The Book Thief

"So many humans.

So many colors.

They keep triggering inside me. They harass my memory. I see them tall in their heaps, all mounted on top of each other. There is air like plastic, a horizon like setting glue. There are skies manufactured by people, punctured and leaking, and there are soft, coal-colored clouds, beating like black hearts.

And then.

There is death.

Making his way through all of it.

On the surface: unflappable, unwavering.

Below: unnerved, untied, and undone.

In all honesty (and I know I’m complaining excessively now), I was still getting over Stalin, in Russia. The so-called second revolution---the murder of his own people.

Then came Hitler.

They say that war is death’s best friend, but I must offer you a different point of view on that one. To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: “Get it done, get it done.” So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.

Often, I try to remember the strewn pieces of beauty I saw in that time as well. I plow through my library of stories.

In fact, I reach for one now.

I believe you know half of it already, and if you come with me, Ill show you the rest. Ill show you the second half of a book thief.

Unknowingly, she awaits a great many things that I alluded to just a minute ago, but she also waits for you.

Shes carrying some snow down to a basement, of all places.

Handfuls of frosty water can make almost anyone smile, but it cannot make them forget.

Here she comes."

The Book Thief is a novel written by Markus Zusak that is centered around the life of a young German girl named Liesel Meminger. The story is set in Germany from the years 1939-1943 in the historical context of World War II and the Holocaust.  

Markus Zusak, grew up listening to the stories of his parents who grew up in Austria and Germany during WWII. These stories had a huge influence on Zusak and his writing of The Book Thief. Two real-life events in particular were his biggest inspirations: the bombing of Munich and an incident his mother had witnessed of a boy running up to an old Jewish man struggling during the march to a concentration camp. Zusak has said that this story represented for him everything beautiful and everything horrible about humanity, and these ideas about horror and beauty are at the foundation of The Book Thief.

While there is a tremendous amount of literature and films out there that are about the Holocaust, this novel is extremely unique with both its story and its telling of it. The story is not technically considered a Holocaust novel because it does not focus on the Holocaust itself or the horrors of the concentration camps. Even though these events are by no means ignored in the novel, the Holocaust is mainly a backdrop for understanding a young girl’s life and her struggles with her adopted family to avoid the notice of the Nazis. In an interview, Zusak described his motivations for writing a sympathetic portrayal of a German family during the Holocaust, explaining that, “We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys and the ‘Heil Hitlers’ and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn’t follow the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses. So there’s another side to Nazi Germany.”

This particular passage illuminates themes of mortality and the power of words explored by the novel, and evokes sympathy for a surprising character: Death.

What makes The Book Thief such a unique and memorable story is that it’s told from the point of view of Death. This is the most powerful tool Zusak uses to communicate his themes about mortality. Death as the narrator is an extremely risky choice for an author to make, but Zusak manages to make it work with not just any story, but a Holocaust story. Zusack’s writing style is lyrical, poetic, and hauntingly profound. He uses intense and vivid imagery, and he personifies Death as a lonely, haunted being who spends time contemplating and wondering at human nature. 

Not only does this passage give insight into this major theme, but it is one of the most poignant depictions of Death as a compassionate and sympathetic narrator.

It shows his deep compassion for humanity and his sorrow over the pain he causes by demonstrating how tortured he is by the memory of “so many humans” and “so many colors”. 

We imagine death as a horrible thing, and most of us are afraid of it, but this passage paints a unique portrayal of Death as equally being afraid and tormented by humans. He describes himself as seeming to be cruel and relentless, but on the inside he actually feels “unnerved, untied, and undone.” He describes War not as his friend but as his demanding boss, and his tone is one of incredible remorse. This powerful metaphor invokes sympathy for someone who is just doing their job. It is ironic how Zusak manages to make the reader feel sympathy for Death itself, who brings humans so much sorrow.

In this passage, Death is describing his experiences with the Holocaust, which he is constantly forced to watch. Even though he is endlessly surrounded by destruction and sorrow, Death describes his desperate attempts to search for “strewn pieces of beauty”. One way he finds beauty is through stories, and this is another major theme of the book: the power of written word. Throughout the entire novel, even seen by the title itself, words and stories have tremendous value and influence. This passage shows that, in essence, this entire novel is about Death’s efforts to comfort himself with the story of Liesel Meminger, a young German child. With everything Death is forced to experience, this emphasizes the strength and the healing power of words.

This is one of my favorite passages from one of my favorite books. I find it so beautiful because it represents Death’s true character (in this novel) extremely well. For me, out of all the amazing aspects of the book, Death being used as the narrator is the book’s defining characteristic, and why I chose this passage to represent The Book Thief. He shows human nature through a perspective that is seldom seen. There is much room for error with telling a story through Death’s point of view, but Zusak did such an incredible job with it. In result, the story is sad but not a bleak view of the Holocaust.

What made me choose this particular passage over all the other passages in the novel is the beauty of the words and imagery used. Zusak masterfully paints an incredibly vivid and poetic picture of the tragic events of the Holocaust, and the reader can practically hear the desperation in his tone as Death talks about them. When he describes “skies manufactured by people, punctured and leaking” and “soft, coal-colored clouds, beating like black hearts”, he is speaking about the smoke from gas chambers, and this is such a powerful image.

Even though this excerpt is extremely sad and powerful, it is not morbid. The passage ends in a hopeful note, and the tragic events described so vividly at the beginning are contrasted with the story of Liesel he uses to comfort himself with. He describes an uncomplicated, even silly image of her carrying snow to the basement, and this is so beautiful to me because  it shows innocence and beauty in the midst of horror.