The War to End All Wars War is an inevitable struggle that humanity constantly faces. It is best described by the words of Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher; “War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” There are many consequences of war, such as economic, developmental and security: however an important one is humanitarian, more specifically, the psychological effect that war and violence impacts on the population. In most literature, the protagonist in a war event is often depicted as an older individual, one who is in their adult years, and their journey through the event. Nevertheless in Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief both of the protagonists are both considerably younger than …show more content…
Where Uhtred loses his father who “did not much like children.” (Cornwell 8), Liesel constantly faces abandonment, one being by her mother. Liesel’s mother abandons Liesel for her safety, as her mother is a communist, and Liesel feels “A gang of tears trudged from her eyes and she held on and refused to go inside.” (Zusak p. 28) However, before her mother was compelled to leave for her daughter’s own safety, Liesel’s first trauma is revealed: her brother’s death, which is where anxiety begins to form. At her brother’s funeral, Liesel steals her first book, The Gravediggers Handbook. Zusack asserts that “it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was more important” (Ibid 45). This statement is true, Liesel does not steal this book merely because of its content or narrative, but instead in an attempt to fill some of the void which was left by her brother. Uhtred, however, loses his mentor and father figure, Earl Ragnar. Both protagonists can relate feeling a sense of abandonment at very early stages of their lives, where “If the child has been directly exposed to war-related trauma, has lost a caregiving figure… therapy may provide a corrective emotional experience for the child and demonstrate that trust and closeness do not inevitably lead to pain.” (Leavitt and Fox 62). These traumatic events can lead to psychological trauma most likely being PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress …show more content…
Anxiety is classified as a nervous disorder categorized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, usually with compulsive behavior or panic attacks. Uhtred is shown at many times with compulsive behavior many times towards the Danes: “’All winter, boy, our traders have been in Mercia...’ Kill the traders, I thought. Why did I think that way? I liked Ragnar. I liked him much more than I had liked my father. I should, by rights, be dead… he called me a Dane, and I liked the Danes, yet even at that time I knew I was not a Dane.” Uhtred does not know why he has these thoughts, it could be a basic act of patriotism towards his homeland, but the author asserts that he does not know why he thinks like that. Given the fact that he recently witnessed his father’s death at the hands of the Danes, this could be an early sign of anxiety in
War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.
Therefore through evaluating and comparing each author’s work we will see how each is utilizing this intermingling effect between conflict and innocence to reveal how the horrors of war can affect individuals mentally. To relate how the authors accomplish this effect we will observe how each utilizes specific devices such as scenarios and specific language to engage the reader into viewing a character as more than a construct but rather a multifaceted complex individual that has flaws and mental issues much like many of us.
The Book Thief (2005) by Markus Zusak is a YA (Young Adult) novel that has been made into a film that is newly released. I have always been fascinated with novels set in WWII ever since I read The Diary of Anne Frank. You should be informed that the tone of this book is a bit somber, but both adults and teen readers would dig this book. Zusak tells us a story that takes a completely stunning perspective. While this novel may seem like its fully perfect, it has many disruptive flaws.
War deprives soldiers of so much that there is nothing more to take. No longer afraid, they give up inside waiting for the peace that will come with death. War not only takes adolescence, but plasters life with images of death and destruction. Seeger and Remarque demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men in war through diction, repetition, and personification to relate to their readers that though inevitable and unpredictable, death is not something to be feared, but to calmly be accepted and perhaps anticipated. The men who fight in wars are cast out from society, due to a misunderstanding of the impact of such a dark experience in the formative years of a man’s life, thus being known as the lost generation.
Death, narrator of this story, keeps us entirely focused on mortality. Death himself has nothing to do with why people die. He only exists because people die. He has the job of separating the deads souls from their bodies and carrying those souls away to the . Death lets us know from the beginning that this is a very sad and tragic story. But then again this story is set during WWII and the Holocaust, we witness the deaths of many innocent and not so innocent people, which is to be expected in a book about this time period. Death tells us that most of the characters we will begin to love will die by the end of the book. There are very few who do survive in the end of this tragic tale. Which is a very realistic happenstance back then.
Since the beginning of history, human society has centered around war. People throughout the ages have attempted to understand why wars occur, and the effect of war on the people who fight in them. Authors have utilized the power of language to attempt to grasp the struggle and the horror of war, and make it accessible to the public. For example, Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and Bierce’s “Coup de Grace” both provide a glimpse into different aspects of war. Although they both pertain to the idea of war, “In Another Country” focuses on the psychological trauma of war while “Coup de Grace” showcases the horror of war. This is visible in the theme, setting, and characters of both stories.
In the story, “ The Book Thief,” written by Markus Zusak a poor little girl loses everything, but then a family adopts her. Rudy took water on a cold day and poured it on the road so it would turn into ice, on this road a boy named Otto Sturm traveled it everyday with a basket of food. A boy named Max starts have daydreams throughout the days. The sweet, old lady named Rosa has a foster daughter.
War. When the word is said, what immediately comes to one’s mind is a battlefield; blaring guns, generals screaming orders as planes roar overhead, with soldiers watching as their comrades have unimaginably gruesome deaths. The same is expected for a novel about war. The main character is enlisted and goes through all of the aforementioned things and then some. However, one book does not fit under this stereotype. Even though a huge theme in this novel is war, not a single gun is fired throughout the entire story. Not only that, but the main character does not share his time in the war until the last few pages of the book. This is because the novel accurately depicts the effects of an actual war instead of a romanticized version of one. By showing the impact of war on
In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, beauty and brutality is seen in many of the characters. Rudy, Liesel, and Rosa display examples of beauty and brutality often without realizing what exactly they are doing, because it is a part of their human nature. Zusak not only uses his characters, but also the setting of the novel in Nazi Germany to allude to his theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature. The time in which the novel is set, during World War II, displays great examples of beauty and brutality, such as the mistreatment of the Jews. As a result of this time period, the characters have to go through troubling times, which reveals their beautiful and brutal nature in certain circumstances. Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel.
At the beginning of the book, Oskar is tortured by his father’s death and their memories together become “hole in the middle of (him) that every happy thing fell into” (Foer 71), and he is angry because his mother seems happy when she should be “adding to the Reservoir of Tears”(Foer 52). Through his journey to find the lock, Oskar gradually learns to move on by making new friends. He enjoys his time with his new friend and neighbor Mr. Black and learns to appreciate her mother’s efforts to help her family ease the pain. Meanwhile, Oskar’s grandfather returns to his family after 40 years “to mourn and try to live” (Foer 268) as he finds, in his solitary years, that he cares about and needs the love of his family. In the end, he is forgiven by his wife and is accepted by his family. These heartwarming stories demonstrate to people in distress that even after traumatic loss, there are still ways to recover and to be happy again if only they are willing to share with their families, to be patient, to love and hope, to let new people into their lives and hearts and to grow up from the experience like the characters do.
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak tells a story of a girl who goes through many struggles to find happiness in reading. On this journey, Liesel meets many characters that will play a huge part in her life. Without these characters Liesel finds that she would not be who she is now, a strong educated young woman. Liesel gives a lot of praise to her new found father as he has given her the gift of reading books. As WWII starts to take a toll on Germany, Liesel and her many friends seek shelter during the bombings on Molching street.
Markus Zusak wrote a book called The Book Thief. The narrator is death. Liesel, the main character, steals books. Her fist stolen book is at the grave of her little brother who died on the way to Molching Germany where their foster parents were waiting. She learns to read and begins to steal books, because its world war two and they have no money. That, and sometimes it feels good to steal from the people who stole from you. Liesel’s story is powerful, even in the darkness of such a power as Nazi Germany. Even though Liesel is a fictional character in a fictional book, there is value in reading literature such as this. And here’s why:
Even though the style of writing is simple and direct, it does a good job conveying the different themes of the story, including the different conflicts between politics and religion, separation of families, death, and etc. The power of words is shown as soon as Liesel learns how to read. Her will for prosperity and curiosity becomes more powerful with every word she learns. She realizes that words, through cruel and wicked manners, can be impact people to force acts of brutality. During the burial of her baby brother, she finds her first book, the grave digger’s manual. Even though liesel couldn’t read at the moment, she knows the memories its words
Death states that, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). This book shows us human doing things that weren’t even imaginable before this point. Many people give into ideas that were lies. But, we also watch a few people go out of their way and sacrifice everything for a man they barely even know. They do everything they can to keep him safe and alive. They work harder, the get another job, and they even steal. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, death examines the ugliness and the beauty of humans.
The main character Liesel, known as “the book thief” is who Death is looking over. Liesel, her mother, and brother are on a train to Munich. On the train ride her brother dies. She and her mother get off the train to bury him. The first book Liesel steals is from the gravediggers. They continue the journey to a town called Molching, where Liesel will be raised by foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel adjusts to her new home life. Hans teaches Liesel how to read. The war is escalating in Germany. The town holds a book-burning to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. That’s when Liesel steals another book from the flames. Liesel’s job is to deliver laundry to the Hermann family. The Hermanns’ have a library full of books. Liesel is allowed to read them in the study. Meanwhile, a German-Jew named Max needs help, so he seeks out the Hubermanns. Max hides in the basement, so he is safe from the Nazis. Liesel begins stealing books from the Hermanns. The Nazis parade the Jews through the town of Molching on their way to the concentration camp for everyone to see. Liesel is given a blank notebook to write her own story. One night the neighborhood is bombed. Hans, Rosa, and the rest of the neighborhood is killed. Rescue workers find Liesel under the rubble. She leaves behind her finished book, called The Book Thief. Death, who has been watching, rescues the book. Liesel ends up living with the mayor