Book Thief Foreshadowing

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Everyone is fated to die; the real question is, how and why this phenomenon occurs. Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, articulates what is already known from the begging, the fact that we will all die. In this book, Zusak makes it clear which characters will perish from the very beginning, but leaves out real mystery for the end, how and why we will die. Foreshadowing is used on many different occasions throughout this novel. During The Book Thief, serving as the narrator, Death performs the literary device of foreshadowing on various distinctive incidents to permit the reader to have just a peak into what the future of the book contains. Also, it ensures that the journey of how a character dies rather then the actual event is far more significant. Death states the end before the begging to exemplify how there is no overcoming fate while the plethora of this foreshadowing adds to the meaning of the work. The message Zusak is portraying through Death’s narrative appears to be the concept that there is no evading Death himself.
Death states the end before the begging to exemplify how there is no overcoming the dominant force of fate. As used in Death’s side notes, foreshadowing the end of the story appears to be Death’s favorite part of narrating the story. An instance when Death suggests the passing of Rudy Steiner is when he states, “***A SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT RUDY STEINER*** He didn’t deserve to die the way he did” (Zusak 241). While analyzing this quotation, Zusak clearly says Liesel’s best friend Rudy, is going to die. The mystery of this statement appears to be how and why this affair transpired. Yet, Rudy’s outcome is still identified, the question now remains, why did Death reveal this information prior ...

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...ative appears to be the concept that there is no evading Death himself. All along, it is believed that Death is trying to show the importance of the journey rather then the destination. The fact that everyone is going to die someday is undefeatable. So rather then conclude with that uninteresting conclusion, Death throws it out from the beginning leaving the reader in suspense while wondering how and why this happened to a specific character. This abundance of foreshadowing adds meaning to the text by connecting future symbols with the present. Lastly, Deaths message seems to be that there is escaping him or his result. Everybody is fated to die. So when we are faced with choices in life, are we really making these choices? If everything is already predestined, aren’t we just fated to make that choice? Do we not have any say in our own lives at all…?

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