The Book Thief Power Of Words

The Spread of Immoral Ideas

Human corruption is not something that is unfamiliar with the world as national leaders, popular figures, and “friendly” neighborhood citizens have abused their power before. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak is a historical fictional novel that is narrated by Death. The storyline follows the life of a young girl named Liesel Meminger who lives in Germany with her foster family during the era when the Nazis reigned by manipulating the German citizens. Ultimately, The Book Thief uses a combination of language and propaganda through the motifs of Adolf Hitler and his autobiography, Mein Kampf, to express how humans use words to spread immoral ideas.

To begin with, words have the power to sway how society views certain

For instance, an Aryan shopkeeper’s mind has been implemented with the idea that everyone should worship Hitler and the Nazi party, “‘I’m waiting’ she said ‘Heil Hitler’ Rudy led… ‘And you?’ She glared at Liesel who promptly gave her a ‘heil Hitler’ of her own.” (155). This scene displays the lack of acceptance of others’ beliefs, caused by the biased information spread by Hitler and his Nazis. Disinformation is used to target those who are vulnerable to blindly complying with an order made by an idolized figure. Due to this, different groups of people are pitted against each other for having contrary views on particular topics, thus, changing the ways people see each other. Friends become enemies and families are broken apart, all because of a political or religious difference. In addition, the Nazi push to get people to read Hitler’s autobiography causes others to disapprove of a young girl learning how to read by using any other book than Mein Kampf, “‘And what trash is this girl reading? She should be reading Mein Kampf’” (105). Since Mein Kampf is full of immoral ideas, the Nazis use it to spread the word that everyone must join Hitler’s political party, which in effect, poisons the way people interact with one another. Instead of learning to tolerate others’ actions, those who praise Adolf Hiter would rather be ignorant to the fact that not everyone agrees with one certain idea. Ignorance along with the spread of false information, many are under pressure to change their natural habits such as reading different books or adapting to different lifestyles. All in all, propaganda changes people in a way that they become a new person and brainwash others into doing the