The Reader
February 9th 2009 03:16 pm
My husband and I saw The Reader this past weekend, and I cannot stop thinking about the film. Set in post-WWII Germany, a law student named Michael begins to re-evaluate his past when he sees his much older former lover Hanna (perfectly portrayed by Kate Winslet) defending herself in a war-crime trial. Many issues arise throughout the film: the Holocaust, statutory rape, young love, and later—betrayal when Michael discovers the truth about Hanna’s past.
It would be easy to classify The Reader as just another war film or even an ad for literacy, but as I ruminated over its theme, I realized that it’s not that simple. The film reminds us that someone, usually the person you would least expect, can have a profound impact on our lives. As we walk toward the future, we carry our pasts with us, but usually our memories are buried in our minds, not visible for others to see. However, when those pieces of personal history pop into our present lives—reminding us of who we were then and who we are now—emotions cyclone like a tornado causing us to relive the joys, sorrows, fears, pains, and regrets that we never thought would surface again.
This epidemic of our pasts haunting us has become more prevalent due to online social networks like Facebook and MySpace, which reconnect us with childhood friends, high school pals, college roommates, and previous lovers. We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to be our history’s “friend”? And if we do, why and what does that mean exactly? Are we recapturing our youth? Reliving fond memories? Reflecting on what we did or didn’t do?
Relationships end for a reason, but the Internet has guaranteed that if we desire, we can perpetuate our past connections well into our future. The question then becomes—should we?
AWW — XoXo
P.S. A self-proclaimed overly nostalgic, sentimental person, I am a huge fan of Facebook.
