Death is Humanity: Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

“Here is a small fact: You are going to die”(Zusak 3). The Book Thief, a historical fiction book by Markus Zusak, is narrated by Death. The novel takes place during the 1930’s and 40’s in Nazi Germany and follows 9 year old Liesel Meminger, who death refers to as “The Book Thief.” After her father, mother, and then brother are killed, Liesel becomes an orphan and is taken in by Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching. Throughout the book, she meets many people including the Mayor’s wife, Isla Hermann, and Max Vandenburg, a Jew who is hiding from the Nazi’s in the Hubermann’s basement. Although Liesel’s life is filled with death and loss, she ends up surviving an air raid on her street and after the war, she is reunited with Max who survived the Nazi death camp.
While the story is focused on Liesel, it’s told through the perspective of Death. Death, of course, is what takes your soul from your body and takes you to the afterlife. “It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you…” (Zusak 4). Liesel is just 9 years old at the beginning of the book. After losing her family she feels hopeless. But eventually she is somewhat happy with her new family and Max, who is hiding in their basement. She becomes intrigued by books and writing. One day, she steals and book from a book burning, which was a serious crime in Nazi Germany and she’s seen by the Mayor’s wife Isla Hermann. Isla invites Liesel to her library and that leads to Liesel becoming more obsessed with writing. She eventually comes to realize that along with the hope that the written word brings-the stories Max wrote for her and even her own writing-is also the source of her pain and suffering because of Hitler’s propaganda. This is one of the things that...

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... your beliefs, we go spend eternity in peace with our Creator or the unfortunate ones spend eternity with anger and fear in Hell. Others believe we fall into a deep pit of nothing, that our short time on Earth just ends in darkness. In times when death is the most certain option-like the Holocaust- the true colors of humans come out. Some people are bitter and cruel, like the Nazi’s and some are compassionate and loving like Max and the Hubermann’s. They allowed an orphaned little girl to stay with them and treated her just as her real family would. Even Death, the thing humans fear the most, sees the large scale of human cruelty and human compassion. And while humans fear so many things-whether it be spiders or heights or death-the truth of the matter is that humans are the worst thing to happen to humans. As death said, “I am haunted by the humans”(Zuask 550).