The Many Faces of Perseverance The ability to continue on with one's goals in difficult times or situations is one that requires strength, hope and most importantly, perseverance. One may persevere despite discouragement, obstacles and difficulties. One may show this persistence in many different ways including physically, mentally and spiritually. The theme of perseverance is evident in the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and the short story “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen through the perseverance of the body, mind and spirit. Physical perseverance is when one's body overcomes physical obstacles. This type of perseverance is featured in the novel The Book Thief and the short story “The Little Match Girl”. This perseverance …show more content…
Staying mentally strong in times of distress is something that many struggle with. To sustain mental strength, many turn to other humans, however many find comfort in inanimate objects, as do the two main characters in the writing pieces. The character Liesel Meminger shows perseverance of the mind in the novel by using books to maintain her mental strength: “A warm scream filled her throat. When the dragging was done, the mother and the girl stood and breathed. There was something black and rectangular lodged in the snow. Only the girl saw it. She bent down and picked it up and held it firmly in her fingers. The book had silver writing on it” (Zusak 24). This quotation shows Liesel mentally persevering as she maintains mental strength throughout her grieving of her brother’s death by using books to remind her of her late brother. Liesel never had an opportunity to properly grieve the death of her brother and mentally breaking down would be very easy for her to do. Instead she mentally endures through the help of the books she has stolen. In the short story “The Little Match Girl” the young girl mentally perseveres by using her matches: “She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love” (Andersen). Just as Liesel used her books to mentally persevere, this little girl used her matches, allowing her to be distracted from her pain. Both of these young girls use inanimate objects to help them persevere and to remain calm in times of distress. Mental perseverance was crucial to these characters, as was perseverance of the
The future is a series of unexpected chapters in our lives packed with thrilling mysteries and remarkable miracles. Although the future may blossom with new, budding experiences, unforgettable tragedies and misfortunes can alter an individual's life. Refraining from grief takes plenty of courage and determination to overcome. As an individual with numerous experiences and involvements throughout my life, I strongly believe that our hopes and beliefs are exceptionally powerful. Throughout The Book Thief ,there are plenty of reasons to support the countless themes that are mentioned in this book. However, I was intrigued by the symbolization of hope, how it had affected the characters and their surroundings, as well as their belief in hope.
Nearly everyone has a dream in life that they desperately want to accomplish. Without these dreams people wouldn’t strive to accomplish what makes them happy. Sometimes happiness might be hard to reach because of obstacles faced in life. The obstacles which one faces and how they can overcome them are remarked in Anne Lauren’s Carter short story “Leaving the Iron Lung”. In order for the author to show that one must overcome faced obstacles to pursue their dreams, she uses the protagonist transformation, contrasting characters and settings.
In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak tells the tragic story of Liesel Meminger and her experiences in 1939 Nazi Germany. Zuzak incorporates compelling literary devices such as toe curling foreshadowing, personification, and vivid imagery in the form of simile and metaphors to grasp the readers’ interest. Zusak’s use of various literary devices helps to deepen the text and morals of the story, and makes the dramatic historical novel nearly impossible to put down.
In this essay I will talk about The Book Thief Characters. The characters are Liesel, Rudy, And Max. I Will talk about how they are Influenced by society in This Book/Movie. I am going to three Paragraphs about these three characters. This essay is going to be a Compare and Contrast Essay.
Throughout life many people face difficulties. Depending on the person’s strength some will get through tough times, but some will fail to overcome them. Two books where characters have to face many challenges include: Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Book Thief. These two stories deal with people overcoming the difficulties faced throughout everyday life. Some difficulties include racism, religious discrimination, and dealing with others’ cruelness or kindness. Examples from these books prove that the characters have challenges throughout the stories to overcome. In the face of adversity what causes some individuals to fail while others prevail?
Liesel’s slow development of the power of words causes her to experience the negative effects of words and misery on many occasions throughout her lifetime.
In the book, A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, Salva shows perseverance is key when facing life’s challenges.
In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, beauty and brutality is seen in many of the characters. Rudy, Liesel, and Rosa display examples of beauty and brutality often without realizing what exactly they are doing, because it is a part of their human nature. Zusak not only uses his characters, but also the setting of the novel in Nazi Germany to allude to his theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature. The time in which the novel is set, during World War II, displays great examples of beauty and brutality, such as the mistreatment of the Jews. As a result of this time period, the characters have to go through troubling times, which reveals their beautiful and brutal nature in certain circumstances. Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel.
The hope to survive is shown through the author’s use of figurative language. For example, Gerda listening to her parents’ conversation about her father leaving on the train the next morning brings her strength. Her parents’ love and courage sustains Gerda through the happy
A wise person once said, “Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.” Some people think that if they fail once, they can never succeed. However, if you just keep pushing forward and never give up, you can achieve your dreams. The Book Thief is a book everyone should read at least once in their life, for it is relatable to today’s teens and many other people because it teaches the valuable life lesson of never giving up.
As a final point, literature informs humanity about these types of topics proven in The Book Thief with friendship, courage and perseverance. It teaches the readers that friendship relies on trust between two people and mentally help a person to live a continuing life. It also demonstrates that with courage, people will overcome that fear of doing things they have never thought of doing, but will face the fear of the outcome. Further, with perseverance, anyone can feel like they can accomplish the impossible and thrive to be successful. Perhaps, since we humans educate ourselves mostly from literature. It is the only piece of advice we can take and learn our valuable lessons from.
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."
That one’s fate is inexorable…the sad ending of Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl,’ a deeply moving story…“The Little Match Girl” is a moralistic tale about the cruelty of the world; it arouses compassion for the downtrodden. But what the child who feels downtrodden needs…conviction that he can escape his fate. (105)
A woman's strength has shown the ability to successfully achieve her own goal by trying to survive by each different stories she has told her
Death states that, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). This book shows us human doing things that weren’t even imaginable before this point. Many people give into ideas that were lies. But, we also watch a few people go out of their way and sacrifice everything for a man they barely even know. They do everything they can to keep him safe and alive. They work harder, the get another job, and they even steal. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, death examines the ugliness and the beauty of humans.