“The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand.” This quote, stated by Robert Vallet, resonates with all human beings irrespective of their age, gender, or race. The Book Thief, written by Marcus Zusak and narrated by death, tells an eye-opening story from the perspective of a small group of Germans who silently, secretly and courageously opposed Nazism during the time of the Holocaust. While death is featured prominently throughout the story, ultimately, love shines through. This is seen not only in The Book Thief, but in everyday life. Hence, Zusak’s purpose in writing The Book Thief is to expose his readers to the exceptional, yet beautiful power of love: how love can save a person, change a …show more content…
Consequently, perspectives are what makes a person unique, and when they change, as a result of an act of love, it is almost always for the better. In times of confusion, many different thoughts, and ideas, specifically during the Holocaust, love is rare, but when it is found, it truly shows how powerful love can be, powerful enough to change perspectives. An example of this is apparent through Liesel in The Book Thief when Hans and Rosa widen Liesel’s perspective to be more accepting of others through the way they treat …show more content…
When a person dies, that bond of love between him and his kin never diminishes. Conveyed through many forms of entertainment, the idea that love is everlasting is conspicuous in the movie What Dreams May Come, as well as the book, The Book Thief. Portrayed in the movie, What Dreams May Come, the indestructible bond between the main character, Chris Nielsen and his wife is so strong, that it is apparent on many platforms such as Earth, Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell; therefore, completely everlasting because of its magnitude to withstand many environments. At the end of the film, Chris travels to Hell to look for his wife, and tells her that he is going to stay with her. “(I would stay with you just)...For being so wonderful a guy would choose Hell over Heaven just to hang around you.” And later stating that, “I found you in Hell. Don 't you think I could find you in Jersey!” (What). Chris is ultimately stating that no matter where they are, what time or place, he will always find her. Subsequently, since both Chris and his wife love each other, despite being through Heaven and Hell and Earth, their love does, in fact, prove to be eternal. Additionally, The Book Thief has a love that is perpetual. From the very day that Liesel moves into her foster parents’ home, Hans and Liesel have a unique, boundless love, strung together not only by words, but by the tunes of an accordion. As the plot develops, the accordion is
Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.
An individual's morals are rooted in their personal views which may be contradictory to the principles manifested by society. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, characters living on Himmel Street who neglect Nazi ideology experience love for each other and humanity, thereby living a contented life in harsh conditions. The different types of love which individuals on Himmel Street encounter from refusing to obey societal ideologies and expectations is formed by supporting those in need and developing relationships with those that society has degraded.
Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief depicts the life of a certain young German girl named Liesel Meminger during World War II. Her story was told through the eyes of Death, who narrates both the blessings and devastation that occurred during that era. Liesel experiences living with her new foster parents and come across a boy named Rudy Steider who will later on become her best friend. As the story unfolds, Liesel gradually discovers the horrifying truth behind the Nazi regime as her foster parents take refuge of a Jewish man. Despite being in the midst of destruction and recently coping from her traumatic background, she undertakes on a journey of self-discovery and
In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the narrator is Death, who shows itself as sympathetic and sensitive towards the suffering of the world and the cruel human nature, through its eyes, we can get to know the heartbreaking story of Liesel Meminger an ordinary, but very lucky nine-year old German girl; living in the midst of World War II in Germany. In this book the author provides a different insight and observation about humanity during this time period from a German view and not an Allied perspective, as we are used to.
Imagine being trapped in a ghetto, seeing communities leaving in trains, families being split up, never to see each other again.. The emotions that each and every Holocaust survivor must’ve gone through is overwhelming. Some things that are taken for granted, will never be seen again. While reading the two texts, Night by Elie Wiesel and “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Pavel Friedman, The two predominant emotions that prevailed most to Holocaust victims and survivors were hope and fear.
The chaos and destruction that the Nazi’s are causing are not changing the lives of only Jews, but also the lives of citizens in other countries. Between Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are crucial to the survival of principle characters. Ironically, in both stories there is a foreseen future, that both seemed to be ignored.
Many different responses have occurred to readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the Holocaust victims.
The protagonist of The Book Thief is Liesel Meminger, a girl growing up in holocaust Germany. As the book begins Liesel is 9 years old, a girl given up by her mother to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in the German town of Molching. On the way to Molching Liesel’s brother Werner who was supposed to join her at the Hubermanns’ dies and Liesel is traumatized making the separation from her mother, her only remaining family much more painful. Thankfully the blow is softened by the love extended to her from her foster-father. Hans compared to Rosa with her gruff, loud love is just the solace Liesel needs. He is gentle and kind, patient enough to teach Liesel how to read, starting with a book she picked up at the graveyard where her brother was buried. With his aid Liesel slowly becomes more comfortable in her new life, venturing out in the neighborhood at a soccer match she befriends Rudy Steiner, a boy who falls in love with her. Over that summer they have many adventures together and the shadow of war is left in the joy of childhood freedom. A shadow, warded off for long finally falls upon Liese...
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.
Although our past is a part of who we are nowadays, we will never be happy if we can never let go of the painful feeling attached to our suffering. In addition, “suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us” (Wiesel 96). We should not be afraid to let go of our haunting past and grow closer to others because “man carries his fiercest enemy within himself. Hell isn’t others. It’s ourselves” (Wiesel 15). The wise advice this book gives its audience is one reason it won a Nobel Peace Prize. The books are also part of a very famous Holocaust trilogy, which is one reason it has been so widely read. In addition, it blends everyday stories with Holocaust stories.Therefore, readers are very compassionate towards the narrator and readers create a bond with this character due to his hardships and the similarities he shares with us. Lastly, Day speaks to the needs of the human spirit by intertwining a love story. Readers wonder if his girlfriend will change his attitude towards life because he tells the doctor, “I love Kathleen. I love her with all my heart. And how can one love if at the same time one doesn’t care about life” (Wiesel
However, the easily overlooked similarity is the concept of love. This emotion is merely overlooked. Through this similarity, it becomes evident that love not only is something yearned for by humanity, but also a temptation so strong it can blind us to reality. This blindness can cause the pain of death. Love can cause people to do crazy things, and if you are Lieutenant Cross, even make you treat a pebble as if it were a tongue. Frank’s love for Mary Ann, as innocent as it may seem, exists as a love for a married woman. Love and lust are dangerous beasts, ones that we as readers must be weary of, for if we are not, we may find ourselves sharing the same fate as Frank, death by
At first glance, Night, by Eliezer Wiesel does not seem to be an example of deep or emotionally complex literature. It is a tiny book, one hundred pages at the most with a lot of dialogue and short choppy sentences. But in this memoir, Wiesel strings along the events that took him through the Holocaust until they form one of the most riveting, shocking, and grimly realistic tales ever told of history’s most famous horror story. In Night, Wiesel reveals the intense impact that concentration camps had on his life, not through grisly details but in correlation with his lost faith in God and the human conscience.
We watch death explore the beauty and ugliness of the human race in Markus Zusak’s book The Book Thief. We watch as Liesel, Hans, and Rosa do everything they can to help out a group of people who were treated with such disrespect during this time period. This group, the Jews, were beaten for taking food that was given to them, and when they died no one would even care. But, these few people gave them food, a place to hide, a sense of belonging, and and a reason to live. They have to work day and night, and do everything they can. Even though people aren’t so beautiful at all times, there is still hope. As we have learned in this book that even when 99 percent of humans aren’t so marvelous there is still that one percent that is to delightful that it would touch anyones heart.
When most people think of love, they imagine a beautiful concept, one of which is and should be a part of life. Some will imagine the unconditional love of God, others will picture a spouse or family members, and some may even think about materialistic things. While there are many ways in which love can be defined as, it usually has positive connotations. This is not necessarily the case in Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces, at least through the character Orual. Love is a major theme in the novel and is portrayed in both a humanly and a divine way. The humanly love which Lewis displays is mainly shown through Orual and is demonstrated as a perverse love. The divine love is presented through Psyche and is portrayed as selfless. In Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis differentiates perverse love and selfless
Victor Hugo once said, “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Whether in Shakespeare’s tragic play about lovers doomed by fate, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s sonnet describing love, “Sonnet 116”, or O. Henry’s age old The Gift of the Magi, love motivates the characters and authors to make decisions that have a weighty impact on their lives. Throughout these works of literature, authors use love’s power to drive the plot forward to create good events within the characters’ lives. Love is a force for good because it makes people willing to forgive each other, it brings the best out of people in bad situations, and it