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The Theme Of Death In Markus Zusak´s The Book Thief

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The novel “The Book Thief” written by Markus Zusak, is narrated by a being who identifies himself as Death. The author chose this character to be the point of view of his story in order to explain more elements of the world the novel takes place in. By using Death as the narrator, the author is able to give a unique perspective on all of the dying that occurs during this historical time period and in Liesel’s own life. In this novel, Death is not all-knowing. This meaning that he does not know everything that is occurring in this time or events that are occurring anywhere else in the world. He gets his information the same way that all of us do in our own lives. He gets it from experiences that he has dealt with personally and also what he
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He was always kind and he and Liesel formed a friendship and they would read together. He made her a book about his story and left the book for her after he left. All of these characters impacted Liesel in their own way and showed theme of take nothing for granted by the characters giving something to Liesel and she took them for granted until they were gone and she realized her mistake. Death narrated this story and the reader got to see his point of view of The Book Thief and understand how he sees the world and humans. This takes place in Nazi Germany, 1939 during WW II.

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The book, “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, is not only written about the mass murder of millions of Jews, in addition, the book is from the perspective of no other than death itself. It displays what death feels with every soul he takes, seeing what goes through his mind with the job that is forced upon him. In the book, death ends the novel with “I am haunted by humans” (Zusak 550), the theme this quote allows the reader to infer is “there is a different side to every story”. Just like all of humanity, death did not ask to be here. There is a side to every story and death’s is that he is simply doing the task he was created to do.

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Benjamin Franklin, the author of The Autobiography and Sandra Cisneros, the author of Straw Into Gold: The Metamorphosis of the Everyday both define success and how they achieved it, in their piece of writing. Though they both may seem to have similar views on success, they infact differ greatly. Franklin believes that in order to reach success, one must alter himself through the use of a method, while Cisneros believes that rather than changing himself, one can use his imagination and the small things in life to be successful. Furthermore, Franklin describes achieving success at the moment he starts working towards the goal, whereas Cisneros describes achieving success once she has completed her goals.

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The Book Thief is narrated by Death. Throughout the book he makes casual remarks about his job, but occasionally he puts the casual talk on hold, and that is when one can infer that he cares about something. Rudy Steiner was a talented boy, from running around a track, to soccer, to memorizing facts about ancient beings, he was the best of the best, and what is hard to like about that? Nearly all the time, death is associated with all objects depressing.

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The novel, “The Book Thief”, written by Markus Zusak shows the nature of human beings and their actions during what was arguably the most catastrophic time in human history, the reign of Nazi Germany. He demonstrates the impact that words have had on the the nation, the world, and a young girl named Liesel Meminger. However, to portray this, he utilizes a narrator which can explain events in a way no other living being can- ‘Death’. Throughout the novel, Death describes the life-changing events that Liesel is forced to undergo, but he highlights how she is able to power through them and achieve an outcome so great. Most of all, he explains how is eventually able to understand the true meaning of words, and how they have the capacity to be so simple, yet unimaginably powerful.

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Even death, a metaphysical entity understands the full spectrum of experiences Liesel has gone through. Death unfruitfully “[tries to tell the book thief many things] about beauty and brutality” but “he couldn’t tell her [things she already knew]” (550). Deaths inability to inform Liesel about countless struggle and resilience towards it demonstrates Liesel ’s innate understanding of hardship. Death decides not to tell Liesel anything due to the fact that she has culminated an immense understanding of her experiences on both sides of the beauty spectrum, and it is because of this understanding Liesel grows stronger in her resilience towards further hardship.

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Words have allowed for the advancement and understanding of the human race. Authors choose words to express their ideas and share them throughout the world. Markus Zusak exemplifies an author’s goal to get there message across. In The Book Thief by Zusak, he uses words and all there power to entice key human aspects of our lives: emotion, logic and ethics.

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The power of words in “The Book Thief” and the endless strength they carry is a prime topic throughout the book. “The Book Thief”, a novel narrated by Death about Liesel, a young German girl who is given up for adoption to live with the Hubermann’s shortly before World War II. Liesel discovers the power that words, written or spoken, have to transform people, relationships, and lives. In the novel, Mark Zusak uses the relationship between characters to signify the power of words. Within “The Book Thief” the author suggests that words hold much power and have a major role in crafting the relationships between the characters.

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To love is to risk. Whether that is risking life, belief, health, or reputation, it is still a risk at any rate to give devotion to another. No era in history knows this better than during the Holocaust. Still, the most unexpected of people would die trying to help Jews escape persecution, they would help others who didn't share the same moral foundation as they did, they would share food rations when they barely had enough for themselves, or they would risk their public standing and forever be labeled as a sympathizer just to help a suffering soul regain his balance. Similarly, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief demonstrates a complete comprehension of how humans act against self preservation and individual comfort when challenged with harrowing situations that appeal to their own personal connections.

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Death plays a bigger role in life than life itself. When people die, people cry, and while people cry, a clear moment of lucidity occurs. Death is what makes every moment worth living and is told through stories of books and movies with symbols both subtle and blunt. Night, for example, is an autobiographical novel recalling Eliezer’s experience through concentration camps while The Book Thief is a historical fiction film where Liesel is a bystander who participates in activities symbolizing war. History is intertwined death.

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‘That [Death] in a way was a metaphor for the idea that this book is about people doing beautiful things in a really ugly time.’ (Zusak, 2010) One of the central themes presented in The Book Thief is the idea of family. It is evident in the text that the idea of a family is not just limited to those in which we are inherently connected; it encompasses those we care for. Her arrival on Himmel Street, leaves Liesel struggling to face the abandonment she has experienced with her mother leaving her for a reason she does not understand and the devastating loss of her brother, Werner, whose ghost haunts her throughout the novel.

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Markus Zusak has assembled ‘The Book Thief’ using a variety of narrative conventions. These include a unique narrative viewpoint, plot structure and use of imagery, all of which provide meaning to the reader. (33 words) A narrative’s point of view refers to who is telling the story. In this case Zusak’s narrator identifies himself as Death.

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1. Explain the symbolism of Death as the omniscient narrator of the novel. The symbolism of Death as the omniscient narrator fits the novel perfectly. In the story, it makes sense that Death is narrator because it was set during a time of war, where thousands of lives were lost.

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ntroduction Paragraph: The title of this book is The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, and this book is The extraordinary New York Times #1 Bestseller. The genre of the book is historical novel and the narrator is the Death, which describes not only all the main characters’ thoughts and emotions but also his own thoughts and feelings about the humans. Summary: The story takes place in the German town of Molching, a suburb of Munich during the World War II, from1939 to 1943. The story is about the book thief, Liesel Meminger, a German girl in age of 9, who was sent to her foster family, Rosa and Hans by her real mother due to some difficulties.

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He killed himself for wanting to live” (Zusak 503). While Michael deals with guilt by self destructing, Liesel, the main character, handles guilt using other methods. Liesel encounters guilt through the death of her loved ones in addition to the sadness of losing everything she had. She deals with this guilt by stealing books and reading with her Papa. By stealing books, she achieved the famous nickname, the Book Thief.

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