The Book Thief Rhetorical Analysis

Songs in the modern day have very intricate “literary devices.” It could be conveying a hidden message, reference, or mood using the lyrics or instruments to be vocal about something. The Book Thief by Markus Zusac is a historical fiction novel about a young girl (Liesel Meminger) who goes to her new home with her foster parents. She has a difficult time building new relationships at first, but as she settles in, she develops new friendships that make up the story. The soundtrack encompasses a series of depressing, destructive, bright, and mood changing songs that represent how relationships are often worth sacrificing for. The setting and conflict offer a depressing musical personality. The setting is first conveyed in the story as very gray.

This can be encapsulated when Rudy says “How about a kiss, Saumensch?” (241). Saumensch in German means b*****d, but Rudy and Liesel use this to talk to one another as they have become comfortable with each other. Not only that, the beat background vocals promote positive energy that could easily be interpreted as romantic in some sense. Liesel, the protagonist, can be mostly identified by the song “Your Hands are Cold” by Dario Marianelli. The song is sad and slow in the beginning, which is the equivalent of Liesel’s start to arriving at Himmel Street. An example of this could be when “The Book Thief stepped onto the road” when trying to approach Max, a person who was a close friend of Liesel, while he was being dragged away by the Nazi Party (509). There are also more intense and faster portions of the song, which could be when Liesel gets whipped after talking to Max, and also when she has multiple outbursts of anger at the mayor’s wife. When Liesel had once gotten angry at the mayor’s wife, she took “Two steps at a time, [and] she reached the door and banged it hard enough to