CONTENTS  
Acknowledgments   3
Abstract   4
摘要   5
 1 Introduction   1
11 Bernhard Schlink and the Reader  1
12 Relevant Reserch 1
13 Methodology   2 
2 Analysis of Main Characters   3
21 Michael Berg   3
22 Hannah Schmitz   4
   3 Metaphorical Meaning of "reading"   6
31 Banality of Evil before reading   6
32 Self-salvation in reading  8
33 Enlightenment and Reflection after reading  8
 4 Significance of the Reader   10
 5 Conclusion 11
 Bibliography   12
 1 Introduction   In 6 July 1944, Bernhard Schlink was born in Bethel, Germany. Bernhard Schlink was brought up in Heidelberg when he was young. Later, he studied law at the university in Heidelberg and Berlin. Schlink became a judge at the Constitutional Court of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1988 and in 1992 a professor for public law and the philosophy of law at  Humboldt University.He is both jurist and writer. He has some considerable contribution in Detective story. One of his works, Die gordische Schleife, won the Glauser Prize (de) in 1989. In 1995 he published The Reader (Der Vorleser), a novel about a teenager who has an affair with a woman in her thirties who suddenly vanishes but whom he meets again as a law student when visiting a trial about war crimes. The book became a bestseller both in Germany and the United States and was translated into 39 languages. The  English  version translated by  Carol Brown Janeway  was published in 1997.It was the first Germany  book to reach the number one position in the  New York Times bestseller list. In 1997 it won the Hans Fallada Prize, a German literary award, and the Prix Laure Bataillon  for works translated into French. In 1999 it was awarded the Welt-Literaturpreis of the newspaper Die Welt.In 2008, Der Vorleser  has been adopted into a German-American  romantic drama film.  The movie, also named  The Reader, has won Golden Globe Awards  and Academy Awards. 
After  being  translated into Chinese  in 2000, the novel  became  popular in China.  The domestic research on it can be pided into two categories, the research on the theme and the research on the form. In the German academic community, Feng Yalin and Yin Zhi Hong two scholars published articles to interpret the novel. Feng Yalin (2002) discusses the historical significance of "the reader" and the narrative strategy. And Yin Zhi Hong interprets cultural democratic consciousness created by Bernhard Schlink. In addition, her paper compares the reflection of the history of the Nazis with the Chinese scholars'  reflection on the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, which has  unique perspective  and  considerable academic value. Based on the  previous research,  this paper will interpret the metaphorical meaning of the reader, so as to further explore history view and cultural idea expressed by Bernhard Schlink.  The purpose of this paper  is to highlight metaphorical role of the Reader. From the unique poetic perspective, this paper will discuss  the metaphorical  relationship  between  "reading" and "enlightenment".   
As explained in the  the Narratology of the novel written by Xudai, metaphor is not only a kind of rhetoric method, because of its vivid,  novelty, euphemism,  polysemy, it is often used as a mechanism to establish contact with the characteristics of different things. It seeks some similarities between the two different things, and use specific to interpret abstract, simple to interpret complex. Therefore, the broad sense of metaphor is not just a linguistic phenomenon, but a cognitive phenomenon. It is a way of thinking for people to understand things and to establish a system of concepts.  This paper will explore metaphorical meaning of the reader in three parts. The first part is in Nazi concentration camps. Hannah depends on unauthorized right, picks out young and weak girls from the Jewish women, and makes them read for her. In addition, she lets them be able to eat well and avoid physical suffering. So reading is the only light in the "death factory" and the faint light of the human nature. The second part is in the acquaintance of Michael and Hannah. Michael brings the fun of life to Hannah. Reading is the start of the communication of the two hearts and plays an important role when sex rises to love. For Hannah, the reading is also a kind of self-salvation. The third part is in the prison. From Michael’s narration, Hannah musters up her courage to literacy and learns  to think, which symbolizes she has taken an important step from ignorance to mature and rationality, and this also means her thoughts get enlightenment.  After the exploration of metaphorical meaning of the reader in three parts, this paper will continue to explore the enlightenment meaning of the reader to the German nation. Bernhard Schlink are also involved in the reflection of the history of the Third Reich, in constant questioning, eventually  the mission of reflection will fall in the whole nation.   隐喻视角下的《朗读者》的主题研究(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_41051.html