Examples Of Imagery In The Book Thief

Lucy Schmitz
Honors English Hour 5
Mrs. Shaske
March 8th, 2023
The World and Words
Words are powerful. Words are everywhere; from the posters in a classroom to a sign on the sidewalk, or even propaganda. In many ways, the world is molded by people's view of it and the words that they use to do so. Unfortunately, in history, the influence of words have not always been good- for example, the Holocaust and WWII. To be specific, leaders like Hitler, have used words to manipulate or brainwash the population in order to be in control. The Book Thief conveys how powerful and influential words can really be, and the consequences of propaganda. To be short, The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, used imagery, similes, and personification to convey

Tragic events blurred the lines of reality, shown in the book burning ceremony by describing people as “...beyond the blurry heat, it was possible to see the brownshirts and swastikas holding hands. You didn’t see people. Only uniforms and signs” (Zusak 112). Imagery expresses what the people that attended the book-burning ceremony were doing and what the scene looked like. The people are described as wearing brown shirts with swastikas on them while holding signs and joining hands. This shows how Hitler’s words really turned the country of Germany into a unitary state, where citizens had to wear a swastika on them at all times, along with the Hitler Youth having a brown uniform. In fact, the quote even implies that people were not even seen fully- just as their uniforms, as one blob, going back to how the lines of reality were blurred, This exemplifies the power of Hitler’s words towards young and impressionable people in Germany at the time, which made everyone unify at the time. Lastly, for this quote, the signs are very significant. Signs have words on them, and in this case, most likely propaganda and even the use of Hitler’s words. Once again, Hitler’s words influenced people and their way of thinking, so much so as to support the Holocaust and fund the German troops in WWII. The tone is this quote

“If I looked closely, i could see the words, reporting headlines, commentating on the progress of war and so forth.” (Zusak 336). This quote gave human actions to words, saying that the words were commentating and reporting headlines. Near the end of the war, many countries all over the world were reporting about the frontlines in Europe and predictions on when the war was going to end. In this quote, Liesel described it as the words that were commentation about the war. This showed how important the words were in the war, and how they influenced the actions committed by the world. The mood of this quote is sad. The thought of bombings and death all around the world is depressing and a terrible thing to think about happening. After one of the air raids in Molching, Max described the stars as ”There were stars…They burned my eyes” (Zusak 378). This quote was once again giving human actions to the stars, saying that they were burning Max’s eyes. Because Max was in the basement for so long, his eyes could not seem to bear looking at the stars, which connects to the topic of human nature, and how humans and their words affect other humans and their ability to do things. The mood of this quote plays into its importance, which would be sad. The actions of WWII are atrocious and terrible,