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.