Straasiland Analysis

From around the 1930s to almost 1990, Germany experienced several rough patches in its history. First, the Nazis took power under Hitler, killing and murdering innocent people. Then, the Stasis gained power due to the addition of the Berlin Wall (which separated East Germany from West Germany) and their job was to watch and stalk innocent people. In The Reader, Bernhard Schlink accurately portrays the Nazi regime through a love story between a young German boy and an older German woman (who happened to be Nazi). Stasiland by Anna Funder describes the time period in which Germany was split through her stories from ex-Stasis, as well as stories of those who were victimized by the Stasis. Many similarities exist between these two time periods in German history, as well as between the stories in The Reader and Stasiland.
For example, both stories mention suicide. In The Reader, it was Hanna (the Nazi) who “hanged herself at daybreak” after spending almost 20 years in prison (Schlink 203). This left Michael (the young German boy) confused and helpless, as she gave him no explanation before doing this to herself. Similarly, in Stasiland East German citizen Miriam loses her husband, Charlie after he is arrested and apparently commits suicide, as she is told by the district attorney. She too is skeptical of his death “because if it was suicide, she was abandoned” (Funder 45). Another similarity in the books comes from the nature of the relationships mentioned. In The Reader, Michael was 15 when his relationship with Hanna, who was 36, started. In Stasiland, Julia, who is Anna’s (the author and storyteller) neighbor had an Italian boyfriend who was 30 when she was only 16. In German culture, these kinds of relationships are less uncommon than they are in America. The events and characters of both books have similar