Theme Of Compassion In The Book Thief

The Power of Compassion

Dalai Lama once said “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” This is indeed true for mankind. Love and compassion are the natural traits of man that prevent us from harming each other. Once those qualities are removed, wars are one of the results that break out. In order for man to survive, love and compassion are required to maintain the peace for humanity’s survival and prevent us from destroying each other as a whole. In Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief the characters always thrived to show compassion throughout the novel. This has lead to the survival of other characters and even empowerment to characters who are still going to die. Zusak implies that by seeing

Zusak uses this device in order to create a very meaningful scene through a reader’s imagination on how much love humans have towards one another. Zusak’s use of imagery really makes readers feel a deep connection towards the character or scene. “Somewhere in all that snow, she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. Each half was glowing and beating under all that white” (Zusak 24). Through this line, Zusak makes readers feel sympathy and even though the scene is not to be taken literally, readers can still imagine as if it’s actually happening within their imagination. Liesel's heart beating under all that white allows readers to see the compassion that comes from her innocent self, suffering from the death of her brother. Colors are also an important part of imagery that Zusak uses to make readers able to piece together the event. “The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring, In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness” (12). Red usually symbolizes love, danger and compassion. Red is the perfect color to use for this line because it suites the scene of the bombing during the war that's going on. Zusak intends readers to visualize the bloodshed that’s happening during this scene, and that bloodshed is what contributes to the compassion of man at times of suffering just like Liesel who experiences compassion at the loss of her

By using First Person Confessional, Zusak is able to give Death human like qualities. This allows readers to see a situation from a unique perspective not coming from another human, but still having that human like view. “I am haunted by humans” (Zusak 550). Giving death human like qualities allows readers to eliminate the feeling that death is some heartless entity everyone should fear. The readers can even relate to Death because of the feelings he/she acquires through the actions of man in the book. Readers can see from Death’s point of view on why he’s haunted by humans, and it’s because of his/her confusion on how man is complicated in that it can be both brutal and also at the same time compassionate. Through this, Death provides a direct mirror view of mankind. By using second person authorial, readers are able to feel more connected within the book. Death seems more welcoming, inviting the reader to see things his/her way. “Come with me and I’ll tell you a story. I’ll show you something” (544). This line makes death seem to be also compassionate, always wanting to tell a story to the readers about amazing people he/she has observed throughout life. Since death is a mirror of mankind through the human traits he shows, it makes readers able to see the human race as a whole through Death’s stories which help the reader understand the paradoxical message. Lastly, by using third