How Is Death Portrayed In The Book Thief

Opening Paragraph: By showing death has a human-like nature, Mark Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, exemplifies that death does, in fact, have a soul death feels for the people that he has to take to the afterlife. With World War II occurring in Europe, death tells the story of a life of a particular young girl who piques his interests in the midst of a chaotic time in history. Zusak shows author's style by using personification, symbolism, and foreshadowing of death in The Book Thief.

With the paint, Max made his book and drew pictures

Written by Markus Zusak, The Book Thief is a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Liesel Meminger narrated through the words of Death. The thievery character of this girl emerged after the death of her younger brother. Built over a prolonged period, this desperate nature is the foundation of what became of her later in the story. The books that Liesel stole, the stories that she told, and novel that she wrote enhanced a symbolic meaning in this novel centered around wholeness. Liesel Meminger’s first victim was the gravedigger.

He is not able to forget the faces of "the survivors," "the leftover humans," "the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise. " Death is surprised by seeing the amount of courage that survivors can have to be able to move on. He also pities them at the same time because he believes that it is better to die than to live with the guilt of surviving. This guilt is faced by many characters in this novel such as Max, Hans, Mr. Steiner and Liesel. This guilt is the same that Death has for having to see the survivors grieves and the millions of deaths.

Death is introduced immediately as the narrator of the book, and he reveals some key information about his personality. One of his most prominent characteristics is how he feels bored and irritated by his job, a feeling we can relate to; "The trouble is, who could ever replace me? Who could step in while I take a break in your stock-standard resort-style holiday destination...?" In this quote, Death is shown to be more human than his usual image suggests.

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.

Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, uses superb literary techniques to pertain to the readers' attention. His most famous literary element or device is foreshadowing and symbolism. Zusak uses foreshadowing to allow the reader to imagine and think about what is going to happen next or if what is really happening is happening. He also seems to really enjoy using symbolism to portray the importance of different events so it becomes memorable to the reader. One of the most crucial scenes in this novel had a huge impact on the aspect of foreshadowing.

Issues Depicted in The Book Thief In the novel The Book Thief, written by Mark Zuzak, the author constructs together an intricate story that explores many real-life events during World War II. The story is told through the eyes of Death the narrator, taking the readers on a journey of events following the life of Liesel Meminger. Throughout the text, several themes were shown to connect with non-fictional events happening in Germany during the Nazi Regime. Exploring characters in the book gives the readers a better understanding of how the novel depicts reality through the struggles each character faces.

Yet, all of them become broken due to the tragic disturbance. This story explores the idea that death is often harder for those who survive through the characters of Ilsa Hermann, Michael Holtzepfel, and Liesel Meminger. Death is difficult for Ilsa as shown through the fact that she makes herself pay the price for her son's death,

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.

When living during war isn’t an option, the only choice one can make is to remain firm against death. The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, takes place in 1939 Nazi Germany, where millions of people are killed on the battlefield, in concentration camps, or from starvation and disease. The character Death narrates the novel, taking each person’s soul from their body as they die. Following the main character, Lisel Meminger, Death tells a story of the horrors of war that take place in Germany, and how death affects everyone around Liesel. Death is a trustworthy narrator whose abilities both separate him from a human narrator and allow him to narrate The Book Thief without outside influence.

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.

This may be the reason why death sees in colors as explained by Zusak, “A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them” (Zusak 4). One such scene includes the building of the snowman in the Hubermanns basement.

There is a wide variety of different colors we can see through many things In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death is the narrator and often connects the souls he collects to different colors. The color he sees normally represents something such as white may mean they are pure and innocent. Zusak portrays Death as a witty, sarcastic character, yet there is a deeper part of Death he has experienced so much and the colors are a way for him to connect to the human world. The theme of color can be found throughout the novel through Death and his life-changing experiences, Zusak shows the power of colors through Liesel, Death and other characters. Colors often represent a bigger picture of what is going on.

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.