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Power Of Words In The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

673 Words3 Pages

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words played a vital role to both heal and destroy in this time period of war. Words are used to either influence people and things in a positive or negative way. Liesel learns that she has the power of words on her side and that words can affect her life and what happens in it. On the other hand, words cause atrocious things to happen as well, like Hitler coming to power. Words also have the power to heal and create marvelous things in the bad world. The Holocaust occurred when Hitler came to power, caused by his power of words; as Death states: “The Fuhrer decided that he would rule the world with words.” (Zusak 445). Hitler manipulated the Germans to think that other people, such as Jews, are not the ideal human race and they need to abolish them. The Germans were oblivious to what Hitler was trying to accomplish because they were blinded by his wise and knowledgeable choice of words. Additionally, everything in this novel was caused by words, from Hitler coming to power, Max using Mein Kampf to get to the Hubermann’s house, Liesel saving Max when he got sick, Liesel and Max’s relationship, and Liesel living in the end of the novel from being in the basement …show more content…

She came to realize the amount of power and impact her words had on others when she read to everyone in the bomb shelter and she was able to calm all the trembling humans. Words have amazing abilities to bring optimism to some or damage things around oneself. Shortly after her arrival to Himmel Street the book burning occurred, she watched thousands of books and words being burned only because Hitler did not agree with what they were focused on or who wrote them. At the book burning, Liesel learned that her mother was a communist, and then on further Liesel hated Hitler because she saw all the words being burned and realized that it was Hitler who took her mother away and destroyed her biological

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The Importance of Words in the Book Thief The plot of The Book Thief if heavily influenced by words. Used by persons like Hitler, words are what turns a country like Germany into a horrible dictatorship. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words are important because they are more powerful than just pure force alone and can be used to convey emotions. In this novel words are used mainly in three ways.

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