How Is Words Used In The Book Thief

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words are used in an extremely powerful way. The characters within this novel are impacted negatively and positively by the words that are spoken. In the book, words help to express who the characters are by showing how they interact and respond to them. I have learned that words can be encouraging and uplifting for the characters. They can be used to learn important lessons that can help a character to better understand their life. However, on the other hand, characters in the novel are also put down and hurt by the words that are spoken to them.
Words can be encouraging and uplifting, The Book Thief has an immense amount of encouraging and uplifting moments, but only a few are powerful. An example of encouragement

was when Liesel saw Max walking to the concentration camp. “‘There was once a strange, small man,’ she said. Her arms were loose but her hands were fists at her sides. ‘But there was a word shaker too.’” (Zusak, 512) When Max heard what Liesel said, he realized that she had read his book. As a result, it encouraged him to stay strong and come out of the war alive. Next, this example is depressing but it has encouragement in it. When the bombs fell onto Himmel Street all of Liesel’s family died, but when Death came to take their souls, Liesel was nowhere to be found in Death’s case. Death states, “But there was no Liesel in that house. Not for me anyway.” (Zusak, 532) When Death announced this it was encouraging to know that the main character had not yet died. But as a result, she never saw her family or friends ever again. Although this book has many encouraging moments for the characters, not everything is perfect. Therefore, there are always bad things that happen to characters, and especially to Liesel.
In life, you will always learn lessons, whether they are good or bad.

Rudy Steiner, however, is a boy who has learned some very valuable lessons. Which have made him understand the world he lives in. As a boy Rudy would always get himself into boatloads of trouble. But when he wants to act like his inspiration, he gets himself in more trouble than ever. Rudy Steiner, one day decided he wanted to be like Jesse Owens. So he covered himself black and ran around the track just like Jesse Owens did. As a result, his father found him and boy, did Rudy learn his lesson. Mr. Steiner yells, “Son you can’t go around painting yourself black, you hear?” (Zusak, 60) Rudy learned his lesson because he realized if the Nazis found him painted black, they would have taken him to a concentration camp. He never tried painting himself black ever again because he didn’t want to lose everything he had. Another character that learned their lesson was Liesel, when Max and Liesel built the snowman they never cleaned the snow, as a result, it melted by the fire and it got Max extremely sick. “Unfortunately, that night signaled a severe downslide in Max’s health. The early signs were innocent enough, and typical. Constant coldness. Swimming hands,” (Zusak 313) Death said. Liesel learned her lesson because Max got so sick that it took numerous days for him to slowly wake up. She couldn’t resist not talking to him so every evening when she came home, she would repeatedly read books to him. Learning

lessons is an important thing everyone needs, they help to learn from your mistakes to better your life.
Although words have a positive side to them, there is always a negative side to everything.

Characters in this novel will experience words that will bring them down, and hurt them immensely. An example of when this happened was when Ilsa Hermann fired Liesel from her job. When finding this out she had no clue what to do with herself. In her head she would think, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what will mama do to me when I get home?” So, as a result, she went back to Ilsa’s home and Liesel went berserk at Ilsa. Liesel shouts, “‘It’s about time’ she informed her, ‘that you do your own stinking washing anyway. It’s about time you faced the fact that your son is dead. He got killed! He got strangled and cut more than twenty years ago!...’” (Zusak, 262). Death continues, “Her eyes were blackened. Cuts had opened up and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin. All from the words. From Liesel’s words.” (Zusak, 263). This quote shows how words can hurt greatly. The saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt,” is very untrue in this story. Because a little girl’s words impacted a woman’s soul significantly. The last example of when someone was hurt by words, was when Max was called horrible names by the Nazis soldier, when walking to the concentration camp. The Soldier shrieks, “‘Get up, you dirty a**hole, you Jewish wh***-dog, get up, get up…’” (Zusak, 514) As a result of this, Max was whipped and was forced to continue moving. He tried to

see a glimpse of Liesel again, but the soldier pushed him forward. Therefore, Max carried on with those words for the rest of his life. These two examples both show how words can bring you down and hurt you significantly.