The Book Thief
Extended Essay Response
Ankita Paudel, Year 9
In novel, The Book Thief (T.B.T.) written by Markus Zusak, Death introduces itself as the book's narrator. Though Death is not a living "character" in the story line, he has been personified and thus contains attributes and an interesting persona. As the plot progresses, readers to begin to empathise with this being due to the fact that he cannot escape from his reality. Though death is typically seen as a melancholic character, the author devises him such a way that the audience does not expect death to provide humorous, informative, or dark asides. Death describes itself as affable, yet not nice; in discussing this work, Death is ...
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whom Death considers to be more tragic than the actual dead. Death introduces the story of a "perpetual survivor," later identified as Liesel Meminger, and briefly reveals the three episodes in which Death interacts with Liesel. Death thus foreshadows three key events expanded later in the book in the following three parts of the prologue. On Page 7 to 8, Death describes the blinding white of the snow and paints a small scene of two guards, one mother and daughter, and one corpse on the ground by a stopped train. The guards argue over what to do with the corpse. Death tries to focus on the snow but becomes curious about the girl and instead waits. The girl is described as "the book thief." Although not revealed here, the daughter is Liesel. Through the character of Death, Zusak is able to deliver a story that looks at humans through the eyes of an outsider. Zusak avoids falling into cliché territory when dealing with the well-known subject of World War II due to Death's ...
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tiring but he cannot be replaced.
Death cautions the reader that it is not a violent or malevolent entity, that it is instead a "result." On a practical level, death is a biological process, the "result" of the end of a living being's metabolic processes. Yet in the frame of this novel, Death implies that it exists as a result of humanity's actions, that men who kill other men keep Death busy. The capacity of men to do evil, along with the capacity of men to do well, is a central theme of The Book Thief, and Death is both fascinated and conflicted by these extremes. Hitler and Stalin represent one extreme, Liesel and Hans Hubermann another. The novel invites the reader to consider the ...
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The Book Thief. (2018, September 16). Retrieved April 19, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Book-Thief/106825
"The Book Thief." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 16 Sep. 2018. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Book-Thief/106825>
"The Book Thief." Essayworld.com. September 16, 2018. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Book-Thief/106825.
"The Book Thief." Essayworld.com. September 16, 2018. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Book-Thief/106825.
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