Theme Of Death In The Book Thief

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 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.

On average, 6,000 people die each hour. In that same hour, approximately 15,000 babies are born. Death is prevalent in this world and it plays a major role in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In the book, Death is personified and must collect and carry the souls of the recently deceased. Death’s job is strenuous, though; he is working hard during World War II in Germany. Death’s narration was crucial in The Book Thief because Death is not trying to kill people, he is emotional, and he sees the world from different perspectives allowing him to have deeper knowledge of the characters.

In the Book Thief, Death, the narrator, refers to the fact that people are mortal, saying the human heart is a “line,” which means it has a beginning and an end, while his heart is a “circle.” The meaning to this is that Death is immortal, he has a different perspective on humanity than people do. That perspective allows him to see people with a more open mind than people see themselves, but it leaves him confused because he can not figure out how people can be both good and evil.

In The Book Thief, Death, has some surprising characteristics. Everybody thinks of him as some bad person that takes everybody’s life away, but in the book, he describes himself as just the result of humans dying. In other words, he isn’t the one who kills people. In The Book Thief he has two big characteristics, which are, irony and humanity.

The introduction of Death as a narrator in The Book Thief allows readers to discover a sense of humanity in a seemingly intangible concept. The narrator of Death is introduced as a being with feelings, rather than an ethereal part

Death who is the narrator of this book is mesmerized by humans. He is intrigued by all that the world has but what he has trouble with is understanding how humans can commit so much cruelties and hideous action but at the same time have others who are so nice and make the world a much better place to live in. One thing that death tries to accomplish is to treasure new ways that he could make his job and his work more purposeful. One of the ways he attempts to do this is by compiling stories that he finds of brave human beings. He stumbles upon one fascinating story of human named Liesel. He believes that Liesel is like none other than he has ever seen before. He thinks that stories are truly beautiful. He is intrigued in her because of who

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

For instance, when Lennie panicked and killed Curley's wife by accident. “Don't you go yellin’, he said, and shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” (Steinbeck 89). Death represents the novel because death is both peaceful and destructive towards anyone. Death made this book come together by adding more depth into situations, and by adding death it held you on to the edge of your seat. Adding death caused a rain of problems which made the novel more intriguing and wanting me to read

The Book Thief is a story about a girl named Liesel Meminger set in a realistically depicted German town in WWII; with the exception of the narrator. The concept of death is typically the end of a story. Every human life ends with death, however, in this story Death is the beginning of the story as well as the perspective throughout the story. While there are multiple uncanny events throughout the story, one of the biggest uncanny things in the story is the narrator himself; Death. Death is portrayed as more humanized with needing distractions from his job, as well as he seems to be personally affected by specific people.

The plot events that relate to the topic of death including how it constructs a person’s life are the deaths that occur around Liesel, the main character in the book. The first topic that develops this theme is when Liesel’s brother passes. After the quote “ A

Fitting the mood of the era of Nazi Germany, The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak is narrated by death-the grim reaper. The time of the holocaust and where death is the only thing that is prospering in a WW1 axis power countries, suits Death as the narrator. While most people would assume that Death derives ich pleaser form his occupation it is actually quite the opposite. Death, in fact, is indifferent to it since collecting souls is the equivalent of a job with no break. Moevr, Death Actually Has some emotion in regards to whether he thinks certain characters should and should not die.

In this excerpt from The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, Death allows a look into one of the happiest moments of Max’s life. It is the first snow of the year and, as most children do, Liesel commenced playing in the snow, just not in a place that most children do. Instead, Liesel’s first thought was of Max in the basement with no view of the glorious white stuff falling from the sky. Little did they know that in no time at all the snow would morph into ash and the snowmen would melt away into bodies that are strewn across Himmel Street, and 33 Himmel Street would be no more. Liesel stays loyal to Max and her duty to report the weather to him as the sun crawls across the sky each and everyday. The things that we take for granted in everyday life,

Because most of the novel Death is telling the story of Liesel, you get to be very familiar with all of her emotions. Even though the novel isn’t in first person from her point of view, you get to see her whole story as Death reads from her book The Book Thief and adds lib about what he was going through with all the deaths during that period. Liesel reminds me of other people her age in my own life, like my brother who is in middle school and just as stubborn as her. Kids their age have minds completely of her own and don’t really understand the effects of all of their actions, whether they are good or bad.

Death is the main character, as well as the narrator of this story, yet the author provides us with no real description of her other than calling her a woman. Death narrates this tale in a way that leads us to believe that she is almost an omniscient being in the way that she is able to describe the dialogue between the servant and his master, but an omniscient narrator is incapable of being surprised himself or herself and we find this not to be the case in this story. I believe the author intended to do this in order to make Death appear mysterious, yet also familiar to the reader. Once Death is given human elements, like the ability to be surprised, it gives the illusion that one can cheat death.