Propaganda In The Book Thief

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With the increase of ongoing conflicts and violence, the amount of death and destruction has increased significantly in these past years. But what causes these conflicts? These conflicts are guided by words, the deadliest weapon yet the most impactful healer. In a single sentence, the powerful can change the course of a nation. Similarly, through the impact of Hitler, Zusak’s “The Book Thief” illustrates how words can catalyze change and shape actions. Zusak uses Hitler’s propaganda to exemplify how words can infect opinions. This impact is clearly shown in a young Liesel, who is sitting on a train with her mom to go to her new foster home and falls asleep and starts dreaming. Death, the narrator of the story, depicts her dream as such: “Prior …show more content…

In the dream, she was attending a rally at which he spoke, looking at the skull-colored part in his hair. “Wie gallen’s dir heut?” (20-21) By using Liesel’s dreams, Zusak accentuates the lurking power of propaganda and its impact on young minds. Death describes Liesel as “listening contentedly” and looking at the “perfect square of [Hitler’s] mustache”, implying that Liesel thinks of Hitler as a kind and inspiring person. It is later proven that her parents are communists, yet despite this, Liesel dreams of Hitler in a positive setting. Her situation and the contradicting dream proves that propaganda seeps even into the subconscious mind of young Liesel. The impact of Hitler’s words upon his nation is further exemplified by the widespread antisemitism demonstrated throughout the book, including a scene where …show more content…

Hitler’s words caused the people of Molching to band together and burn banned books. When the party arrives at Molching to burn banned books, the speaker tells the city, “‘We put an end to the disease that has been spread through Germany for the last twenty years, if not more!’ (...) ‘The immoral! The Kommunisten!’ (...) ‘Die Juden!’”(110) Hitler’s words caused many of his fervent followers to spread his message throughout the country. In the speech, a Nazi speaker denounced the “disease” of the Jews, the immoral, and the Communists, spreading Hitler’s influence throughout Germany. These powerful words caused the people to support the book burning of Jewish ideas and other ideologies to get rid of anything that opposes Nazi ideology. The example of book burning further shows that these actions were likely initiated by the moving words of the party speakers. However, Hitler’s words are not the only ones that impacted his actions in The Book Thief. In this scene, the Hubermanns warned Liesel about the repercussions of going against the Nazi Party and revealing their secret. Hans tells Liesel,“‘I will take each and every one of your books – and I will burn them.’ It was callous. ‘I’ll throw them in the stove or the fireplace.’ (...) The shock made a hole in her, very neat, very precise. Tears welled” (203). We can extrapolate that Hitler’s words caused the Hubermanns to be extremely careful while housing Max, as his

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