The Significant Role Of Death In The Book Thief

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Death. What is death? According to the Dictionary, it is the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism, or as the stereotypes envision a dark,ghastly,skull-like creature who carries a scythe and takes people's souls. That is not even close as to what we have learned. In this novel death has a very significant role to play in the Book Thief,which is the narrator. There are many reasons why the author used death as a narrator but the main one was to give the book some diversity.

In the book The Book Thief we see death not as a protagonist or an antagonist but as a innocent bystander. He sees all and knows all but is not God. Deaths appearance is not what us humans think it is. He is merely visible as a man with a black robe and a hood,only when it is cold. Since this is said in the book we now know that death has feelings and is not bones like the stereotypes say. Death sees hope and is thrilled by it and looks for stories because he is bored of his job of collecting souls. In the novel it says “he crosses the sky to get to where he is going”. Death does not carry a scythe either. Death loves to watch people just because he is bored and has nothing else to do. Death has the most depressing job in the universe. Death explains …show more content…

There are not many books out there that are told by deaths point of view. It is just not likely to have that in such a novel. This gives the novel The Book Thief a unique tint to the whole book. Not only is death telling the story but he is also witnessing it as an innocent