Part I (Ch. 1 - Ch. 17); Memory

In Part I, memory is an essential element of "The Reader." From the very beginning of the novel, Michael is using his memory to retell his past, everything we're being told is as accurate as his memory can recall. He's always listing everything he observes in his surroundings and going into detail on how he felt in every memory. As the novel progresses in Part I, he also delves into abstract and highly analytic psychology ideas. Despite how naive and oblivious Michael seems, he's actually alert to his experiences and manages to formulate very intriguing opinions on memory and his behavior.

"Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths? Why does the memory of years of happy marriage turn to gall when our partner is revealed to have had a lover all those years?.....Sometimes the memory of happiness cannot stay true because it ended unhappily." (page 37)

When I read this passage, it definitely told me in hindsight that something terrible will come afterwards and it's like he's warning us beforehand that this happiness that he describes in the beginning of the relationship will not last. However, he's trying to preserve these happy memories and remember them as how he actually experienced rather than have the future "shattering" memories impact the happy memories....but that's really hard to do because our memories are also influenced by what we have experienced AFTER that particular memory occurred.

"I have stored them away, I can project them on a mental screen and watch them, unchanged, unconsumed. There are long periods when I don't think about them at all. But they always come back into my head, and then I sometimes have to run them repeatedly through my mental projector and watch them."

Five different memories of Hanna that he claims he will remember forever:

1. Hanna putting on her stockings in the kitchen
2. Hanna standing in front of the tub holding the towel in her outstretched arms
3. Hanna riding her bike with her skirt blowing
4. Hanna in Michael's father's study
5. Hanna receiving the silk nightgown and admiring it

"To solve the riddle, I made myself remember the whole encounter, and then the distance I had created by turning it into a riddle dissolved, and I saw it all again, and again I couldn't take my eyes off her." (page 16)

The previous passage also reminded me of a passage that is found in the first several chapters of the book. He regarded his early memories of Hanna as a riddle and he "projects" the memories in order to relive the moments and then he remembers the reason for his attraction for Hanna. Therefore without his sharp sense of memory, his relationship and his attraction to Hanna wouldn't be the same.

"I have no memory of the lies I told my parents about the trip with Hanna......I can't recall where my parents and my older brother and sister were going." (page 59)

"I no longer remembered when I first denied Hanna." (page 74)

I've also noticed that in Part I, he also mentions frequently that he doesn't remember the lies he told his parents or the his "betrayal" of Hanna. It would obviously makes sense because you generally want to remember things that make you feel happy, special, complete, and whatnot but you'd want to forget or repress all the memories that made you feel guilty or things you've regret. Memory plays a very interesting role in "The Reader" and it acts as like the pillar of the narrative of the novel.

Sources:
http://elaboyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ela_boyd_perception_projection.jpg
http://bearglassblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/broken_glass.jpg
http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma84gkxD8J1qlq9poo1_400.jpg
http://31.media.tumblr.com/444ea024d2584ceafd236d25a7fb09ca/tumblr_mfr3muWfGs1qfrrv2o1_400.png