Omniscience Of Power In The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

These behaviors impact the way many view Germany during this time period. The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, also takes place during this time. It focuses on a girl named Liesel, her family, her friend Rudy, a Jew named Max, and Death. The author personifies Death as the narrator of Liesel’s story, living in Nazi Germany during WWII.

In the beginning of The Book Thief Death says that he is the person going to be narrating the story. Death also says that we as the readers are going to die. Death takes the soul of Liesel’s little brother, “A six-year-old boy died in the third carriage.” (Page 20) I predict that as Death tells the story of Liesel Meminger he is going to take other peoples lives that are close with Liesel along with her life. I also predict that Death give meaning to as story that people might not have read in the first place. Death might give this story a light of its own with his descriptions.

The Book Thief is narrated by the personification of death, a witty and humorous fellow who takes an interest in the life of a young Liesel Meminger. In the beginning death gives the reader a small wakeup call "Here is a small fact, you are going to die" (Zusack 3). Before saying anything more than a metaphor with colors, death says something that everyone knows and quite avidly avoids. The fact that everyone dies is quite relevant in the book, it serves as one of many examples of forshadowing that are spread through the book. True to his words, just about everyone does die in the end, with Liesel, Max and Mr.Stiener being the exceptions. " I am not violent. I am no malicious. I am a result" (Zusack 8) death establishes who he is, and what he thinks of himself quite early on. This quote, as well as the one above are both examples of the times in witch death hands out a bit of his own thoughts to the reader. (these thoughts often contain information that is relevant or just

Over the summer I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The novel contains many memorable quotes, with powerful meanings that can be applied to the reader’s life. The novel is the story of Liesel Meminger’s journey through the eyes of the narrator, Death. Liesel has many hardships in her life, but also a lot of good fortune. The novel shows both Liesel and Death’s reactions to each situation she encounters.

He tells the story from his point of view as he takes a special interest in Liesel Meminger, by watching her and reading her stories. Death feels like he has an emotional connection with humans, and therefore dislikes his job of taking souls away. “It kills me sometimes, how people die…He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry” (Zusak, 329). Death feels like his job is a punishment,which makes it difficlult for him because he shouldn’t have a conscience but he does. The way he narrates the novel, makes us feel like he’s trapped inside. As he watched over Liesel, there were obstacles that got in the way. He didn’t have a choice when he had to take the Hubermann’s and Rudy’s life away. At the night of the Nazi book burning, Liesel looked around to see if anyone is watching her steal the book, but all along she did’t know that Death witnessed all her acts of thievery. In The Book Thief, death is an example of an atypical narrative structure whom takes upon himself to watch over an orphan who lost all her loved one’s after the bombings on Himmel street. The way the story was narrated made the novel seem more interesting, and makes us view it in a different

Words, something we blindly hear, listen and feel. Humans do not think twice of the harm or good doing power they possess. In the novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, shows how words can give the characters such robustness during the war. As well as how strong they use their words so they can get out of difficult situations. Adolf Hitler, Max Vandenburg, and Liesel Meminger are characters that hold power throughout the novel in both positive and negative ways.

Death is the narrator. He is fascinated by humans and the colors of the world, but he struggles throughout the novel to figure out how humans are capable of so much ugliness and so much beauty. Death has real feelings,you can see him experience both sadness and joy. He even gets depressed.Death often provides humorous, or dark quotes. having death to narrate the book thief, foreshadows the book. Death is this mean character that kills people. He is sometimes nice and helps.He lists the main elements of the story, and reveals that he has seen the main character, the book thief, three times. The first time he saw her was on a train where he had come to collect the soul of a small boy. The book thief watched him take the boy with tears frozen

Death’s detailing and descriptions of his soul gathering in the war and his human-like emotions further to the conclusion that is Death being or resembling humans. By Death saying “Far away, fires were burning…I had just picked up 200 murdered souls” (Zusak, 478), he discusses and implies his soul gathering and subtle emotions about what it is like to be Death. In Death saying “murdered souls”, Death shows the emotion of compassion towards the Jews being slaughtered in WWII. Death uses his experience as a gateway to express his inner feelings toward the situation with Liesel Meminger. By Death saying “I was on my way to Molching for more [souls]” (Zusak, 478), it effectively shows the connection in which is the third time Liesel and Death are united. This further depicting that Death uses his personal experiences of and with Liesel Meminger and War to express his true colors. In a final attempt to completely share his ideas,

Markus Zusak’s Book Thief chronicles the life of Liesel Meminger and those who crossed her path. Through his use of Death as a narrator, a profound underlying message of the wondrous complexity of the human world is presented, balancing the ever-present forces of evil and good.

The character of Death acts as the narrator in Marcus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, adding another layer to an already poignant novel. Death holds a great interest in the colors of the sky when people die, which helps to create a vast and interesting background for the novel to play out on. These colors help distract Death as he takes the souls of the dead. Colors being described in detail by Death happens three times, all of them being used during the prologue in order to set the tone for the novel.

Since The Book Thief is a historical fiction text, the fictitious characters interact in a realistic WWII setting in Germany. Three characters in the book, Liesel, Rudy and, Death develop their identities within the parameters of the Nazi-controlled society. However, if Liesel, Rudy and, Death were characters in today's society, their lives would be different.

Narration is important in almost any book,  which is why it is especially important in   Mark Zusak’s: The Book Thief.  He uses foreshadowing, perspective, and interaction with the  reader to make the book so much more interesting. Zusak's selection of Death as the narrator heavily changes and alters the way the book is read. Death allows the reader to have a completely new and different perspective of Death itself, he heavily foreshadows very important events in the book, and he interacts with the reader many times throughout the book. By presenting death as the narrator, Zusak provides a more outside and impartial view of humanity’s pain and suffering (Johnson).

The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger’s life during World War 2 told through the eyes of Death himself. All three writers portray Death as a character who has interactions with those that have or are about to die. However, unlike Zusak’s Death, Collins’ is a malicious puppeteer and Dickinson’s Death is presented as someone who is at peace with what he must do.

The acts of human nature can become a very difficult concept to understand. Markus Zusak uses Death throughout the The Book Thief to express the complexity of human nature. Death illustrates how complicated beings humans are and how they hold the capacity to act in both evil and beautiful ways. Throughout the novel Death helps give readers insight to the ignorance displayed and the pain it may cause a person. In the most troublesome and discriminatory times of the Holocaust, Death will point out the beautiful acts of compassion carried out by characters involved in the novel. Sometimes beauty and pain is mixed within the sacrifice some make for those they love and are loyal to.

first-person by Death. Throughout The Book Thief, Death comments and shares his thoughts on Liesel’s book, “The Book Thief “, in which the story ends with Death returning Liesel’s book back to her. The majority of people associate death with violence and destruction, as do I, yet the narrator corrected our common misconception of death at the beginning of the novel for;