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Michael Holtzapfel's Death Of A Soldier

Decent Essays

This flashback is where death takes us to when Hans was a soldier in World War l, where he dodged him for the first, but certainly not the last, time. I think Death realized that there was a reason why he had managed to avoid him more than once, maybe because he was important to Liesel and that’s why he wasn’t taken away even before he knew about her and vice versa. I definitely didn’t expect that his life was going to be effected by the wars as much as they did, especially since it was so absurd. He wasn’t a great soldier, he was mediocre. But, being mediocre hadn’t been a bad thing for him. After all, he did escape death by being mediocre. The author hadn’t spent a whole lot of time outside of what had been happening in Liesel’s life, but then we get a piece of Hans’ past. …show more content…

He’s very lucky that he had “small” injuries compared to his brother. But, alas, he believes that there was no reason his brother died, he feels an overwhelming sense of guilt for wanting to live while his brother is watching him from above. He feels it’s inappropriate to want to live because if his brother’s tragic death. His want to live is what caused him to go to the shelter and leave his mom behind, who wouldn’t move from the table and put everyone who tried to help in danger. He was swarming with guilt not only after his mom came down to the shelter, but even before that. He begged her for forgiveness, but not for what she thought it was for. It was also forgiveness for wanting to live after the tragedy in their family. Guilt is an emotion you want to get away from, but can never manage to escape

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