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The book thief symbolism essay
The book thief markus zusak and the power of words
The book thief symbolism essay
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In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak communicates an over-arching topic. This topic is; all objects convey dark tones. The idea is transmitted into the writing subtly throughout the excerpt, as well as the story. Zusak shares this message in this excerpt in many ways, one of which is personification. Zusak can be noticed using personification when talking about the plane, “The plane was still coughing. Smoke was leaking from both it’s lungs... No more flapping,” stated the Grim Reaper, “Not for this metallic little bird”(Zusak). This shows how Zusak successfully conveyed a very dark tone through an inanimate object, a plane, by personifying it and making people feel sympathy for it. Zusak does not just use personification, he also uses techniques
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.
...the dichotomy between the said and the implied. On the surface, it may seem to be a story that ends inconclusively about a boy who is never found, but the use of multifarious symbols each bringing with them a string of other meanings contributes to the symbolic richness of his prose.
Voltaire once said “[t]he longer we dwell on our misfortune the greater their power is to harm us”. Everyone has heard about bad luck and disaster, they are words that people just laugh at because they think that they will not be trapped into a situation where bad luck or disaster will come into hand. The proper word used for this type of situation is misfortune and misfortune is the decision of fate because it is the consequence humans put upon themselves by their actions. Humans do selfish things and expect the good to come of it and all that comes out of it is the bad, did anyone ever take the time to think that misfortune even affects those who do not deserve it but it was fate who chose to do it. It was fate who made those humans suffer
’’Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father's eyes. They were made of kindness, and silver. Like soft silver…..upon seeing those eyes,she understood Hans Hubermann was worth a lot.’’ (Zusak,34) Liesel saw kindness in Hans Hubermanns eyes which made her feels more comfortable with him rather than Rosa Hubermann.
Through ‘The Book Thief’, Markus Zusak has demonstrated his writing to be poignant, poetic, and profound. He is a writer of brilliance, a poet, the Picasso of words, a literary marvel.
"I am a result," claims Markus Zusak's Death in his novel The Book Thief (Zusak 8). This state of being for the persona commonly seen as malicious and destructive provides a good view of the unique image of Death presented in the novel. Far from the scythe toting, black hooded robe wearing Death of culture's common perception, the Death here is amiable, affable, and agreeable (1). He poses to the readers wishing to find out what he truly looks like to "find [themselves] a mirror" while he continues to narrate the tale. The being here hold much more of a resemblance to a beleaguered old man with an exhaustible deep supply of dry gallows humor. He is not taking joy in the deaths of humanity, or even causing them. He is the result of our dying. Someone (not just something) to clean up the mess we leave behind. And after millenia of witnessing humans at their best and worst, Death has developed a special love for them.
Words hold great power and when used correctly can influence what people believe and how they act.
As an innate experience of being human, characterization of death is an element that often permeates many literary works. However, in The Book Thief, Zusak provides a unique lens through which his personification of Death rejects the traditional Grim Reaper trope. While it may be his job to collect the souls of the deceased, Death is no “scythe” wielding, “black robe” wearing entity with “skull-like facial features” (Zusak 307). He “urge(s)” the reader to “trust [him]” for he is nothing if not “amiable. Agreeable.
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” said Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist. Fear can make things impossible by closing the window of opportunity and making what a person was trying to achieve impossible. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, both authors portray the theme of that by living your life in fear, you close your window of opportunity. The Book Thief is about a girl named Liesel Meminger who lives in Nazi Germany in the midst of WWII. A Light in the Attic is a collection of poems. Some are childish and some have a darker side. Both authors show that where there is fear, there is no opportunity through the climax, with irony, and through the characters’ actions.
The most intriguing item I’d like to address is how human Death seems. In a first person point of view, Death states: “In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know… You see? Even death has a heart”(Zusak 242). In The Book Thief, Death seems so human. It just about has a charisma or presence about it. Death’s narration is strikingly very eloquent and adds to the novel’s charm.
The Book Thief Short Essay: The Use of Foreshadowing, Irony, and Symbolism in The Book Thief
In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, there were countless examples that showed the author using a poetic writing style to describe the story of Liesel Meminger. The remarkable use of Death as the narrator intrigued me as a reader due to the fact that the story was about the holocaust. I loved the frequent use of foreshadowing; the bold type drew attention and would almost act as a spoiler in the story. This made me feel as if I was watching a black and white movie; it was both unsetting and unsentimental. Mark Zusak did not sugar coat anything in his writing making the story seem very cold and almost deathly which basically captured everything because the narrator is death and Mark makes you feel exactly that way. Zusak included every detail
“Here is a small fact, you are going to die” (3). The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, is very intriguing for readers who wondered what it would feel like to survive through World War II in Germany. The book is a work of fiction, but it is based on true events. The protagonist is Liesel Meminger, while the antagonists are the Nazis. The main conflict in the book is that during the war in Germany, Liesel’s foster family has to hide a Jew from Nazis. The setting and style of the novel are what sets the scene of this tragic tale.
Clive Barker’s, The Thief of Always, if a story that takes the reader to lands far away and brings you back safely. The main character Harvey Swick couldn’t complete his duties missing the help of the illustrations. The minor, major, and main characters all had their own unique and interesting pictures. Barker uses his unique illustrations to express emotions, foreshadow events, and build suspense for following chapters.
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.