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Examples Of Personification Of Death In The Book Thief

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390. Personification is the technique wherein a non-human character is given human thoughts, feelings, and dialogue. Illustrate how this technique is used in your favourite novel or short story. 6 One of my favourite personifications in literature is the personification of death in “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. In this novel, Death is the one who tells the story and is also a character in the story, which begins by Death presenting himself to the reader. This technique creates a really strong bond between the book and the reader, since the narrator addresses directly to the reader. It is also a way of captivating the reader, who, by being directly addressed to, feels like he has his own place in the story and gets curious about what that …show more content…

In the classic era, death had a rather god-like power and was above us all. Zusak, however, really humanizes death by giving her the most human of feelings and experiences, such as compassion, pity, empathy. More so, Death plays a critical role in Liesel’s story and a strong bond is created between the two. The last sentence of the novel shows exactly what kind of personification of death Zusak has created: “Even Death has a heart.” The Book Thief is an example of how successful a personification of such a powerful entity that generates fear among all living things can be. Something like the Holocaust can only be described by someone who has seen every face of every victim, has heard every story of every survivor and has felt every last grasp of air of every person who died in that massacre. When I first saw this book, I was instantly captivated by the idea of Death narrating the story, and I believe that such an idea, when it is developed and built the right way, is what sets the difference between good novels and brilliant …show more content…

Today, unrequited love is a theme found in many works of art and has gained a lot of popularity, one of the factors of its growing popularity being the well-known “friendzone” term, first used in the “Friends” TV show. Unrequited love has deeper meanings than its popularized synonym, but the works of art made due to this media frenzy are to be taken into account, since there are some that really go beyond a media frenzy. One of the more recent works of literature that contain this theme is the Harry Potter series. Severus Snape has strong feelings for Lily Evans, his neighbour who becomes his childhood best friend. The fact that they are both wizards in a world where magic has to be hidden brings them together. Snape’s feelings prove to be unhealthy ever since the beginning of these two friends’ story, when Snape hurts Lily’s sister, Petunia, because she was mean to Lily. This episode is one of the many that show how Snape is incapable of expressing his feelings in an orthodox or even understandable way. As a teenager, after being bullied by Lily’s new friends, Severus insults her only because he finds it awfully difficult to trust people, even old friends like Lily. His trust issues and social awkwardness are some of the factors that cause the separation between him and

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The Book Thief starts off with the narrator describing different scenes of death. While going to different scenes where death occurs, the narrator comes up with death being like the Nazi flag. Also, as these scenes are being portrayed the narrator introduces us to the main character Liesel. Liesel will become the book thief after she first steals a book when her brother was buried. After this horrific event, Liesel is given to new parents where she will live a better life.

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The Book Thief is narrated by Death. Throughout the book he makes casual remarks about his job, but occasionally he puts the casual talk on hold, and that is when one can infer that he cares about something. Rudy Steiner was a talented boy, from running around a track, to soccer, to memorizing facts about ancient beings, he was the best of the best, and what is hard to like about that? Nearly all the time, death is associated with all objects depressing.

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920 Words | 4 Pages

The Book Thief is a novel set in the era of the Holocaust. Liesel Meminger has to survive through hard times after being left in foster care by her mother. The overall theme of the story is that words can have a powerful effect, especially with a different tone of voice, inspiring a multitude of feelings in people, such as fear or hope. Words always manage to seem underwhelming, but twisting them in the correct way yields results. For example, page 110 features a speech from a Nazi official: “‘We put an end to the disease that has been spread through Germany for the last twenty years, if not more!’

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PERSONIFICATION Personification is when a passage is giving human qualities to animals or objects. Gary uses personification in chapter thirteen paragraph two which

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I think that death ends The Book Thief by saying, “I am haunted by humans,” because of the hatred and malice that humans possess. Firstly, on page 491, death describes how he was the one who served Hitler most faithfully, since he was always collecting millions of souls during Hitler’s reign, simply because there were some people that Hitler disliked and thought should be killed. This shows how hostile the human race can be, proving death’s point. Another detail that supports this statement is the Jew parades. The Jewish people are led through the town, on their way to Concentration Camps, and if any townsperson tries to offer help to them, they are brutally whipped and beaten, while other Nazi supporters stand on the sidewalks and cheer and

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The Book Thief is a novel that is written by Markus Zusak. The book is narrated by death who is intrigued by a little German girl, liesel meminger. It takes place in the time of the time of Nazi germany. Death follows this girls story that starts off with her as an with her brother who are brought in by the humbermans. Her brother dies on the ride there and she lives alone with the hubermanns.

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Liesel has realized she must respect the man who was the reason for her and her entire families suffering. She has realized she officially has lost her home, that she is completely isolated from the community. “It was quite a sight seeing an eleven year old girl try not to cry on church steps, saluting fuhrer”(Zusak 115). After losing all of these emotionally wrecking things Liesel learns and understands she needs to keep going forward. She refuses to give up she although times are rough manages to think, it could be worse.

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Cyrus Montazeri Ms.Hiew English 8 Honors 17 April 2023 The Book Thief: A Guide to the Complexity of Humanity Even though individuals and societies can have good and bad traits, human behavior remains consistent because of the conflicting nature of humanity and the underlying similarities between these traits. The fact that humans can possess both negative and positive qualities simultaneously, even within a society, is a contradiction that is highlighted by Death's observations in The Book Thief. Death itself plays a significant role in The Book Thief.

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Liesel’s foster family and friends that she grown to appreciate are all decimated by a bomb. Shocked by the sudden loss of everyone she used to love, Liesel weeps and faints. Those moments are times when both the audience and principle characters truly understand the significance of death, and with further thought, realize that there have always been signs of death on display

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795 Words | 4 Pages

All that I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I truly know. Implicating that death was at lost for words.” Death didn't know how to put it into words how everything that Liesel has gone through has affected him. Instead he even though previous in the book said that; “Even death has a heart” he is able to demonstrate that he truly can’t express the emotions with a heart, saying “I am haunted by

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2017 Words | 9 Pages

Liesel’s life is turned upside-down when Max, a Jew, comes to stay with her foster family, going against everything she has been taught. Liesel and Max quickly form a forbidden friendship that stretches their understanding of truth and love. With paradox, irony, and symbolism, Zusak brings the plot

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987 Words | 4 Pages

Death, the last figure we see before our grasp on reality slips for the last time, a constant reminder of our mortality. Death is also the first figure we are introduced to and the narrator of The Book Thief. By use of his monologue we learn of his fascination with colors as an escape from his never ending duties as a soul collector. This insight into Death's personality assures us that he is not an emotionless character, but that rather then succumbing to the sad and sometime horrific scenes of his victims he must find ways of enduring them. Through Deaths travels we're brought to another of his fascinations, a small girl and the main protagonist of the story, Liesel Meminger.

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880 Words | 4 Pages

Zusak used personification in the novel when he gave the narrator, Death, who is non-living, but has human qualities. The way the author applied this technique to ‘The Book Thief’ was so that the reader felt connected and could relate to the narrator. As Death was created as an omniscient, Zusak’s goal was for the narrator to create meaning and to give the reader an expression that he understood what it was like to be human but actually wasn’t human himself. “Even death has a heart” is an example of the use of personification, explaining that even though death is non-living he feels the same things as humans, especially when it comes to tragic moments. Zusak didn’t just use personification with the narrator but he also used it in relation to the imagery and setting of the story, as well as describing human features “As she crossed the river, a rumour of sunshine stood behind the clouds.”

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244 Words | 1 Pages

The introduction of a book is a crucial element to the plot. While reading the prologue of The Book Thief, I was immediately introduced to the alternative perspective of the story. The very first words of the book was, “First the colors. Then the humans.” The narrator refers to people as, “the humans,” which reveals to me that the point of view is told by a personified character of Death.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

One example of personification is when comes to visit Grant after work: “A little farther over, where another patch of cane was standing, tall and blue-green, you could see the leaves swaying softly from a breeze.” (Gaines 86) The use of personification is effective because it allows the reader to visualise. In this instance, it creates an image of the leaves swaying in the wind.

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