The Book Thief

The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak Death’s Perspective In the beginning there was the Word and from and by the Word the world was created. As time has passed, the word has not lost its influence. Within the word lies the power to manipulate, kill, hope, dream, and believe. Hitler understood the power of the word and used it to twist his inhumane ideas into every German’s mind and heart, corrupting a whole nation and infecting the world. The Book Thief ignites this ignominious time in history through the story’s plot, point of view, and style engraven within each ink slathered page to prove that every word makes a difference.

The Book Thief illustrates the story of a young girl named Liesel whose life is destroyed by Hilter’s greed for power and the words he uses to kindle the fire of the German people. It begins with Liesel’s brother dying one freezing cold night. She is sent to foster parents and begins a new life alone. Her comfort becomes words, elegantly pasted onto pages of books—that she steals. But then, Hitler’s Third Reich begins to spread throughout Germany and with it comes bombs and concentration camps. Liesel still becomes great friends with a Jewish man named Max who secretly lives in her basement. He inspires her to write her own story, and she does, right before her own home is bombed and her journal taken by the narrator, Death. In Deaths own words he says, “It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors—an expert at being left behind.

It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: A girl, some words, an accordionist, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery” (5). The plot is stunning in its history and its reality within that timeframe. No longer does the reader loathe the Germans for what they did but what Hitler made them believe through his words. This novel gives an inside peek at how, through controlling words, Hitler was able to brainwash millions of people.

Who could possibly narrate the story of Hitler, the Holocaust, and World War II? There is no one better than Death himself. This extraordinary point of view transfixed me, chained me unto every word was read. Death does not have time for elaborate monologues. He is there to do his job and be done.

“I’ve seen so many young men Over the years who think they’re Running at other young men.

They are not.

They’re running at me” (174,175).

His straight forward speech molds the reader into understanding what was clearly at stake during these life threatening times. Through Death’s perspective, I was able to begin to understand how precious life is and how quickly it can end. During World War II, millions of people were destroyed, yet every single one had a life lived and a story in their pocket.

Death is no allusive, boring, narrator. Markus Zusak, the author, perfects the use of fragment sentences in his writing style to bring out the personality of Death, the trauma of this part of history, and to ensure a dramatic and memorable read. When the bombs finally came to the setting of the novel, Death said: “Then, bombs.

This time, everything was too late.

The sirens. The cuckoo shrieks in the radio. All too late” (12).

With this profound style of writing, I was able to feel the shock of that moment when the world seemed to come to an end. I could feel the fear, the chill, the dread etched in every word. Through this form of writing, Zuzak is able to instill in his readers to live every moment because at any moment it could all—end.

Zuzak knew that he had an almost impossible mission in describing what happened behind Hitler’s closed doors. No one could possibly understand unless they were there feeling; breathing, hearing, and seeing every moment that transpired. Zusak was genius in his choice of plot, point of view, and style in writing The Book Theif to prove that words are powerful. He chose a young girl to be his main character whose was life was devastated by the Hitler and the war to give readers the insight needed to understand how life was. Then he uses Death to be his narrator because death is everywhere, and a dramatic style of writing to insure that the readers could catch a glimpse of the fear. Love. Sacrifice. And the never ending pain of what happened more than fifty years ago.