Literary Techniques Used In The Book Thief

With the author using a third person omniscient narrator, which is death, this improves the strength of the theme. With death being the narrator of the book it helps the reader see how death was all around Liesel. “You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies. I’ve seen millions of theme. I’ve seen more eclipses than I care to remember” (Zusak 11). Death darkens the story and this makes you feel their emotions. With a third person omniscient

Death is talking about the concentration camps and the dead jews. A very solemn mood is set by the image of thick black smoke and the smell of burning jews from the crematorium. The imagery used to describe these tragic events in

Zusak alludes to the many book burnings that took place in Nazi Germany to show what people thought of words, and how powerful they really are. “Nazi’s were gathering fuel… Liesel was witness to men and women knocking on doors, asking people if they had material that they felt should be done away with or destroyed” (Zusak 101). This is when people come knocking on doors, asking for books they deemed ‘un-German’ to burn in a large bonfire that night. Zusak alludes to this event to show how Germany thought of words and what they did to the mind. Zusak uses an allusion to Adolf Hitler himself to show how powerful his words were to the citizens of Germany and how they influenced them. “Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing” (Zusak 521). Here, the narrator Death is speaking about Hitler and that if he never spoke those words he did, if he never rose to power, the world wouldn’t be the way it is. Zusak does this to show words, even when negatively used, can change people and what they do. Zusak uses an allusion to Adolf Hitler’s own novel Mein Kompf to show the Nazi governments drilled words into the citizen’s heads through the book. “In return, he received a used copy of Mein Kompf” (Zusak 128). In this scene, people hand a copy of Mein Kompf to Hans, like they do to all citizens, to attempt bringing him in deeper to

The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, outlines the tragedies and events that take place in Liesel Meminger’s life, in Nazi Germany. Throughout this young girl’s struggle of living in the oppressive Nazi regime, she is able to learn crucial lessons about life and the art of survival- some that follow her to the grave. The most important lesson she learned and the pivotal theme of the novel is that rebellion can be and beneficial in certain situations.

Even though they have two different family backgrounds and reactions with regard to the struggles they face, both of them strive to fit into the Nazi regime to avoid incarceration and death. Therefore, they are haunted by the guilt of leaving their families for survival through having nightmares. While Max shows his defiance against the Nazi regime through daydreaming about boxing with Hitler, Liesel publicly defied the Nazi regime through stealing a banned book, and helping Jews in order to protect the basic morals of humanity. Liesel believes if humans lose humanity, they would become “cold-blooded” and lose the true meaning of

At one point in the novel, the reader is introduced to Max. He is a Jew. Jewish people were the Nazis main target and the scapegoat for the loss of World War I. Max would have been sent to a labor camp to die if he was caught in public, so he hid in a dark room for two years. According to The Book Thief, “A GUIDED TOUR OF SUFFERING To your left, perhaps you're right, perhaps even straight ahead, you find a small black room. In it sits a Jew. He is scum. He is starving. He is afraid. Please—try not to look away.” Max may have survived Dachau and World War II altogether, but so many other Jews -and people of different religions, sexualities, races, etc- died because of the Nazis. Only

Throughout the novel death appears. We start the book with death making its journey around the train and stopping right at Liesel's brother. The entire book is written in the perspective of death, and what he observes throughout his encounters. Death begins the novel seemingly cruel and out of touch with taking away someone’s life and how it affects those around them, but then, he becomes more empathetic as the novel progresses showing how impactful the Holocaust truly was. The one “ person,” that we expect to stay stoic, becomes empathetic.

Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, tells the heart-wrenching story of Liesel Meminger, a German girl, as she navigates adolescence in Nazi Germany. With his convincing depiction of the time, it could be said that Zusak worked within the conventions of realistic fiction were it not for his otherworldly narrator—Death. Death traditionally marks the end of a story, so Zusak’s decision to begin his novel with Death’s voice piqued my interest. This interest was intensified by Death’s unique characterization—he is personified, yet retains his inhuman features. This incongruity in conjunction with the aberrant choice in narrator raised the question:

He thirdly uses a technique that not many authors use in their novels where he incorporates himself into the novel and that then triggers different ideas in the readers mind on what is reality and what is a book. The way Zusak writes and what techniques he integrates into the novel then gives more enjoyment to the reader. The main idea that Zusak employs is the use of personification and how that increased the readers enjoyment of the novel. For example, when Zusak uses personification when the deck of cards is some one’s life.

Words are everywhere, words make up books, and the power of words make The Book Thief which will never be able to be improved upon. Words help us communicate with others, but mainly they have positive and negative sides to them. In the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death narrates the story while Liesel Meminger also tells her story of living in Nazi, Germany. We will discuss how there are many people such as Max Vandenburg and Liesel Meminger who choose to use to use their power of words in the positive way. We will also discuss how people also like to use their power of words in the negative way such as Adolf Hitler. The power of words are very effective especially in Markus Zusak’s writing, and we’ll discuss the main parts of the book which have been effected with the power of words.

The novel is narrated by Death, a guy who’s getting tired and bored of his job. He wants a vacation, but sadly no one can replace him. He tries to find ways to give meaning to his job. He is fascinated by humans and colours of the world, and he is curious of how humans are capable of so much ugliness and so much beauty. Death is some way more human than a lot of people.

For example, after the book burning, there were some books that were too wet to burn, and Liesel took advantage of this moment, “When she reached her hand, she was bitten, but on the second attempt, she made sure she was fast enough. She latched onto the closest of the books. It was hot” (Zusak 120). Jewish book burnings were popular across Germany during this time, as they were trying to destroy the power of the Jewish community. During the novel, Liesel is empowered by the words she reads in these books, and even shares this power with Max Vandenburg, the Jewish man living in her basement. The courage Liesel shares with Max allows him to build the hope he needs to want to fight Hitler. During his dreams, he imagines himself in a boxing ring with Hilter, and even though Hilter had the upper hand during the match, Max had hope that he would win, and therefore in his dream “he punched him [Hitler] seven times, aiming on each occasion for only one thing. The mustache” (Zusak 253). As previously mentioned, the accordian was also a very important form of symbolism in this novel. Not only does give the family hope during their

Max Vandenburg was able to escape Stuttgart by carrying Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ which highlights Hitler’s hatred for Jewish people. The words in this story enforced the cruelty of human’s, the German’s who succumbed to Hitler’s words became Nazi’s. In this context, it can be seen that words can be used in a negative way, however, Max would later paint over the pages of ‘Mein Kampf’ to write his own story, ‘The Standover Man’ which he would gift to Liesel, “Max had cut out a collection of pages from Mein Kampf and painted them over in white.” This novel was an act of kindness for Liesel who was fascinated by words yet could not buy novels or obtain them legally. Max’s second novel ‘The Word Shaker’ was also gifted to Liesel when he’d left for Dachau, in this he discusses the power of words and how they can be used in a cruel way, “Yes, the Fuhrer, decided that he would rule the world with words….. He watched them grow, until eventually, great forests of words had risen throughout Germany.” Through ‘Mein Kampf’, ‘The Standover Man’ and ‘The Word Shaker’ the reader can understand the power of words on human

A good text should be crafted in such a way that it commands a certain extent of rhetorical force in a bid to acquire the expected influence on the intended audience. This force exudes from the sensitivity of the issues addressed in a text, the language used, the credibility of the facts used, and the ability of the author to present the ideas in a manner that passes the test of time. The four texts reviewed in this essay manifest great rhetorical force in the way they handle the concept of postcolonialism. The varying authors used different methods to reinforce their views by appealing to various groups of readers and contributors in postcolonial discussions.

There is a part where we watch as humans are so ugly that it is hard for us to imagine that what they had done is possible. Liesel is playing soccer in the park and all of a sudden all the kids stop because of a noise they hear coming down the street. They think it could be a herd of cattle, but that not what it is. It is a group of Jewish people being led, or forced, to the death camps by German soldiers. On there way we watch a man die “He was dead. The man was dead. Just give him five minutes and he would surely fall into the German gutter and die. They would all let him, and they would all watch”(Zusak 393). This is talking about how when a Jewish person would die, the Germans wouldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t care that a man died right in front of them. While the Jews are walking Hans, Liesel adopted father, gives them bread. While Hans is giving this man bread a German soldier notices what is going on. He walks over to the man and, “The Jew was whipped six times. On his back, his heart, and