Book Thief Death Quotes

When living during war isn’t an option, the only choice one can make is to remain firm against death. The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, takes place in 1939 Nazi Germany, where millions of people are killed on the battlefield, in concentration camps, or from starvation and disease. The character Death narrates the novel, taking each person’s soul from their body as they die. Following the main character, Lisel Meminger, Death tells a story of the horrors of war that take place in Germany, and how death affects everyone around Liesel. Death is a trustworthy narrator whose abilities both separate him from a human narrator and allow him to narrate The Book Thief without outside influence. Death is able to reveal the true nature of the characters

Because The Book Thief takes place during World War II, Death describes his relationship with ‘war,’ as war leads to death. According to Death, “war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: “Get it done, get it done.” So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more” (Zusak 309). In this quote, Death’s tone is very blunt. He does not take pleasure or sadness out of taking people’s souls, because to him, it is only another “job done.” Death drives the story forward by having to keep up with the endless deaths surrounding the war, something that affects all of the characters in The Book Thief one way or another. In keeping up with these deaths, he makes an effort to be a trustworthy narrator, as seen when he says, “As for what’s left of this story, I will not skirt around any of it, because I’m tired, I’m so tired, and I will tell it as straightly as I can” (Zusak 543). Once again, taking the souls

On behalf of The Book Thief taking place during World War II, each character eventually encounters Death one way or another, whether someone around them is dying or the characters die themselves. The ways that the characters of The Book Thief react to him reveals their true intentions and emotions, once again, something that a human narrator cannot do. In a book meant to comment on the atrocities and sheer loss of World War II, Zusak chooses Death as the narrator of The Book Thief for this very reason, to show how death affected every individual no matter the situation. When an enemy pilot lands in Molching, Rudy rushes to help the pilot, and “Carefully, he climbed to the dying man. He placed [a] smiling teddy bear cautiously onto the pilot’s shoulder” (Zusak 490). Instead of reacting with fear or sorrow, Rudy approaches the dying pilot with empathy and graciousness, offering one of his possessions to the man. The way Rudy helps the pilot reveals his true character as a gracious, selfless boy, which would not have occurred if the pilot did not encounter Death. In this scene, Liesel also shows her steadfastness towards Death, when he remarks, “I don’t know, but she knew me and she looked me in my face and did not look away” (Zusak 490). Liesel had seen Death before, when