How Does Zusak Show Courage In The Book Thief

In his World War II novel, The Book Thief, Markus Zusak chooses to utilise the powerful tool of characterisation to express and represent themes, values and memorable ideas to the audience. In his creation of characters within the novel, Zusak decides to create a distinct voice for his narrator, Death, the protagonist, Liesel, Rudy and Hans Hubermann, Liesel’s adoptive father, in order to communicate ideas of courage and resilience, the paradoxical nature of humans as well as the poignant humility that existed within World War II, which is often seen as a savage, brutal era in time. The result of his conscientious characterisation is a strong expression of his main themes, and the use of a distinct voice allows Zusak to speak directly to the

Through his use of subversive philosophy and strong affinity towards the paradoxical nature of humans, Zusak guides us towards the normal, ordinary characters, choosing to expose the complexity of many war-stories that is often overlooked. The ethical and moral courage of Hans Hubermann is explored deeply through his contextually controversial actions. Interacting with a small group of starving Jewish people, Death describes to us that “Hans Hubermann…. presented a piece of bread like magic.” The symbolic nature of giving bread, representing community and kindness, partnered with the simile of bread being comparable to magic allows Zusak to position our attitude towards Hans in a profoundly positive light. Resilience, the ability to move forward under any combination of circumstances, is a particular form of courage explored in the novel. Liesel’s despairing history communications a powerful resilience within her. Death’s insightful narration guides our understanding of Liesel’s resilience, observing that “[she] staggers on, coughing and searching, and finding”. The accumulation of present participles within his observation creates a linguistic metaphor of the act of constantly moving on, with a negative tone to represent Liesel doing this even while in dire circumstances. Zusak’s conveying of the courage of common peoples

In his powerful use of an unbiased, yet omnipresent Death as a narrator, Zusak expresses a consistent battle of good and apparent evil within each character. For example, Rudy is described by Death as a “would be giver of bread, not a stealer – proof of the contradictory human being”. This paradox of stealing or giving bread presents the contradiction of what is seen of Rudy and what is the ultimate reality of his character. Zusak’s choice to display Rudy as a perfect Arian stereotype, or “triple Hitler Youth champion” is a strong opposition to what his character is, a caring, warm-hearted boy who holds Jesse Owens, a black man, as his hero. Over the course of the novel, Markus Zusak utilises Death’s distinct and powerful voice as a temporal and secular being to communicate ideas and themes directly with the audience. Immediately before Liesel’s death, Death moves into a philosophical tangent about the human race as a whole, and the paradoxical nature he sees. The “beauty and brutality”, the “overestimating and underestimating”, the “ugly and so glorious” and the “damning and brilliant”. This extensive accumulation of paradoxes and contradictions to describe what Death sees of the human race is a powerful representation of the central theme Zusak wants to convey: that humans are a natural paradox. Death ends