The Book Thief is a novel written by Markus Zusak which strongly conveys how words can powerfully influence a young girl’s actions, hurt or heal depending on the voice who speaks them, and how they bring out the kindness and cruelty in humans. The genre of this novel, magical realism brings unique perspectives and ideas to the second world war. Narrated by a personified death, who took a German girl’s words and read them to us. The author’s use of metaphor and other language devices helps us as the reader understand the world and ideas in this book.

Liesel Meminger the novels main protagonist is a young girl in the middle of Nazi Germany who discovers the value and power of words for herself. Liesel learns how to read, write words with Hans Hubermann, her new papa. This helps to develop their deep bond with each other, and starts with the reading of the grave diggers hand book and will eventually be Liesel’s fuel for the fire inside her. This book represents her brother’s passing and her mother’s departure, for it to be the remedy for her nightmares is quite ironic. ” She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and wring them out, like the rain.” This quote from death uses similes to convey the visual message of Liesels soon to be power. To compare a persons words with a force of nature, accurately demonstrates how the author values the idea of words holding a great deal of power over people, and for a being such as death to tell us this adds to the magical realism aspect of the novel. Liesel will demonstrate her new found power when she spitefully lashes out at Ilsa Herman the mayor’s wife, telling her she is pathetic because she cant handle her son’s death. This is the one of the moments when this young German girl realizes the true ” brutality of words” and the author emphasizes this by adding emotive language and metaphors to describe the wounds she had caused Ilsa with her words. “Cuts had opened, and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin.” This metaphor gives the reader the visual representation of Liesel’s verbal attacks and demonstrates how magical realism helps to give a clear understanding how words can reach inside us and pull out all the hurt and nastiness. Not only the language but the image of Liesels brother has a strong impact in this part of the book.

The Book Thief shows us how words have the ability to hurt or heal a person. Liesel’s “damming and brilliant” book that the character death carries for a long while, sustains him in a way, by distracting him from his work. Markus Zusak effectively uses magical realism to explore this world where words are able to save person, and an example of this would be when Himmel street was bombed. Liesel was asleep in the basement after reading the book she had written about her life. Hans Hubermann had told her to continue writing that night, and if he had not Liesel would have died. The words had literally saved her life. Liesel believes words could heal a person is when Max becomes ill. ” She gave The Dream Carrier to Max as if the words alone could nourish him.” This quote shows how Liesel puts value to the words, as if they could be compared to food or water when a person is sick. Hitler, another name in this book and in life that has a strong connection with words. Markus Zusak was able to show Hitler’s authority and dictatorship in his book without actually implementing him into the story. When Liesel outwardly spoke out about her hatred for the fuhrer her own papa had to discipline her, due to the fear of what would happen to her if she did not learn to keep those thoughts to herself. Her words had caused her literal pain when she spoke them, and is an example of how the author showed Hitler’s influence without him actually being there. This also shows how Hitler had made the silence of his people a sign of submission and safety and therefore felt he had no one who could challenge him if they could not use their words. Max wrote the book “The word Shaker” for Liesel and within this book he talks about how Hitler “would rule the world with words”. This quote is an example of the control words can have on people, and is backed up by the quote “I will never fire a gun, I will not have to”. The use of repetition with the words “I will” followed by “never” and “not have to.” solidifies the power Hitler had with his words and how he chose to control people with his words, not needing to use force. The idea that words were able to accomplish so much within this novel gives the reader a different perspective on what they should value most in life, and the fact that death is the one narrating, speaking, talking to us also challenges our ideas of what could be possible the power of words. They Brought this being to life in our minds and created a connection with him.

Death within The Book Thief gives us a unique perspective, through his own powerful words, on the cruelty and kindness of humans. Some of deaths comments through the book show his confusion toward our ability to be both ugly and beautiful on the inside. He sees this a consequence of his circular heart and “…endless ability to be in the right place at the right time.” This quote uses the repetition of the word “right” t solidify in the readers mind that the thing we fear in the real world, is a crucial part in this novel who does good or “right”. Death often talks about how he has rules to follow and a boss of some sorts, and how his job is trying due to the horrible things he sees. “Sometimes I imagined how everything looked above those clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.” This quote from Death as he carries souls from the gas chamber in Auschwitz, shows how his way of thinking and perceiving our world is very strange. His unquestionable optimistic attitude that behind the darkness there is light, and that the sky was watching shows how he too needs something to sustain him. The metaphor “..The endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.” could refer to a higher being who could possibly help, but their sight had been obscured by the clouds. Markus Zusak uses foreshadowing to show how deaths words don’t only have effect on the characters within the novel but us as readers too. An example of this would be when he tells us Rudy dies well before his actual passing. This foreshadowing brought out the readers feeling for the boy and created anticipation, tension and dramatic irony within the text. The fact that the boy dies from the bombing of Himmel street shows the aspect of peoples cruelty, and some would say that the boy dying before he gets the kiss he so desperately wanted is another cruel and sad aspect of Deaths foreshadowing. If only Death could speak out and tell the people about the danger to come, his words could literally have the power to save lives. It is ironic that in a way Death is very similar to Liesel, in that he is unable to speak out of line due to unspoken rules, and people with more power and authority control them. At the end of the book, Death says he is “haunted by humans. He wanted to try and understand how humans could be both cruel and kind, Liesel’s book showed him aspects of both but in the end he was still incapable of comprehending it, therefore he was haunted by us, just as we are haunted by him.

The Book Thief, a novel which strongly conveys how words can powerfully influence a young girl’s actions, hurt or heal depending on the voice who speaks them, and how they bring out the kindness and cruelty in humans. Magical realism and Death gives unique perspectives and ideas on how a young girl creates connections during the second world war. The author’s cleverly wove a text that challenges our perceptions of words and how to use them.