Reaction to The Reader :: Reader

Reaction to The Reader In part II, chapter eight of Bernhard Schlink's The Reader, the first-person narrator Michael describes reading the account written by a concentration camp who had survived along with her mother, the soul survivors in a large group of women who were being marched away from the camp. He says, "the book...creates distance. It does not invite one to identify with it and makes no one sympathetic..." The same could be said of The Reader. The book is written in such a way as to distance one from the characters. It prevents people from sympathizing with Hanna or Michael or anyone else, taking a sort of detached viewpoint from their problems. This can be paralleled to the efforts of the German people towards Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or "coping with the past." In coping with Germany's Nazi history, the Germans attempted to distance themselves from it and the moral implications it presented. They tried to understand it without involving themselves in it, since involving them selves could implicate them. The one person in the book who cannot distance herself, Hanna, is still unsympathetic because everyone else distances themselves from her, making it impossible to sympathize with any aspect of her plight. Hanna is symbolic of German history in this respect. As the narrator, Michael is particularly hard to sympathize with. The way he guides the story eschews emotional attachment. He himself feels detached from almost everything: "....I felt nothing: my feelings were numbed." His detachment transfers to the readers. None of his traits, or any of the situations he comes up against, makes one feel particularly sorry for him. Nothing makes one want to understand what he's going through or where he's coming from. He is simply there, dictating the story, telling us about his feelings without us getting involved. Further alienating is his tendency to fall into tangents which don't relate to the main narrative. These tangents are even harder to muster interest in than the true point of the book and don't serve any discernible purpose, in the end causing us to separate even further from the story. Michael's feelings of numbness and alienation--and, subsequently, the feelings of numbess and alienation that are produced in the book's audience--reflect the attempts made by the German people to distance themselves from the spectres of the Nazi past.

Macbeth vs the Godfather Essay

The change from good to evil can happen to anyone. It can happen to the best of people, just like Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Copalla’s the Godfather. In these two completely different stories, the protagonists Macbeth and Michael Corleone, start off good and transition into evil and gain too much power for them to handle. Changing isn’t a choice for either of them and evil just presented itself upon them. In both the Godfather and Macbeth, the change of the protagonist from good to evil is in complete plain sight; however, the protagonists themselves do not see or sense the change. In the Godfather, the protagonist Michael Corleone changes rapidly from god to evil without even a bit of realization what he is getting himself into, some may say that he is the new godfather. As soon as the original godfather (Michael’s dad) was put into the hospital, Michael didn’t even know until days later, he had to find out through a newspaper, this shows how uninvolved Michael is with his family. When he goes to visit the family, he takes over immediately. As soon as he takes over he already is planning to kill someone and he has never killed anyone before, by the end of the movie, he is already lying to his wife about him not killing someone because he has now been transferred into a true Corleone and made his transition from good to evil. In Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth eases into his transition from good to evil a little more smoothly and a little more hesitant. Macbeth debates killing Duncan because he is his follower, when he is talking about it with his wife Lady Macbeth she calls him a coward for not helps frame some of the innocent drunks from the night before, when she says â€Å"a little water will clear us of this deed.† She is saying the water will wash away their guilt and consciences. When Macbeth becomes king he gains too much power and has too much self-confidence because the witches have told him â€Å"Macbeth cannot be killed by anyone born of woman.† He now has way too much power and becomes mad with it, the thought of killing Duncan has made Lady Macbeth crazy. The comparison between Macbeth and Michael Corleone is a strangely different but similar situation because they have both started out good with no evil thoughts or intentions at all, and then throughout each of the stories, Macbeth and Michael Corleone both become evil without realizing the power that the each of them have, they have both transitioned in completely different ways but they ended up in the same ending situation.

Critique of a Commercial Air Conditioning System Sales Speech

This essay is a critique of a recent commercial air conditioning system sales presentation. These commercial systems are manufactured by a Japanese company and are sold in the United States directly to building owners. Consulting engineering firms are also targeted by this HVAC manufacturer because these firms must specify the system to be used in their new building construction projects and because the engineers within the consulting firm usually have some sway and influence on the building owner. This sales presentation was conducted by a Regional Sales Manager for the HVAC manufacturing company. His name is Dennis and he is a mechanical engineer by education who has spent his fifteen year career in outside sales. Dennis’s audience consisted of a dozen consulting engineers who have the ability to specify and help promote these expensive, high-quality HVAC systems to commercial building owners. Dennis and his company chose a very nice, spacious, well-lit conference room within a Marriott hotel to conduct this sales presentation. This two-hour presentation was a prelude to a day-long presentation that would follow later. It began at 10 a. m. nd was followed by a lunch for the attendees at noon. Dennis used two large projection screens; one was for a PowerPoint presentation and the other was for a laptop computer display that demonstrated a software design program for the company’s HVAC systems. Dennis had his room and supporting materials ready by 9:30 a. m. in case some members of his audience arrived early. Dennis was dressed in crisp slacks, dress shoes and a p olo-type golf shirt that had his company’s logo on it. His audience of consulting engineers was mostly conservatively dressed. A couple of them wore golf shirts, but the others had dress shirts with ties or dress shirts with blazers. Based on his known audience of consulting engineers, Dennis should have dressed more formally and conservatively. He began his presentation as all good presenters do, with an attention-getting device or anecdote. He told a short story about his earlier days in minor league baseball. He pitched, and could reach 90 miles per hour with his fastball. But, his fastball lacked movement and he had no other pitches that he could throw consistently for strikes. To keep their attention, Dennis said he would pitch golf balls to audience members throughout the presentation. Dennis is a middle-aged, stocky, well-groomed sales professional with good posture and good enunciation. He varies his tone, cadence and vocal volume to good effect. He regularly moves around his stage area and sometimes walks among his audience, and he uses hand gestures and varied facial expressions frequently to hold his audience’s attention. A southerner, his speech is grammatically correct and nicely formal. He has a booming voice, and uses it every once in a while when he senses a lull or when he wants to enthusiastically make a point. Apart from saying the phrase, â€Å"you know,† every once in a while, his presence and content are professional and non-distracting. Dennis’s presentation was interesting and informative for his audience of engineers because his company manufactures an expensive, state-of-the-art system that is capable of simultaneous heating and cooling. The audience’s interest was confirmed because they asked many pertinent questions. Dennis used his dual screens and handout materials to make and reinforce his product’s attributes and advantages versus their competition. The engineers even worked on their laptops to get a brief feel for the software program, but were firmly told to close their laptops after trying the design program. Open laptops throughout the presentation would have been very tempting and distracting for the engineers, and Dennis did not allow it. And, as every fine speaker does, Dennis ended his presentation with a dramatic, memorable closing summary and statement of his product’s virtues and his company’s commitment to quality.