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The Power Of Words In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

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The Book Thief is a remarkable book written by Markus Zusak. The book is about a little girl named Liesel based in the 1930s in Nazi, Germany. The narrative point of view in this book is death which is what makes it so extraordinary. The novel establishes the power of words to destroy people; despite that, the bonds they create overcome the negative effects. In the beginning Liesel does not realize how harmful words can be; however, as she matures she learns more about words and how powerful they truly are.
Words have the ability to hurt people and although they are helpful at times they are not always used in the right manner. When someone is angry words do things as small as ruining someone’s day to ruining someone’s life. When Liesel was angry with the mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann “She sprayed her words directly in to the woman’s eyes…Cuts had opened up… all from the words” …show more content…

When the raids continued to happen in Molching Liesel would bring her books to keep herself calm. Until one day papa said “if there are more raids, keep reading in the shelter” (442). That is exactly what Liesel did, even though she was in fear she used her words to help others once again. Ironically reading has not always been an easy task for Liesel Meminger. When she arrived to Himmel Street she could barley read a sentence and now, years later she decided to write her own story. During the bombing of Munich Liesel concluded her novel “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I made them right” (528). Just like that those couple of words saved her life and all of the struggles became worth it.
Overall The Book Thief has a brilliant way of integrating the power of words. The message portrayed allows the audience to see how the positives can outweigh the negatives no matter the situation. While words can be harmful sometimes it is the simplest ones that can be the most life

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