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with her during the trial? I felt the tears again in my chest and throat. p. 206
Understanding the quotation above, it can be perceived that Hanna faces
some inconveniences even for subscribing the local paper and to get a copy of it. Here the social environment might not be a secure place for an illiterate person
like Hanna. This condition becomes worse for Hanna never lets her illiteracy known by people.
In the end of the story, Hanna‘s committing suicide as her final decision of her life reveals the insecure feeling she has in her lifetime.
f. Secretive
Someone who is secretive likes to keep his thoughts hidden from others. By
inspecting through Hanna‘s mannerism and through Michael‘s view, it can be discovered that Hanna is secretive. Hanna‘s first introduction to Michael could
show the mysterious side of her. Hanna does not let Michael know her deeper as it has been discussed
earlier in her introvert character; it is seen in Michael‘s exposition below,
She told me all this as if it were not her life but somebody else‘s, someone she didn‘t know well and who wasn‘t important to her p. 39
Michael only knows a little about Hann
a‘s past. When she was with him she is not really open as well. In this novel, she is never seen talking to Michael or
anybody else about her plans and about how her future might be. It cannot be denied either that Hanna is good at hiding her illiteracy until Michael finds out by
himself how Hanna actually is. This can be seen in the fighting they have in
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Amorbach. After hitting Michael, Hanna bursts into tears. Michael wonders what makes her get really mad that eventually she shows her tears as they continue the
conversation. ―What was the matter? Why did you get so angry?‖ We were lying side by
side, so satiated and content that I thought everything would be cleared up now.
―What was the matter? What was the matter—you always ask such silly questions. You
can‘t just leave like that.‖ ―But I left you a note...‖
―Note?‖ I sat up. The note was no longer on the night table where I had left it. I got
to my feet, and searched next to the night table, and underneath, and under the bed, and in it. I couldnt fin
d it. ―I dont understand. I wrote you a note saying I was going to get breakfast and Id be right back.‖
―You did? I dont see any note.‖ ―You dont believe me?‖
―Id love to believe you. But I dont see any note‖ p. 56. As stated above, Hanna tends to conceal her inability to read and write by
hiding, or throwing away the note. She looks for any reasons to defend her own self.
In his trip alone on a Sunday among the trial days, Michael thinks about Hanna‘s illiteracy and recalls about the past.
That was why she had had people read to her. That was why she had let me do all the writing and reading on our bicycle trip and why she had lost
control that morning in the hotel when she found my note, realized I would assume she knew what it said, and was afraid shed be exposed. That was
why she had avoided being promoted by the streetcar company; as a conductor she could conceal her weakness, but it would have become
obvious when she was being trained to become a driver. That was also why she had refused the promotion at Siemens and become a guard. That
was why she had admitted to writing the report in order to escape a confrontation with an expert. p. 132.
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It takes a long time for Michael to know the truth in Hanna. She has always
been insincere and not genuine. She keeps her secret, her reasons of everything even until her death.
g. Antisocial
