The Book Thief

Welcome to our cyber literature circle: Post a total of 4 comments to include at least ONE category relevant connection--should include category (capitalize, bold, highlight or italicize), page, description of observation or question (what) & insight/ impact/link to argument (how/why) AND/OR at least ONE comment on another post. DO NOT repeat observations or connections, but OK to elaborate/connect to an observation or argument thread. Complete by midnite prior to due-date.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

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.


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2 comments:

  1. Whitney TillmanNovember 1, 2011 at 5:36 PM

    I agree with Chelsey and I believe that this represent that words can be good or evil like humans, and throughout the story Death uses stratagies to draw attention. For example, many times throughout the novel important information is surrounded by astericks and put in bold lettering. Many times this information is an insight that one would not normally have and it is not always positive information. In one case it foreshadowed the death of Liesel's best friend. This strategy is also used to prove Zusak's argument that words are both good and evil because when he uses the astericks Death gives both positive and negative life altering information, which shows that human life is fragile and can be changed in the blink of and eye and that as humans we should be careful of the words we speak because once spoken they can never be taken back.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 3, 2011 at 5:47 PM

    Also, on page 381-382 we see where everyone is upset about the raid, but Liesel starts to read "The Whistle" and eventually everyone becomes calm and forgets about the terrible situation going on around them. They appreciate and adore the words from the story Liesel reads. This shows how words do have great power.

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