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The Domino Effect In The Book Thief

Decent Essays

Have you ever heard of the domino effect? The domino effect is a situation in which one event causes a series of similar events to happen one after another (Merriam Dictionary). The first domino in The Book Thief is when Rudy decided to win the gold medals at the Hitler Youth carnival which grabbed the attention of many people. The second domino is when the two Nazis in black coats wanted Rudy for the special training school because of his athletic ability and intelligence. The third domino is when his parents said no to Rudy joining. The fourth domino is the punishment of Alex Steiner for not letting Rudy join. The fifth domino is the worst of all. If Rudy joined the school he could have survived. “If only Rudy had kept listening at the door, just for another few minutes . . . if he’d heard the rest of the conversation that night, he’d have entered the kitchen much earlier. “I’ll go,” he’d have said. “Please, take me, I’m ready now (410).” If he did that he would of survived, but unfortunately he didn't. Each of these poor …show more content…

Liesel and many characters have shown courage in their actions. For example, when Liesel saw Max in the crowd, she knew that if she jumped in and hugged Max she would get in trouble, but she did it anyway. “Liesel walked at him. She was courageous enough to reach out and hold his bearded face. “Is it really you, Max? (512).” It takes a lot of guts to do anything like that in those times, usually there would be a death penalty or beatings. Another example, is when Hans gave bread to the starving jews in another march. The punishment for doing that was getting whipped. They all have the courage to go against the laws and show that they have power. They show they have power through their actions, unlike Hitler who gained the support of people by hypnotizing them with the power of words. They show that they can go through any hardships by having the courage to do what is

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