The Book Thief: A Literary Analysis

Many of us have heard stories about the Holocaust, but did you know that over 11 million people died? Death was a very important yet regular aspect of Nazi Germany, and The Book Thief did a great job describing this destruction. In this novel we are guided through a whirlwind of romances, like Rudy and Liesel’s long lived love for each other, and Rosa and Hans’ hidden desire, but equally we are faced with heartbreaks, and even more often, death. The narrator uses many literary devices to describe the process of death, and the fact that even if we foresee it, it never comes easily.
First of all, one of the most prominent uses of literary tools that the narrator in The Book Thief (also known as Death) uses is foreshadowing. By telling us what is going to happen before it actually does, it opens a door of interpretations. You may think that spoiling an event may make it easier to cope with, but as we read about Rudy’s death, many of us found that this was not the case at all. In this novel, the narrator did spoil Rudy’s death by

bluntly telling us, “He didn't deserve to die the way that he did”(Zusak 241). However, you may think that because we knew he was going to die, and the narrator also strongly inferred about the way he was to die, that it would make this death somehow more painless. After speaking to many people who had recently finished the book, their reactions were almost opposite. Even though we were informed with details that further explain how Rudy would die like, “I’m certain he would've loved to see the frightening rubble and swelling of the sky on the night he passed away” it didn't make it any easier (Zusak 242).We knew from these quotes that he was going to die in an underserved way, but readers were still heartbroken and almost destroyed when Rudy died. This exemplified a very important part of the theme in the novel. We were well informed about Rudy’s death, but it didn't soften the blow a bit. Death is always going to be hard, and knowing about it ahead of time doesn’t really help.
Additionally, vivid descriptions and distinct details are also very common in The Book Thief.

This imagery helps to convey the same theme, that death is always hard. The narrator in this novel often depicts the sky in intense detail, seeming to describe it to match his mood in that instant. However, these colors have a deeper meaning. Death isn’t really fond of his job, disposing of the souls of the deceased accordingly, so he uses colors to distract him. He isn't a human and it seems he can control his mind above what mortals can, so he paints his surroundings with color: “I do, however try to enjoy every color I see - the whole spectrum... It takes the edge off of stress. It helps me relax” (Zusak 4). This quote perfectly shows the role that colors play for death. They are his guilty pleasure, the only thing that makes death easier for him. Death isn't even a person and he still witnesses how difficult death is, day in and day

out.
On the same note, the narrator also uses colors to further distract him from getting too attached to the soul he is collecting. Death cares about the people he sees dying, but he knows he cannot do anything about it. Because of this he uses the only thing he has, colors, to distract him from the pain that he is continually witnessing. When Liesel’s brother dies on the train, the narrator explains his relationship with colors, “I studied the blinding, white-snow sky who stood at the window of the moving train. I practically inhaled it, but still I wavered. I buckled- I became interested in the girl” (Zusak 7). The narrator is fighting with the inevitable urge to interact with this girl, because of the sympathy that he feels for her. He avoids reaching out to her by surrounding himself in a pure white bubble. Ultimately, by using imagery, the narrator can perfectly show his ongoing struggle with feelings surrounding death.
Likewise, personification, or giving objects human characteristics, is another literary device used to generate more emotions. Because the narrator is heavily personified, as a “living death”, his role puts emphasis on death and how hard it can be. It seems to bring things to life and turn them into a human, even though we know that that isn’t possible. Death, the narrator, had to deal with thousands of people dying every day, but he still showed sympathy occasionally through personification. When it was clear that Rudy was indeed going to die, the narrator continues to tell how Liesel would in the future be so utterly heartbroken when he died that she would repeatedly kiss him, and beg for him to come back to life. This seems pretty sad and it even got a reaction from our seemingly emotionless narrator until he shares, “In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. He’d have loved it, all right. You see? Even death has a heart” (Zusak 242). Personification is used to show the extreme sadness of this passage. It is so sad that the narrator emphasizes it, using personification in the form that he has a heart and feelings. In the majority of this novel death describes things in a nonchalant, cold way, without showing any feelings about the topic. However, this particular death is so dismal that it even provokes emotions from death, a figure who technically couldn’t have feelings or a heart at all. In this instance like many others, personification is used as a way to show the severity of a death, and how hard it can be, even just for the on lookers.
All things considered, literary devices in this book were used for a variety of reasons but one of the most common, was to show the frequent and always present hardships of people dying. With the millions of people who were killed in Nazi Germany, we are introduced to a few techniques that the author uses, like foreshadowing, imagery and personification to show that every single one of these deaths meant something and impacted someone in some way. It may seem that with the number of deaths topping 11 million, they would seem to lose meaning along the way, but as we read this story, we found that with every death, the survivors continually struggled, and even affected people who you would never imagine.