The Power Of Words In The Book Thief

Conner Bradley
Professor Monique Michelakos
ENG3U
23 March 2016
The Book Thief: Power of Words
“I Have a Dream”, a speech from over half a century ago was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr in order to expose America to the massive racial inequality during the times. Martin’s dream was to achieve equal rights, increase jobs and economic opportunities for African Americans, as African Americans were discriminated against by being used for slaves, getting forced to live in poverty, rejected from speaking their own language and being forced to give up their culture. African Americans were also segregated, and looked upon as dirty and impure only for being part of a culture. Similarly, Max Vandenburg had a dream, his dream being equality for Jews

Being a Jew in Germany during World War two was not easy, and in The Book Thief, all this suffering was brought upon the Jewish culture by one man - Adolf Hitler - and his words. Words have had a positive and negative impact on Zusak's characters throughout the entire novel. Words between Max and Liesel caused them to bond closely, however words iterated by Adolf Hitler caused an immense prejudice towards Max, causing max to leave as he is a liability to the Hubermanns. Just as words between Liesel and Hans allow Liesel to open up to the Hubermanns, as Hans teaching her to read allowed her to develop and accept the Hubermanns, as a contrast words between Rosa and Liesel make Liesel realize that her real mother is never returning. Finally, words between Death and Liesel allowed Death to become drawn to Liesel, because Liesel writing her life story allowed Death to re-iterate it. Through his characters, Zuzak demonstrates that words can have either a positive or negative effect on people, from allowing

Liesel learning to read and write has given her the ability to write down her story, a story that shows pain and sadness but also pleasure and happiness. It is a story that inspired Death, as Death picked it up to keep. As Liesel was meeting Death, the book she wrote came up as Death held on to it, “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell that she didn’t already know?” Death continues with some sediment towards the human race “I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask how the same thing could be so ugly and glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” (Zusak 550). As Death was reminiscing on the book Liesel wrote, he realized that words and stories were so damning and brilliant, the relationship between Death and Liesel is very strong, as Death has seen Liesel develop and grow as a character and as a person, and her usage of words in her book has brought Death closer to Liesel although Liesel is completely oblivious to Death observing her. This also shows Death as a character developing, because Death is not supposed to show sediment towards people however throughout the novel Death has become invested in Liesel. In conclusion, Death’s only contact