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The Book Thief And The Power Of Words

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The Book Thief and the Power of Words “The Book Thief” is a novel and film about a girl who survives death during WW2 and how words became very important to her life. Liesel Meminger was brought to her foster home unable to read. Her foster father, Hans, finds out she can’t read and helps teaches her German. Liesel then falls in love with words and uses them to write her story.The theme “power of words” is displayed in the novel and film equally. Three ways the power of words were shown was by making an emotional connection with the audience, influencing people to do something, and creating unlikely friendships. The film and novel both use words to cause emotions of viewers and readers. An example of the powerful use of words in the film is towards the end when Liesel finds Rudy dying on the road covered with gravel; Rudy is about to say “I love you” (Percival), but doesn’t finish his sentence before death takes him. It’s hard as a viewer to watch such a heart-breaking scene. Liesel knows what Rudy is going to say and his words from then and all he’s said to her in the past influenced her to kiss him.Readers no longer had to imagine any of the events or characters in the novel because it was in front of them on a screen. Unlike the movie, in the novel, Hans Jr tells his father to join the Nazi’s. Hans Jr tells Hans, “You’re either for the fuhrer or against him-and I can see that you’re against him”(105). When Hans Jr and Hans get into an argument about the Nazi

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