Fahrenheit 451 Essay

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Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical about them, at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us, this is pulled from the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 451, the temperature that a book will turn to ash, in this book one sees the true extent of a world without words, this lack of books leads to a lack of freedom. This concept is present in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. This story follows a young girl, Liesel Meminger, during World War II. She gains a love for books after the loss of her brother, as well as adapting to a new family and town. During a bombing scare, the whole town must go to the basements of neighbors, where Liesel begins to …show more content…

If words can grasp one's attention, they can be a calm aura in an otherwise time of stress and fear. Liesel's actions of what started as simply reading a book lead to a restful basement that would otherwise have been full of fear. Zusak's personification of the eyes of the people of the basement communicates how words have the ability and the power to release the tension and fear prescribed. Furthermore, while Liesel is reading, Zusak uses a metaphor to compare Liesel's book to an accordion to bring light on how words have the power to bring joy and comfort to others. As Liesel continues to read, Zusak describes how “a voice played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion. The sound of a turning page carved in half” (Zusak 381). Zusak's metaphor comparing Liesel's reading to the accordion of her Papa reveals how just as Hans’ accordion brought comfort to Liesel throughout her nightmares of the return to the train of her brother's death, Liesel reading the Whistler to this den of fear brings a sense of ease to all

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