Symbolism In The Book Thief

The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by Markus Zusak set in Munich, Germany during the Nazi reign from 1936-1943. The novel incorporates a main character that is, in the beginning, an innocent child who doesn't understand the world and takes her on a journey where she grows up and matures through the hardships and challenges of her life. The story is narrated by the character Death, who is a fresh take on the Grim Reaper, only wearing the black cloak when it's cold and never carries a syte. Death describes the life Liesel Meminger, an orphaned girl who witnesses her brother's death and burial and finds herself being adopted by the benevolent old couple, the Hubermanns. The rest of the story follows Liesel's journey through her incredibly challenging life with the Hubermanns and characters such as Rudy, The mayor's wife, and Max helping her along. Symbolism in The Book Thief deepens the story by conveying many different ideas and emotions that supports the reader's understanding of the story. This is especially apparent with the use of the gravediggers to help the reader remember characters, the use of color to help the reader feel the proper emotions and remember the correct events, and the use of Liesel's changing feelings about Rudy to convey how Liesel grows and matures through the book.

Red is used in literature to represent death and blood because of this authors tend to use the color whenever death or destruction is a contributing factor to the story. In Poe’s short story the ebony room contains scarlet decor which foreshadows the deaths that are going to occur at the end of the story.

“She was a girl with a mountain to climb,” writes Markus Zusak on page 86 of The Book Thief. The quote was referring to Liesel Meminger, the main character of the novel. I believe that Liesel had multiple mountains to climb throughout the book. Each large problem, or mountain, had its own hills and smaller problems that she needed to deal with. Zusak’s writing style showcases all the aspects of Liesel’s story, because his use of details and choice of words show how Liesel struggled through The Book Thief.

The Book Thief is set in the time of World War 2 where the Holocaust is present and disaster is everywhere. Throughout the story, Liesel, the main character, learns that words are extremely powerful and hold the ability for people to use them for good or for evil. Among the disaster and altercations, Liesel uses her literature to comfort her and make herself more powerful due to her knowledge, which demonstrates the theme of the story, the comfort and power of literature and words softens the pain of loss.

The moment he sees her is described as red, which symbolizes tragedy, because as readers later learn, the “last time” is after a bombing. The sky would be red because of the fire, and also because it is symbolizing tragedy. The color red,

Colors are used in literature to describe the different emotions of a character. Colorism is a type of symbolism used in literature. Death uses color symbolism in The Book Thief to describe a character's emotion because he is the narrator. Color symbolism in literature is when the author uses a color to symbolize the character's emotion; it occurs throughout The Book Thief. Red, white, and gray or silver are the colors that are used the most frequently and have the biggest meanings throughout the novel.

In literature, red is often associated with blood and violence. Four researchers, Erella Hovers, Shimon Ilani, Ofer Bar-Yosef, and Bernard Vandermeersch, studied colored symbolism and concluded; “Color symbolism is one of the symbolic frameworks used extensively by contemporary societies to convey information and abstract messages through material objects” (Hovers et al.,2003.) Through the use of colors, May vividly expresses the emotions of the speaker towards society, regarding the topics of warfare and education. He specifically selects certain colors, like black and red, to stir up emotions within Jontae. The colors create a symbolic image, ultimately leading up to represent the violent scenes taking place. May writes his fear; “I know how often red is the only color left to reach” (18-19), to show his apprehension for Jontae a young male in society surrounded by warfare. Red in literature often represents blood, sacrifice, and violence. Using colors throughout the poem, creates a more vehement atmosphere, in which Jontae is left to choose between warfare, and discovering his identity in an alternative

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.

In the beginning of The Book Thief, the reader meets Liesel Meminger, her mother, and her brother, Werner Meminger. The father is never introduced. It is only said that he is a communist. Werner dies on the train to Himmel Street, the place that Liesel is left with a couple, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel’s mother is never seen again, but the reader assumes that she was taken away for being one of the Nazi’s targets. According to The Book Thief, “What came to her then was the dustiness of the floor, the feeling that her clothes were more next to her than on her, and the sudden realization that this would all be for nothing—that her mother would never write back and she would never see her again.” Nazis were the epitome of evil. They tore families apart and killed millions of innocent people.

Another way James Hurst shows symbolism throughout the story other than birds and red is Death.

There is always some kind of conflict that is happening to humankind, as is depicted in The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Liesel and Ilsa are both haunted by the death of their loved ones, but throughout the novel, both Liesel and Ilsa work to get over their losses and become empowered. The mentor/pupil archetype and symbolism cooperate to reveal how Ilsa and Liesel help one another confront their pasts and move on to a more positive future in spite of the tremendous losses they have experienced. Their library sessions and shared love of words empower each of them; they both conquer fears and overcome griefs during one of the darkest time in history, WWII in Nazi Germany.

In Markus Zusak's novel The Book Thief, the principle character, Liesel Meminger, tries to make due through World War 2 while attempting to figure out how to peruse and compose. All through the book the writer needs the peruser to see that words are a thought or story, as well as an energy to control a man's psyche or activity, and this spared Liesel at last.

Black, white, and red are the most important colors in, The Book Thief. I believe that one theme that is repeated shown are these three colors. They are used to visualize different scenarios in the eyes of Death. They help him have a vacation from all the mayhem of murders and work of taking people’s soul. Red, symbolizes the scenario of murder and destruction. White, on the other hand, symbolizes innocence and black, the final color, symbolizes the sadness and mourning.

In “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, Liesel is living in Germany during WW2, who is living with her adoptive parents and houses a Jew; she also steals books from various places and is adopted by the mayor when her family, as well as her friends, die in a bombing that she survives. Throughout the book the author foreshadows what might happen using the narrator, Death, who explains future parts of the book, for example on page 5 it says “It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors”. The quote ties in with the themes of the book, which are Thievery along with Abandonment and Survivor's Guilt; these themes were chosen for they represent different scenes within the book, Thievery represents Liesel's need to steal books from the Mayor's house,

Throughout the books, a theme of war de-saturated colours was done. The grey, presented a depressing setting. However, the key colour of this was red, the ‘treasure’, was the only thing saturated as red. According Callow (2013, p. 66) claims that colour red can be represented as passion, anger, love and danger. Hence it can be displayed that the book which was red, can be represented as all those, despite the anger and danger through the war, this book can be filled with love, and as a sign of hope. As this is the last book it, and it’s the protagonist’s father’s favourite book, it shows a sign of love, and the passion put into keeping the safe was worth it for the resolution. In addition to this, through the resolution it can also been seen