Examples Of Shared Humanity In The Book Thief

When put into situations that test the humanity of people, what characteristics still show through? Shared humanity is a term used to explain what all humans have in common, and has six major categories: Loss, Morality, Survival, Relationships, Choices, and Emotions. The characteristics that seem to come out naturally, even in strange circumstances, are often things shared with all other humans. Major works, such as The Book Thief, How I Live Now, and Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix often show many examples of Shared Humanity and its effect on our lives.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak shows examples of Loss, and Morality many times throughout the story. As this novel is narrated by Death, Loss is shown early on, when Liesel is on a train to her foster parents home. Her brother, Werner, dies of unknown causes before they can arrive at Hans and Rosa Huberman’s home, which has a major effect on Liesel and therefore the entirety of the story. The girl, however, stayed. Her knees entered the ground. Her moment had arrived. Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't-” (Zusak 23). The loss of her brother has a major effect on Liesel. She wants to believe he is still alive so much that she was willing to dig him back up to save him. Losing her obnly friend in a now place not only leaves her alone in this town, but leaves her without any present family members.

Another Shared Humanity trait shown in this novel is morality. Max is a Jew that cames to the Hubermans to hide in their basement from Nazis. “When a Jew shows up at your place of residence in the early hours of the morning in the very birthplace of Naziam, youre likely to experience extreme levels of discomfort… The surprising point to make is that despite this iridescent fear glowing as it did in the dark, they somehow resisted the urge for hysteria,” (Zusak 199-200). This shows that although they could get into serious trouble for helping him, they couldn't allow themselves to send Max anywhere else with the high risk of him being killed. Their morals led them to break a law to do what they felt was right rather than blindly obey orders. Examples of Shared Humanity is also present in other novels, even if they focus more on different categories.
How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff put an emphasis on the categories Relationships, and Survival. One of the most important relationships in this novel is between the main character, and narrator, Daisy, and her cousin Edmond. Edmond gets the attention of Daisy as soon as they meet, although they never anticipated the relationship to go as far as it did, Once her Aunt gets stranded after a bombing takes out the transportation systems, Daisy and her cousins are alone on the farm. They don’t see this as a problem, as they feel they are more than capable of taking care of one another. Daisy and Edmond get closer, and at one point Edmond is the only person Daisy feels she needs to be “safe”, “The only thing i knew for certain was that all around me was more life than I'd ever experienced in all the years I'd been on earth and as long as no one shut me in the barn away from Edmond at night I was safe,” (Rosoff 56). Daisy’s relationship has gotten to the point that they feel safe when with each other. Although they are in the midst of a war, they find happiness through their relationship, and feel that they can not be hurt as long as they are together. Later in the story, Survival starts to be a huge part of Daisy and Piper’s lives as they search for Edmond and Isaac, who had been separated from them when military came to their home to use as a base. They had been living in an old barn with some military men while Daisy was developing her plan to reunite with her cousins and get back home. “... I told her about knowing where Isaac and Edmond were staying and having a map and talking to Baz about my plain and pumping every soldier in the barn for clues on how to survive in the wild,” (Rosoff 119).This shows that Daisy is aware of their upcoming survival scenario, and has been preparing for weeks to ensure they have a good chance to make it to their goal. Her questions to the other soldiers have taught her some useful information so she can keep both herself, and her younger cousin Piper safe. Survival plays a huge role in all living things, and when situations that could be deadly arise, natural instincts make one prepare for possible outcomes. Films as well as novels can show Shared Humanity categories, and equally capable of making one think about how humans work.
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix focuses on the categories Emotions, and Choices a lot throughout the film. One major choice Harry must make is when his friends are trying to start a club, to be called Dumbledore's army, to teach them Defence Against the Dark Arts. Proffesor Umbridge has taken away the class in fear that Dumbledore is training his students to overrun the ministry, but the students want to be prepared for Voldemort's attack. Harry has to make the final decision as he would be the instructor. The students meet in a bar so none of the teachers would find them, and discuss why they should start the club when Harry finally decides it is a good idea. This was a big choice for Harry as the consequences of being caught are being expelled and having their wands broken so they can never do magic again, but if he doesn't teach them, Voldemort would have an easy time taking over with only students who don't know defence to stop him. Emotions also play a big role in this film. While watching the movie, the viewer sees that Umbridge is not a likeable character early on, but the moment where she is usually decided as the worst villain in the movie is when she attempts to kick Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, off of Hogwarts grounds. Umbridge goes around the school taking notes on all of the teachers, and plans to fire any that could come in the way of the ministry having complete power. When she gets to Trelawney, she attempts to remove her from the school, and humiliate her in front of her students. The viewer sympathizes with this teacher at this point because of how unfairly she is being treated, and starts to really hate Umbridge. The students are all sad to see that she might be leaving. Professor Mcgonagall stops her from leaving, but the many emotions from this scene still stand. People often feel bad for the weaker character, and try to relate to them more because people often subconsciously want to help other people.
Major works often show many examples of shared humanity and what it means to be human in interesting ways that can be understood easily.

Shared Humanity is how we explain what makes us human through these key categories and concepts. The Book Thief mainly focuses on Loss and Morality, How I Live Now looks at Relationships and Survival more. Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix shows examples of Choices and Emotions. Looking around at everyday life with these concepts in mind can help one see how similar we all really are past physical and social

differences.