Words: Lifeless figures filled with potent power With the mention of death, what first comes to mind? An obvious answer tends to lurk within the cases of our hearts: emotions and memories filled with sorrow, misery, and grief. It’s likely our first characterization of death isn’t one of beauty due to humanity’s label of death as a figure of fear. However, with the introduction of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the narrator happens to be Death, whose anatomy includes emotional capabilities much like our own, proving themselves prominent and important to the backbone of the story. In the beginning, we are not only introduced to Death but many contrasting themes through a young girl, Liesel Meminger, who has become familiar with the meetings of this unique narrator. Her brother is dead, her mother has abandoned her, and Liesel finds herself on the doorstep of 33 Himmel Street in the 1939 Nazi infested town of Molching, Germany.
During the disarray of this time period, and with Death’s job at all time high, we find Liesel beginning to make radical connections with not only the people and scene around her, but with the words and the books that compose her new foundation. Throughout the progression of the book, we follow the rivers of Liesel’s relationships. Nestled beneath the surface of them all lies two mighty antipodes: Hitler and Death. With these powers as the control panel, we see much destruction, devastation, and despair within the story, but only one of those characters is at fault. Despite the fact that we would typically place the fault upon both Hitler and Death, in an eye opening reality, humanity is illustrated in the character who isn’t even human. In The Book Thief, an interesting perspective is shown through Death’s .
.er it be the contrast of Hitler and Death or words being the saving grace, there ‘s not a dull moment in Markus Zusak’s writing. With every string in the reader’s heart being pulled in a different direction, an abstract combination of emotions is induced. Because of Death’s shocking ability to display Hitler’s successes of mass murder with complete comprehensiveness, The Book Thief will leave the reader speechless, torn, exhausted, and in love with words. In addition, the audience will be left disgusted with the history of humanity while being revived with new hope as they read a book packed with realistic brutality and beauty. Through the contrast of characters, it is shown that although humans are fooled into believing they bear might, it’s the words in reality; words carry the weight, and it ‘s up to people to decide how they are to use the potent power of words.
