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, November 3, 2011

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.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Elizabeth Ann KirklandNovember 3, 2011 at 6:04 PM

    By Death saying even he himself has a heart, he is proving an argument. The argument I am referring to is, Humanity is capable of both cruelty and beauty. Those 5 words are beautiful in a sense that death is usually not associated with beauty and love, but the taking away of a loved one- which from the point of view of a person is usually seen as negative. Because a character such as Death, to whom we would usually see as cruel or heartless, can admit his ability to care or show compassion for another human, we see evidence of the larger argument portrayed in simply 5 words.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 3, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    That's exactly what I was thinking EA. It is to hard to associate Death with a heart because Death usually causes pain, but in this story Death also feels pain just like humans. He connects himself to people to become more humane by the emotions they express through struggles and trials. Death is humane through his words and humanity is also capable of both cruelty and beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alan GriffinNovember 3, 2011 at 7:41 PM

    Death has proven that argument numerous times like on page 178 when there is clear proof that death has emotion because it says "Not many men are lucky enough to escape me twice." That is a great example of death being the narrator which we have concluded in class and also what you two are talking about death having emotion and being capable of both cruelty and beauty. It's like he feels bad for not taking Hans life the first 2 times.(Proof of emotion.)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)