Analysis Of 'The Book Thief And All She Remembered Was Her Name'

The death of 1 child is horrible. The death of 1.5 million children is appealing. This was the grim legacy the holocaust left behind. This was also the brutal reality for the characters in ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak and ‘All She Remembered was her Name’ by Rochel Yaffe. This disturbing fact not only paints a transparent picture of the adults living during the WW2 but also the vulnerable youth who lived through it. They became adults with this gruesome past of loss and despair. That is why it is clear that children who lived during the holocaust emphasize on it’s horrifying demeanour. The two authors of these novels demonstrate this point through their narratives, by allowing the reader to interpret the character’s reactions through first-person

And lastly, both authors display both of their main, child characters in the most of vulnerable places. This is to then display the kind of unhealthy coping mechanisms created as traumatized adults.

By doing this, the reader can come to the conclusion that involving children with the hardships of war, make for a meek ending. The types of narration used by these two authors either allows the reader to get a full view of all the events taking place, or to draw their own conclusions based on the reaction of the characters. Markus Zusak who wrote‘The Book Thief’, tackles the subject of narration by having the novel narrated through the character, Death, personified. Death narrates the book through third-person omniscient, making all characters thoughts and feelings. He also has Death put in its two cents from time to time. This is an interesting choice of narration, because not only does the reader get to see all of the feelings of all characters, but also one can see the sorrow that Death faces when having to take the lives of so many innocent children when their lives have barely begun. “It kills me sometimes, how young people die. I’m haunted by the boys’ faces because even Death has a heart.” (Zusak 22-23) Death