The Book Thief Narrative Tension

1. a. External conflict – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, tells the story of a little girl Liesel, who is given up by her mother to live with Hans and Rosa Huberman during the time of World War II. When they take in and hide a Jewish man named Max, she quickly learns of great violence and prejudice of the outside world, and she must face the dangers, hate, and death from the war era caused by Adolf Hitler at such a young age. b. Internal conflict- Imperfect Spiral by Debbie Levy, is a book about a teenage girl named Danielle who takes a summer job babysitting a little boy named Humphrey, and one day when she was watching him he ran into oncoming traffic to retrieve a football and died on her watch.

One of the first literary devices that is easily noticeable is suspense this is it what keeps the reader wanting more. When Al said “You can change history, Jake. Do you understand that? John Kennedy can live.” (King 111). Jake replies with huge doubts, “What if it went wrong?” ……. “What if I managed,……., to stop it from happening and made things worse instead of better? What if I came back

Liesel Meminger is the daughter of Paula Meminger. She is also the sister of late Warren Meminger. Consequently, she steals the first book in the novel, called The Gravedigger's Handbook. Therefore, Death gave her the nickname of “ the book thief” before us knowing that she would become “the book thief”. Liesel Meminger is the hardworking, book-thieving, kind-hearted protagonist of The Book Thief. She loves books so much that she steals them, even before knowing how to read. All of this started because stealing books reminds her of Warren Meminger. This is even she bonds more with Hans Hubermann, her foster father, dedicates his time to teach her how to read. We might be asking, why hasn’t she gotten an education at the age of 10. The answer is not as clear as others, but it definitely has to do with Liesel father’s communist affiliations. He was part of the German Communist Party, that was popular when Hitler took over. This is also the reason why she had to be fostered.

For example, Nielsen hinted at Radulf being Nic’s grandfather when Sal got punished and beaten for partly being at fault for Nic being in the cave where he found the bulla when it collapsed. (Although, at the time, they weren’t aware that Nic actually escaped before being smashed in thanks to Caela, the griffin that was guarding the cave.) “He was upset because you’d be dead by the time we got back inside. Tell me, Nic, why does a general of the Roman army care if you’re alive?” (Nielsen, 48). Another example of foreshadowing is when Nic and Aurelia swore that they would never become friends and then both admitting to becoming friends after a little while. “Because Aurelia and I would never, never become friends … Whether I liked it or not, she was becoming my friend” (Nielsen, 65 & 188). Another thing I noticed the author did that annoyed me and kept me reading is that, at the end of several chapters during an exciting event, Jennifer Nielsen wrote suspenseful, dramatic cliffhangers. For example, Nielsen will end the chapter abruptly when Nic was about to be discovered while in hiding, when he is about to get killed, when one of his friends is dying, when Nic figures out that Radulf is his grandfather, and other things. “That was where they found me … We have to kill him … You’re griffin is dying … The

Have you ever read a book that continued to keep you interested in what's going to happen next? You get lost in the book trying to figure out what's going to happen before reading on. This happens often in novels that have a lot of suspense like Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” or Tobias Wolff’s “Hunters In The Snow.” The fact that they both have suspense is often the only similarity people can think of. There are many similarities and differences in them both that get ignored such as similarities and differences in the plot, theme, and characters.

Authors are good at making things pretty suspenseful. Authors create suspense by coming up with creepy twisted stories or writing about real ones. A suspenseful story is made with disturbing background stories that end up having a major twist at the end. Like in the story, “The Pedestrian,” by Bradbury, where at the end of the story the car said it was taking him to a Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies. Then the main character Leonard Mead said, “That’s my house.”

For the most part, the readers are left on edge considering on what could happen next in these terrible

Life during the 1940’s was hard for the entire world. As Germany caused suffering and loss in multiple other countries, the people of Germany suffered as well. The Book Thief follows the story of a German girl named Liesel, who was forced to be taken away from her family at a young age. She then becomes the foster daughter of Rosa and Hans Hubermann, whose children have grown up and left. Liesel struggles to understand why her mother had left her, and why Hitler was causing all of the bad things in her life to happen. In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak uses the theme of loss to show how it can bring people closer together.

ll great writing has a form of suspense. If you were to ask a random person, they would define it as “anxiety” which, has some properties that deal with suspense. Dictionary.com defines suspense as “ a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety”. Authors display suspense by adding a weaker character to their writing (“Eleanor and Park” by rainbow Rowell), adding a mishap in their character's life which causes them to have breakdowns (“Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky), displaying the reasoning, thoughts, and plans in a story (“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe), and putting the characters that are either the main characters or a character that is close to the heart in danger or jeopardy (“The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury). In these stories I have claimed to have those specific types of suspense, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Pedestrian” by

Every plot point and storyline shift is a puzzle piece the author puts down in front of the reader to bring him in on their secret.

the story (past and present) in order to create suspense and keep the readers anticipated.

It is intriguing, but doesn’t give away an excess of information and leaves the reader wanting to know more and trying to figure out the ending for themselves. In ‘Favorite Father Brown Stories’, how the developed the plot is, depended on the story. In some, there is a distinct plot that leaves the reader trying to figure out the ending, but in others, there doesn’t seem to be much of a mystery in the plot. The first and the third story best illustrated a developed plot. In ‘Morbid Taste for Bones,’ there is a murder. It leaves the reader wondering who did it and why it was done. Then as the reader thought they know who it is, another aspect is revealed. Even to the end the reader is guessing.

The author will present the characters to readers and tell the readers a little bit about the main characters. Then, to make the story interesting, the author will introduce his or her readers to the main conflict. Secondly, the suspense will rise in the story as the conflict is trying to be resolved. Next, the characters in the story will reach the climax where they will change in some way, good or bad. At the climax of the story, the reader will be given many hints and clues as to what will happen at the end of the story. Finally, the resolution to the conflict is given to the average reader, but the advanced reader had already analyzed the information he or she was given and figured out how the story had ended. In The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, Joseph F. Patrouch explains that “Asimov follows the standard pattern of presenting a [character] with a problem, letting the reader….accumulate data, [allow the character find the solution to the conflict],….and finally letting the [character] reveal the solution to [the reader]” (72). What makes Asimov’s plots much more interesting is that he has different parts to his novels that may take place decades and even centuries apart. Also, Asimov will use the dialog of the characters to move the plot along instead of action scenes. With the creation of civilization on a new planet, the first mayors of Terminus were faced with the problem of other planets trying to invade and take their resources. The

How do authors write stories that make you want to read on? This is called suspense. Authors use different kinds of suspense techniques to keep the reader engaged in the story. The short story, “Lather and Nothing Else,” by Hernando Tellez is about a barber who has a hard time deciding whether or not to kill Captain Torres, the rebel executioner. The barber thinks that killing the Captain will make him a murderer, but a hero at the same time. Hernando Tellez creates suspense by foreshadowing, showing the character’s thoughts, and by using descriptive words.

For example, when the audience learns that Somesh dies, it is very shocking because there was no back story, and the author was writing the story as if it were to have a happy ending, Somesh and Sumita were just beginning to fall in love. When the author abruptly breaks the audience’s hearts, she then goes back to explain what happened to Somesh. Doing this puts the audience on an emotional rollercoaster and captures the reader’s attention, drawing them deeper into the story. The author does not always use this skipping ahead wisely; it can be confusing at times and catches the reader off guard. It forces the audience to go back and reread until they understand what she is