The Boundaries Of Compassion By Bernhard Schlink - 2415 Words

‘Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.’ - Primo Levi Compassion- emotion one feels in response to suffering of others that motivates a desire to help, based on cerebral notions such as fairness, justice and interdependence. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink tests the boundaries of compassion by tackling the question of German guilt. The story follows Michal Berg and his life-long struggle between condemning and understanding a Nazi guard he passionately fell in love with as a young boy. Through Michael and Hanna’s lives, Schlink unravels the other side of the Holocaust- experience of the perpetrators and their loved ones. As we devaur shades deeper into their characters, we come to see them both as victims of their circumstance, two people caught on opposite sides of regime clash, where misunderstanding runs as deep as their guilt and shame. Through abundance of symbolism and brisk writing style, Schlink takes us all the way back to beginnings, questioning the meaning of individual agency, impact of law on morality, and transitiona l accountability. Through love and loss, conscious and unconscious pain, compassion and condemnation, The Reader humanizes the perpetrators of the Holocaust and contests us to understand. Understanding the crimes of the past, rather than condemning them, we achieve liberation from chains of the dead and restore