According to Hannah’s attitude, behavior, and facial expression on the movie, I can assume that if a person is illiterate, he/she will have a lot of difficulties and limitations that he/she makes or a society makes. I think that one of the reasons she fell in love with Michael could be her loneliness and she must have had yearning towards people. When Michael suggested her reading a book, she said “I rather listen to you.” and when they went on a trip, she could not read the map and order food. She looked very nervous and diffident, had a worried look. Of course, she was ashamed of herself being an illiterate and did not want her loved one, Michael, to know that.
On the other hand, at her trial, all the other defendants claimed that Hannah wrote the report and the judge asked her to write a sample of her handwriting to compare with the handwriting on the report. She was seized with a panic and finally confessed that she wrote the report, in fact, she did not write it because she cannot read and write. She decided to be sentenced for the rest of her life time since the fact that she is an illiterate is more shameful than she becomes a murderer. As being shown on the movie, Hannah’s only one request is that Michael read aloud books to her both before and after sex. It is clear that she always wished to read, but she could not.
In my opinion, for sure, she must have held herself in contempt and felt humiliating on her mind in the court when she had to make an untrue confession. However, Hannah’s significant momentum of learning how to read and write is because of the tapes that Michael has sent. Those tapes must have stimulated her to learn to read and write and, in fact, she begun sending him letters.
She could speak and understand the spoken English, but she could not read and write. Therefore, she learned to read and write by listening to the recorded tapes of literature. Her learning process of reading and writing English are as follows:
First of all, when she received a lot of tapes which Michael had recorded his voice while reading the books, she started to keep listening to the tapes with tears because she was overwhelmed with love and gratitude. After that, she borrowed the book titled ‘The Lady with a Little Dog’ and opened the book at the first page and played the tape and counted each word of the title. And then, she figured out that the pronunciation of the word ‘the’ by comparing the written word ‘the’ and the sound of ‘the’ from the tape recording by matching the sounds with the words. She circled all ‘the’ on the first page and pronounced it. In other words, there was sound-spelling correspondence during her learning process. Finally, she sent the first letter written “Thanks for the latest kid. I really liked it” and she is able to write her name instead of her sign on the paper. Also, she wrote and sent letters to Michael: “Please send more romance”, “I think Schiller needs a woman.” and “Are you getting my letter?” although Michael never replied. This movie is based on an incredible story and gives lots of thoughts to people studying languages in particular as well as the public.
=> Good analysis. I highlighted some points about which I strongly agree with you. So, my question, 'What do you think? What can you do for your students in your ESL/EFL class?' Thank you for the review.
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