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The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

1205 Words5 Pages

In the novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, Death obtains a personality that is compassionate and remorseful and this causes a different view of Death itself. Death in the novel experiences both feelings of sadness and joy, at times it feels highly of humans and other times it thinks very poorly of humans. Death’s point of view and personality largely contradicts with the overall perspective of Death that is usually negative and frightening. Zusak’s portrayal of Death creates a central message that is not the usual depiction of Death. This message displays that Death is not something to be afraid of but something to expect. All humans die at a point and some even wish to die at times, through the novel the fact that there are worse things …show more content…

A negative and depressing connotation is what is usually connected to Death. Death is something that humans fear and try to avoid constantly, yet in the novel Death appears to be caring and kind to those deserving. Death feels very miserable when someone dies that did not deserve it, especially when they die in a horrible way. When Reinhold Zucker dies in the bus crash, Death says, “It kills me sometimes, how people die” (Zusak 464). Death exhibits emotions of remorse and pain for those who pass that contradict the hateful sense of Death shared by many. Death experiences severe emotions of sadness when Rudy Steiner dies, Death is aware that he is an innocent soul that should have much more life to live yet it is violently taken away due to war. When Death captures Rudy’s soul after the bombing takes his life away it says, “He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry” (Zusak 531). Death’s statement of absolute remorse for Rudy proves its sympathetic heart, it also proves that it does not enjoy what it has to do. Although death witnesses the ugly in the world it also witnesses the beauty and kindness that exists within it. Death in this novel is gentle and very compassionate for humans, not hateful towards them with no reasoning. With the evidence and reasoning it is clear that Death as personified in this novel does not fit the average stereotype of Death in other literature and

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Throughout the novel, mood changes drastically with the plot. At the onset of the text, a serious, yet sad feeling emerges from the toughness of Liesel and her struggles. Beside the minor conflicts, the middle of the novel leaves the reader with a cheery mood through the playfulness of Hans and Rudy and Death’s creative narrations. At the closure of story, a sadness is emitted from the tragedy of the bombing, but hope is soon brought back once the reader learns Liesel and Max live on. As mentioned much before, mood is set though the anger and envy that Gene feels in A Separate Peace.

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But that is simply not true. but of course humans find it challenging to understand his side. In the case for the death of Rudy Steiner, a loyal, sweet, and ambitious young boy, we hear about death’s thoughts on taking away his life. “ taking a boy like Rudy was robbery—so much life, so much to live for.” (Zusak 167)

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Death is introduced immediately as the narrator of the book, and he reveals some key information about his personality. One of his most prominent characteristics is how he feels bored and irritated by his job, a feeling we can relate to; "The trouble is, who could ever replace me? Who could step in while I take a break in your stock-standard resort-style holiday destination...?" In this quote, Death is shown to be more human than his usual image suggests.

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On behalf of The Book Thief taking place during World War II, each character eventually encounters Death one way or another, whether someone around them is dying or the characters die themselves. The ways that the characters of The Book Thief react to him reveals their true intentions and emotions, once again, something that a human narrator cannot do. In a book meant to comment on the atrocities and sheer loss of World War II, Zusak chooses Death as the narrator of The Book Thief for this very reason, to show how death affected every individual no matter the situation. When an enemy pilot lands in Molching, Rudy rushes to help the pilot, and “Carefully, he climbed to the dying man. He placed [a] smiling teddy bear cautiously onto the pilot’s shoulder” (Zusak 490).

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Most of the readers view death as an interesting choice while narrating. This novel focuses on characters in difficult and dark situations hoping to prove to us that it’s (death) worth it while looking for glimmers of hope. Through Death, Zusak is able to deliver a novel that looks at humans through the eyes of a stranger. The readers are able to fill in the world by themselves while Zusak manages to convey the broken and horrible world without having to go into much detail.

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In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, Death, the narrator, is a distinctive and a nuanced figure. Death is not only a passive viewer of things that take place throughout the book, he or she is also a proactive participant who assumes the roles of narrator and historian and has his own internal conflicts throughout the book. Death is introduced in the narrative as a bone chilling, inhuman, attachmentless creature who is only interested in gathering souls. “I could introduce myself properly, but it’s really not necessary,” (Zusak 18). But as the book goes on, the reader starts to recognize more of Death that is not only sympathetic but also moved and shaken by the pain of other characters in the novel.

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The survivors. They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions, I still fail. ”This technique directly reveals the benevolent yet complex character he is and how he is so far from his usual stereotype. Death is represented to soften the chilling historical period and show it through an eyes of another. The human perspective is found through Death as he struggles through the novel to decipher how humans are capable of creating so much ugliness from beauty, it seems that Death is most humane from any other character in the book and has something to teach us all.

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One of the novel’s most interesting aspects is its refusal to openly acknowledge death in an obvious fashion. Varying forms of the word ‘death’ are used throughout the work. The word ‘death’ only appears in sections of the novel that refer to

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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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