Tragedy In The Book Thief

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The Book Thief emcompasses elements of tragedy as well, it expresses loss and portrays an expression of disappointment. According to David Chandler, “we recognize tragedy in literature because we find that it corresponds to a sense of tragic within us.” (1). Tragedy is something all humans experience. Someone in the world is going through a tragedy. As Josef Stalin once said, “If a single person dies in front of you, it is a tragedy. If a million of people die on the other side of the earth, it is a statistic.” The most affect tragedy has is on the protagonist, someone with great social importance.What makes it a tragedy is the ultimate downfall of the main character. The hero will recognize their choices that lead them to that downfall and how it affected others around them. Tragedy always ends up spiralling out on the hero by itself, everything comes at the end, the realization, recognition and then comes the blame. …show more content…

The novel,starts off with a great loss, Liesel watches her brother die and then soon after that her mom abandoned her. Tragedy was already presenting itself, right in the beginning of the novel. She experiences the death of her brother. But, yet tragedy reveals itself at almost the end of the book. This is in the event where Liesel Meminger loses almost everyone she knows and loves, to an air bombing raid. She was rescued from the basement where it used to be her home, and begins to look up at all the dead bodies, lying next to each other. Liesel had to say goodbye to everyone. As stated by David Chandler, “We might call it the paradox of disappointment. Defeat, shattered hopes, and ultimately death ace us all as human beings” (2). Without a doubt, Liesel Meminger experienced a great

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