Literary Baptism

In the beginnig of The Book Thief snow is mentioned alot. Foster says snow or water of any form represents baptism. I believe Zusak is showing a baptism with Liesel. Liesel travels from a life of poverty, only a mother, and fear of communism to a better life with two parents enough money for neccesities and no worries of Hitler. On page 26 the street Liesel is moving to is shown with a translation Himmel means Heaven so i believe the heavy mentioning of snow is a litterally baptism of a better life for Liesel

Argument: Knowledge Brings Power

In The Book Thief a major argument is knowledge brings power. Liesel goes through incredible lengths to ensure she will be knowledgable. Liesel steals her first book on page 24, The Grave Diggers Handbook, she steals this book from her brothers grave. Liesel moves to a small town in Germany during the period of time when Hitler was in control. Hitler restricted Germans knowledge by restricting the amount of books Germans could get ahold of. Liesel knows of the reprucussions of stealing these banned books but decides to do it anyways. Liesel is sent to school on page 49. Liesel was sent straight to the lower level classes. This embarrased Liesel but instead of getting upset and discouraged from school Liesel perservered and worked harder. On page 67 Liesel is described learning to read late at night with Hans. The reader can assume Liesel is aware of the fact Hitler is trying to suppress Germans by restricting thier knowledge. Liesel knows knowledge is power and uses to her full advantage

Conformity and Rebellion

Rebellion plays a major role in The Book Thief. Hitler tries to conform all of Germany to believe what he believes. He takes every peice of text besides the ones he approve from Germans. Liesel desires knowledge with everything she has. This strong desire leads her to stealing books so she can learn to read. Hans, her foster father, helps her in this journey eventhough he knows how dangerous it is for him to do this. Later on in the story Leisel and her family hide a Jew in thier basement knowing this is probally the most dangerous thing to do in Germany at this period in time. Max ,the hiddin Jew, has the same desire for knowledge as Liesel. Max and Liesel help eachother learn every night. These actions are proof of rebellion because Hitler does not allow Germans to be knowledgable so they will not figure out what he is actually doing in German but Max and Liesel are not bothered by this fact and search for more and more knowledge.

Death is Humane

Death, the narrator of The Book Thief shows many times of being particularly humane in the novel. But where does this humanity spawn from? On the last page, 550, Death says to Liesel "I am haunted by humans." How can Death be haunted by the very things that he himself is tasked to carry onward past their original live? Maybe it's because Death was once human himself. Death could have easily been a human before he became the courier of the dead, and he brought the humane characteristics with him as he passed on and became Death.

Words are capable of both cruelty and beauty

One of the arguments portrayed in "The Book Thief" is that words can be capable of both cruelty and beauty. From a cruel stance, we first can assume, based off knowledge of world history, that Hitler has been using words to convince and turn people to believe that Jews are detrimental to a "perfect" world. He is a prime example of, as Aristotle would call it, a sophist. He is telling all these lies to gain domination. On the other hand, words are also beautiful. Liesel has a passion for reading and this gives her comfort. A book is like a security blanket for her and this in itself is beautiful and fascinating. Liesel has been through so much in such little time and the fact that she can sit down and read a book or newspaper, to her, is like getting away from it all and finding comfort and trust in something. To me it is such a beautiful thing to be able to have words from a book to represent hope and comfort.

Death is humane by his words

Throughout all of The Book Thief, Death is constantly expressing himself as a human with is words. A human expresses feelings and emotions with most if not all situations that they are faced with. Death connects himself with humans that face serious and upsetting struggles and feels their pain. Death is supposedly only cruel and dark, but in this story Death is more humane than actual humans are sometimes. On page 242, all that is needed to be explained is stated in 5 simple words from Death. He says "Even Death has a heart." and for Death to say he has a heart means he knows what a heart can do and what its purpose is. One must have a heart to know what it is, right? A heart must love, have kindness, compassion and also endures frustration, anger and sorrow. Death portrays his power of words and his humanity in 5 simple words. If Death was not clear by just saying that even it has a heart, then those 5 words are so persuading in their simple syntactical structure. Death is humane by the power of his words.

Conformity & Rebellion

In "The Book Thief", there is a strong sence of rebellion among the main characters, but there are two sides to the rebellion. We have Leisel, a young girl in Germany during World War II, with little knowledge of the bigger situation. Leisel doesn't really understand what kind of trouble she could in if someone were to of seen her steal the book from the burn pile the Nazis made. Her rebellion is more of an innocent type due to her not fully knowing the consequences of her actions during this time. Hans on the other hand is fully aware of what he is getting into when he helps Max and keeps him in his basement, but an old important promise is more important than the punishment that could come about. Hans is probably the best example of a rebel just because of what he does for Max, a Jew, during the rein of Hitler. But he shows no opposition when the situation presents itself. This is an act of bravery and courage.

Conformity & Rebellion

"The Book Thief" is full of conformity and rebellion. When Liesel steals these books Hans can't really get on to her because they know they would like to rebel against Hitlers rules and ways he treats the jews. Stealing books is Liesel's way of rebelling agains't the Führer's rule and also a way of letting everyone know she loves to read so much that she is willing to commit a crime. With Liesel stealing these books and later food, death being the narrator is a great idea because you'd think it wouldn't care about Liesel being called "The Book Thief" when in actuality it does. In certain areas of the book you can see where the narrator is death because on page 178, the narrator says "Not many men are lucky enough to cheat me twice." Symbolizing that the narrator, death, is actually a person with feelings showing this by talking about how Hans Huberman escaped him twice and how he is worried about the third time not turning out so great. "The Book Thief" has many ways it shows conformity and rebellion all throughout by using human emotion to change how we would normally live and act if we weren't under such strict Hitler rule.

Conformity and Rebellion

"The Book Thief" is a novel that is centered around conformity and rebellion. In World War II, Adolf Hitler used propaganda to convince people that what he believed and what he was doing was the right thing to do, and by his standards what he was doing was normal. Most humans strive to be consided normal and be accepted by everyone they meet and by conforming to Hitler's ideas and beliefs, the people considered themselves normal. By conforming to Hitler's ideas the people began to represent conformity as cruelty, because what Hitler was doing to people who were rebellious and did not meet his standards was cruel and inhumane. However, there were the rebellious characters in "The Book Thief", such as Liesal, Hans, and Rosa Humbermann, and Ilsa Hermann. Liesal, Hans, and Rosa, hid a Jew in their basement, even though they were aware that this could result in their death, and Hans took a whipping for hiding Max, but Hans was still glad that he did, because he knew what Hitler was doing was wrong. Hans and Liesel refused to be like all the others who conformed because they were not willing to be acknowlegded as weird, they were willing to take a stand for what they believed even if that ment risking their life to help someone who was friend. In this novel, rebellion represents the kindess and beauty that exists in our world. If there had not been people like Hans and Liesel in World War II and even in today's society there is no telling where society would be.

The difference between rebellion and doing what is right.

The Book Thief contains scenes of what seems to be rebellion. Rebellion is subjective to people's own beliefs. This rebellion in The Book Thief between Jews and Nazis can be looked at from two points of views. A Jew may view it as doing the right thing, and fighting for natural rights, but to a Nazi or even a brainwashed German, this conflict may be seen as unwarranted rebellion or disgusting revolt. Each person's set of morals and beliefs conflict in ways that makes it hard to pick a side when you are caught in the midst of it. This contrast also can be used as evidence to back up the novel's overall theme that everyone is capable of good and evil. Connecting the two is simple but also complex at the same time. A person's beliefs may make them seem like an evil person, but to someone with the same beliefs may view their actions as necessary or "what I would have done." This novel explicates human's complex minds and values.

Diction/structure

Max's style in writing books represents a unique diction style for The Book Thief. Max chooses to tell his story through stories that are mainly illustrations. He shows his infancy views that is a pattern in this book with his illustrations, but show his maturity through the meaning and feeling that it displays. He sarcastically writes isn't this a nice day" on a page in his second book to show the German evil that has affected him and so many other Jews in such a dramatic way. I believe that this diction  that Max uses effectively gives the audience the feeling that Max feels: the feelings of utter disgust at the way of Hitler. This proves as evidence of the argument that humans have an unrealistic to overcome cruelty, because despite Max's struggle to survive in his world where there is so much hatred for him, he doesn't become monster himself.

Toward the end of The Book Thief, survival begins not to matter anymore. Rebellion against the Hitler reign starts to break through. First is the Hubbermans hiding a Jew in the basement. Then Max begins to dreams of directly fighting Hitler and all those who he controls. Liesel starts to steal other things beside food. Rudy even rebels against his peers in Hitler Youth, picking fights with them for no other reason than he doesn't feel like keeping up the image of the dutiful German. Rudy and Liesel no longer steal food with the group because Rudy has a fight with the leader. Everyone is becoming careless with their perfected images. This relates to the argument that in this era, conformity and rebellion can be interchangeable as the good or bad side of humanity in this novel.

POMO EVIDENCE IN ARGUMENT

Max continues to create books from Hitlers "My Struggle". The book he writes and illisatrates on page 279-280 he admits has no logical structure. He just allows his emotions to take over him as if the fact that his whole lie has relied on him acting in a way that allows him to survive is too much for him to do anymore, now he has overly exhausted his hiding, and is ready to fight. This presents an ironic twist to the postmodern pattern, because postmoderns are very much based on rational evidence and not much. He also bases the story on raw emotions and memories. He bluntly creates the image of the mass destruction present in Germany. This DOES demonstrates postmodernism.

Malleabilty of free will.

Propaganda has proven itself as a free will contorter. Humans, naturally, are gullible creatures. We don't want to think for ourselves because when faced with the challenge we also face the chance of thinking the wrong thing. For that reason, when someone tells us what to think or what to do, we thankfully do it. Especially now, when humans are so busy doing whatever it is that we humans do. We almost need someone to tell us what to think and do, because we are all so uninformed that we can't make our own decisions and opinions. I say all of this to preface the fact that free will is malleable. The main argument of the Book Thief is that all humans are capable of good and evil, but before one can examine that in more detail, one must first understand that that capability of humans is determined by how much they let others think for them. It is no question that Nazi Germany used propaganda to influence the minds of those who inhabited Germany. Hitler even had his own Hitler Youth. Just as pertinent, the Gestapo used propaganda and even fear tactics to influence the mind of Germans and people who lived outside of Germany. Minds at the time were manipulated by the coldly calculated hands of Hitler. Mark Zusak understood this. He chose death to be the narrator because for he isn't a human and would be less likely to undergo brainwashing. It may seem like death's emotions and attitudes mirror the likes of a human, but this irony is a characteristic of the time period's literature. One might say that death's human nature in the novel serves as an antithesis saying that all things are subject to manipulation, whether it is internal or external.

LITERATURE CIRCLE:

Adding to the argument that words have power:
When max shares his "dreams" of fighting Hitler in an arena with Liesel, she asks who won. He states that he did. This emphasizes the power of word because he understand that he needed to instill hope in the girl so should continue fighting. He understands that this statement, regardless of its lack of truth, could influence her future. A postmodernism characteristic is as follows:
Characteristics of Postmodernism:2) facts and falsehoods are interchangeable
Because one of the characteristics of postmodernism is that there is no absolute truth, a natural outgrowth of this thinking is that facts and falsehoods are interchangeable. What is accepted as truth today could easily be proven wrong tomorrow, and vice versa.
The Germans believed that tiler's way and word was the right thing to do. Even though his lie is an example  of human evil, Max tells his lie, it is morally wrong, but in the end it shows human kindness. This could also support the argument that there is evil and kindness in humans at the same time.

Argument of The Boook Thief

Death has human characteristics throughout the entire story and portrays them though the words he uses. His words have so much power and emphasis even when they are both good and bad.

*Evidence of this is on page 137 where Death connects himself with a human, Liesel, to make himself more humane. He connects himself to her through her emotions and obstacles in her life.

Observations: Post Modernism

One of the characteristics of post-modernism is that the narrator can not be trusted. In The Book Thief, we can not trust the narrator, who is Death, becasue he can not trust himself. Therefore, how are we as the audience able to trust a narrator who can not trust himself. Death's job is to take the souls of the dead, but several times throughout the novel, Death has seemed to pick "favorites"; characters in the novel that it seems have more chances to live than other characters in the novel. When Himmel Street is bombed Death refers to taking Frau Holtzapfel in her kitchen, Frau Diller was fast asleep, the Fiedlers were all in bed, the Steiner's were sleeping, Rudy was lying halfway off the bed with his arm around one of his sisters, Hans was sitting up in bed, and Rosa was asleep. Then Death that states that Liesel was not in the house, not for him to take (530-532). Liesel is the only person who lives on Himmel Street that survives. Why was she not in the house with Hans and Rosa? Because Death favored her and in a way led her to make the choices that would result in her being in the bomb shelter when the bombs were dropped. Also several times throughout the story, Death refers to how Hans Hubermann has cheated him in death twice. Not many people cheat death twice and Death favored Hans because he obtained a certain quality that Death could relate with which was kindness in a cruel and horrible world. Throughout the novel, Death roots for different characters, and in some ways is responsible for the choices they make that in some cases save their lives, which is why the audience can not trust the narrator.