reveals everything to his wife, she is heartbroken and doesn't want to hear "about how pretty [the women are]."(p.5) She wants him to keep everything "to himself" (p.5) because "[she's] not interested."(p.5) Their marriage is unstable.