Death is very powerful and will take over all of us at one point or another. Liesel didn’t expect her family's death to come so early. In “The Book Thief”, Liesel lost her brother to death, and her mother to abstinence at a young age. The book starts out by Liesel attending her brother’s funeral. Death plays a huge roll in the book by the killing her family and her foster family as well as millions of lives all across the globe. Death is very evil and catastrophic and can strike at any point in time. That is why death is the central idea in the book. Towards the end of the book, Liesel has experienced the effects of death due to World WarⅡ, but the worst was yet to come. Her foster family who raised her during a troublesome time, was to be …show more content…
She was used to seeing death occur because it was all around her no matter where she went, There was no escaping it. In the beginning of the book, death is surrounding Liesel and her memories. Death says, “When I recollect her, I see a long list of colors, but it’s the three colors which I saw her in the flesh that resonate her the most. Sometimes I manage to float far above those three memories… That’s when I see them formulate. (pg. 14 The Book Thief) Death claims to see three colors when he and Liesel have memories; red, white, and black. “They fall on top of each other. They scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.” (pg. 14 The Book Thief) The colors death described are the colors for the Nazi flag. Which means the Nazis are responsible for all the deaths during World War Ⅱ including Liesel’s family. Death uses the imagery of colors to portray his and Liesel’s memories. Imagery is important in the book because it gives the reader a better understanding of the book and what it meanings. Death for instance, used colors to characterize his memories. The colors are symbols for the Nazi flag, which all the Nazis are known for is death and destruction. Were all the Nazis criminals or were they actually human beings that could love and care for
Liesel grew as a person, began to wonder about the world, and realized the power of words. Liesel saw the meaning in the smallest things. In the beginning of the novel, Liesel became attracted to words when she stole her first book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook from her brother’s grave site. Even without having a clue what the words meant, the book became representative of the last time she saw her family and “as for the girl, there was a sudden desire to read it that she didn't even attempt to understand” (Zusak, 66).
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.
Death brings up the theme that humans enjoy violence in the beginning of the last quarter of the book when he states, “He made three separate formations that led to the same tower of dominoes in the middle. Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and that would all smile at the beauty of destruction.” I thought this quote was really powerful because it was Rudy and his little siblings that were playing with the dominoes and Death points out that all humans admire destruction, even little kids. This only confuses Death even further because he cannot understand how humans can both be so cruel and so kind.
Death is so interested in Liesel’s life because she is a survivor and she looks at life through rose colored glasses. Meaning she looks at the good things of bad situations and, she would rather risk her life for her friend, that
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
She woke her up with the same distraught shake.” Zusak page twenty one. Death came across Liesel's brother, he became infatuated with him and decided to take him. He become encouraged with the reaction he got from Liesel and her mother. He decided that he enjoyed the pain that he got from them that he wanted to stay with her, and watch her.
The story “The Book Thief” wouldn’t be complete without the narrator Death. It would be different if Death wasn't showing so much effort to care about so many people dying. The author did do a good job on making Death the author and no one else. He said everything in a way that he was kind of telling his story about all the humans dying. In the novel “The Book Thief” death is the narrator and I wouldn't change it because the way he tells the story is that even though it's death you know how he feels about what is happening while the war was happening. In general he was tired of hearing about humans because all everyone would talk about is that people were dying and that they would die when the people came to bomb Himmel Street. The book would be different if Liesel would be telling the story because she would just be saying it in her point of view and she wouldn't be able to see what happened to
Death is a very well-known figure that is feared by many in all countries. He is suspected of being cruel, disturbing and all synonyms of horrifying. Death is inevitable and that is the most fearing aspect of his persona. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Death is made to seem or resemble humans. Effectively using the narration role, Death introduces a unique description and definition of colors in which he uses as a tool to effectively engage the readers to the events occurring throughout the book. He also demonstrates him personal and different experiences as well, mostly about soul gathering and the implications of WWII that have affected him. On the contrary to Death’s dead, appalling and scary nature that many interpret him to be
In the middle of the book death says, “He didn’t deserve to die the way he did...on the night he passed away. He’d have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his lifeless body.” Through this hint the narrator, death prepares the reader in advance for Rudy’s death. Maybe for some people this is helpful, but for some others it will ruin the story. In another instance where we get a hint of things to come is evidenced in, “Of those ten, six were stolen, one showed up at the kitchen table, two were made for her by a hidden Jew, and one was delivered by a soft, yellow-dressed afternoon.” This tells me how Liesel got all her books and it took the surprise away from the fact that a Jew was going to live in their basement. Even these hints hold a sad fact in them of human beings having to hide in basements or losing their loved
Whenever he goes to collect a body he isn’t just looking at the sky, the soul, or the person, he is looking at everything around him. When recalling memories he is also able remember a lot of details about the person and the area around them. One example of Death doing this is on page 530, when he says, “Her shop was obliterated, the counter landing across the road, and her framed of Hitler was taken from the wall and thrown to the floor.” Other than just remembering the object around him, he also remembers what that whole day was like. An example of when he does this is on page 325, when Death says, “It was a gloomy afternoon early in March and only a few degrees above
If you believe in yourself and have dedication, pride, and never quit, you will be successful. Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, creates a story of a young orphan named Liesel Meminger, who is living with her new foster family. She learns the wonders of reading from her foster father and grows to love books. During Liesel’s time with her new family, she shows determination through her efforts and kindness with her encounters with other people. Liesel in The Book Thief expresses her traits, such as hardworking, and bravery.
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).
What is the first thing you think about when you hear the word death? In most cases, people fear death but as the narrator in Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, Death is a compassionate and honorable character.
Part One: Compare and contrast this persona of Death with the familiar personification of the Grim Reaper. How is Death from The Book Thief like the Grim Reaper, and how is he significantly different?
The book 's importance is explained through Death where ‘“The books meaning 1. The last time she saw her brother. 2. The last time she saw her mother.” Despite Liesel being illiterate, the Gravedigger’s handbook holds significant meaning for the character. Liesel has an overwhelming feeling of loss of control and acts out in rebellion to steal the book that lay beside her brothers grave. By stealing the book, she has a reminder of her small family and it stops her feeling defeated by her ever changing life, which she has no control over. This idea is then reinforced with another action of the character. Liesel then finds out that Hitler was the cause of the suffering and loss of freedom of the people she loved and knew in her life.This second act of rebellion takes place while Liesel visits a Nazi book burning. Liesel soon understands that the Nazi’s burnt books to brainwash citizens of Germany(_____). As a result of this Lisel then understands the importance and power words have, causing her to again acts rebelliously in a protest. “And it was anger and dark hatred that had fueled her desire to steal it.” This passage from the novel shows the emotions of Liesel. As a character who is unable to express herself verbally, her actions speak for her. Liesel 's desire to understand words begins to grow, with her understanding that Nazis burn books in fear of what they may do to society.