Michael Guilt Analysis

The primary concern of this novel is the guilt that is spread through generations after WW2 and the holocaust. An important motif is a question of who must be held responsible for acts committed by the older generation throughout the Holocaust. Michael's generation lay blame on not only the Nazi enforcers but also, the bystanders. This includes people in the previous generation who looked the other way, either by accepting Nazi sympathizers and perpetrators back into society after the war or their passivity during the Holocaust. Michael believes that filial love: “made them irrevocably complicit in their crimes.” He feels that love for the older generation as a complicity shows the long-lasting role of guilt in a nation’s history. For Michael,

Guilt creates inner conflict as well as conflict within relationships and across generations which is seen as destructive. An example of guilt’s destructive capability is the damage that Michael’s guilt over Hanna inflicts on him. Michael’s resulting decision is to “never to take guilt upon myself or feel guilty, never again to love anyone whom it would hurt to lose” which makes him hard-hearted, sabotaging his relationships with others. Even though guilt can be destructive it also encourages people to take responsibility for their actions, to recognize their mistakes and wrongdoings, and to avoid them in the future. For example, the collective guilt that Michael’s generation inherits from the Holocaust emboldens them to accept their parent generations mistakes, know not to follow in their footsteps and condemn Nazi war

Soon after, Michael decides to write their story “to be free of it” but finds that he is not capable of conjuring the right memories. Only after Michael “made peace with it” do the details of their relationship resurfaces. Michael notes that this story is so ingrained into his life that new feelings of pain and guilt easily allow his old pain and guilt to re-emerge, and he admits that he may never be free of it. Never the less he finds he is only able to write about their story when he leaves the memories alone, rather than forcing them to the surface. The narrator closes by saying that he donated Hanna’s money to the Jewish League Against Illiteracy. Michael’s choice of donation is a form of active hope, an attempt to use the tragedies of the past to avoid future tragedies and to combat ignorance, indifference, and evil in all its varied forms. Thus, the book we are reading is, perhaps, a kind of therapeutic exercise for Michael, an acknowledgement of the truth of his past and his complicated connection with