“The Reader is a story about the ways in which our subjectivity imprisons us”. Discuss this statement with reference to the text.

The subjectivity of Michael during The Reader cuts him off from reality and the rest of the world. Early influences in Michael’s journey affect the way he acts and reacts to any given situation. His perception of the world in later life is altered by the relationships that he has with his family and Hanna. Through the actions of constantly asking questions of himself and the world, feeling guilt for and from his relationship with Hanna and suppressing what happened to him as a teenager from others, he imprisons himself from the world.
Michael’s relationship with Hanna changes his subjectivity towards other relationships with other women. In the relationship with Hanna there was always a sense of needing to possess each other (The Reader pg 31). There was a sense of power in being the dominant person in the relationship. So when his later relationships were different, he had trouble adjusting. He says in page 171 that he could not stop comparing the way it was with Gertrud...