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.