The swimming pool as a significant place in "The Reader" -- Jessica

The swimming pool is mentioned quite a few times throughout the novel “The Reader” by Bernhard Schlink. The swimming pool is Michael’s personal space, away from Hanna and away from their relationship. Michael usually spends his time at the swimming pool with school friends “gossiping and flirting” and it is not really a place where Hanna is welcomed.

In the extract on page 79 however, Hanna chooses to cross the boundary into Michael’s personal space, this signifying her attempt at making a more personal connection in the relationship. The relationship between these two characters is purely lustful, and it lacks the emotional connection of a mature relationship. When Hanna chooses to enter the swimming pool area, she is not only over stepping the boundary in the sense of being in Michael’s space but in their relationship as well. The fact that Hanna is wearing an “open blouse knotted at the waist” shows how Michael’s thoughts on Hanna are based on the physical aspects, however when in his own space Michael questions these. The fact that he “didn’t jump to [his] feet and run to her” shows how when at the swimming pool he is able to take control of his feelings and distinguish between love and lust. The distance between Michael and Hanna at the pool also represents the distance and strain in their relationship at the time, as it later results in being the last time they see each other before the trial many years later. Michael hesitates when he first spots Hanna at the pool, he begins questioning both his own motives and those of Hanna as well, “did she want to be seen with me, did I want to be seen with her”, with questions such as these running through his mind, the reader is aware that Michael had never really thought about the type of relationship he had with Hanna, the fact that he questioned whether he wanted to be seen with her shows how he is doubting their relationship, perhaps caused by the large difference in age between the two characters. In my opinion Schlink uses the swimming pool to highlight the age difference between Michael and Hanna as one of the key difficulties in their relationship.