Effi Briest and The Reader - A comparison - Book Report/Review Example

Task WORLD LITERATURE Similarities The main characters have some problems at the beginning. Michael is fighting with hepatitis while Effi is married off to a man twice her age. In both novels, the main characters are divorced and have daughters. The problems that the main characters have are marriage issues with their spouses, Michael with his wife and Effi with Innstetten. ‘The reader’ and ‘Effie Bries’ are similar because they both talk about two teenagers who rush to become adults and make grave mistakes on the way.

Michael from the book ‘The Reader’ engages in sexual behavior with an old woman who he later realizes has a bad character. Effie on the other hand marries at a very young age. When she does not get the attention she wants, she has sexual intercourse with the friend of her husband.The definition of love is similar in both the two books. In ‘Effie Bries’ the author points out, “…Love must come first like thunder and lightning.” This means that it is unpredictable and unplanned (Fontane, 103).

This is the same explanation of love in ‘The Reader’ as Michael fell in love with an old woman at a very young age of fifteen.Both novels have courts mentioned. There are deaths at the end of every novel. In ‘the reader’, Hanna commits suicide while in Effie Briest Effie passes away.DifferencesThe main character in the novel ‘the reader’ is a male known as Michael Berg. He is a 15-year-old German boy who later becomes a researcher in legal history. In the novel Effi Briest, the main character is a female known as Effi Briest who as a 17 year old, who is married off to a man twice her age and later passes on (Schlink, Pp 175).

In the novel ‘the reader’, there is no jealousy in matters of love; there is only love and affection between Michael and Hanna. In the novel ‘Effi Briest’, there is jealousy and envy that leads to the murder of Crampas by Innstetten.The main character of the novel ‘The reader’ does not die. His companion Hanna is the one that dies by committing suicide while in ‘Effi Briest’, the main character Effi Briest dies. The law determines the ending of the novel in that the companion of the main character is sentenced to life imprisonment.

This marks the end of her relationship with the main character. In ‘Effi Briest’, the society influences the outcomes at the end of the novel where the morals of the society and the social constructs lead to the tragedy that is the death of Effi.In the novel ‘the reader’, the main character has an assignment to give all her money to the survivor of the church fire. In the novel ‘Effi Briest’, the main character has a summon for her mother which she has to give to her husband.Works CitedFontane, Theodor.

Effi Briest. New York: GRIN Verlag. 2009. Pp. 534.Schlink, Bernhard. The Reader. Phoenix. Nov 1, 2009. Pp. 240