Examples Of Cruelty In The Book Thief

The Kindness and Cruelty of Humans
Katie Vezina
ENG 4U1
Braga
Since the dawn of time, mankind has always struggled with the battle between good and evil. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, kindness and cruelty is something nearly all of the characters struggle with. In World of Wonders by Robertson Davies, Paul is on the receiving end of kindness and cruelty and Willard acts cruelly. In “The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas” directed by Mark Herman, the characters are challenged by the fight of good and evil in the course of World War Two. The novel World of Wonders, the novel The Book Thief, and the movie “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas” exemplify the ongoing struggle between kindness and cruelty. All three works show that younger people's naivety

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the children often act selfishly because they do not understand the realities of life. During the Second World War, Rudy and Liesel act very cruel towards the other people in their town. Death eventually reveals “The depressing pea soup and Rudy’s hunger finally drove them into thievery. It inspired their attachment to a group of older kids who stole from the farmers.” (Zusak, 150). Rudy and Liesel ended up robbing many people after this because they wanted food so desperately and did not realize that robbing people would not fix the issue. Later on in the novel, Liesel acts unkindly towards Isla Herman, the mayor’s wife. After Isla fired Liesel’s mother, Liesel says “It’s about time you faced the fact that your son is dead. He got killed! He got strangled and cut up more than twenty years ago! Or did he freeze to death? Either way, he’s dead! He’s dead and it’s pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it. You think you’re the only one?” (Zusak, 253). Liesel is very young, and she doesn’t understand that it’s normal for a mother to mourn the loss of her son for a long while. Liesel treats Isla as though she is weak for being sad about her son’s death because Liesel is angry that she fired her mother. She does not understand that Isla had to fire her because of loss of money during the war. Isla did not fire her in

Liesel’s goodness through the course of her life was rewarded to her in the long run. She lived a long life, something she genuinely deserved. In World of Wonders, Willard receives poetic justice through his death. Willard was a disgusting man, who lead a horrifying life. He hurt people and acted incredibly selfishly. While Paul is telling his life story, he says “Then he whirled me around, lifted me up on the seat in a kneeling position, pulled my pants down and sodomized me.” (Davies, 28). Willard raped Paul when he was young, permanently scarring him. Willard did not live a moral life. He died fittingly. When describing Willard’s death, Paul says “…for a few hours before the end he was a leaden color, and his mouth was open so it was possible to see it was almost black inside… he looked like one of those terrible drawings of a Daupier of a paper corpse.” (Davies, 128). Willard died in a very disgusting manner. He died as he lived. According to the novel, he deserves the manner in which he died. Even that did not do justice to the awful things he did to people. In the film “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, Ralf is the character that seems to receive the most karma. Ralf was the Commandant of a Jewish concentration camp during World War Two. He treated his children, his wife, his parents, his soldiers, and the Jewish people like they were nothing. He was an incredibly rude man. He received karma in the death of loved ones.