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The theme of death in literature
The theme of death in literature
Death theme in literature
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Liesel and Rudy sneaks into the Mayors house to discover a plate of stale cookies in the window of the mayor's library. Liesel takes the plate of cookies from the window and grabs The Last Human Stranger when she hears the sound of a door opening. Ilsa Hermann walks in and joins Liesel. Liesel ask the mayor’s wife if the library is hers and apologizes for thinking the mayor owned it when Ilsa confesses that the books belong to her and her deceased son. Liesel returns to Rudy and together they eat half of the plate of cookies and share the rest with Tommy Müller.
At this time, near Essen, Hans and the men of LSE play cards for cigarettes. Reinhold Zucker, one of the troops, gloats when he won and accuses Hans of cheating when he obtains cigarettes because of his victories. Hans is thought-well-of because when he wins, he shares some of the cigarettes to his colleges and offer to light it for them.
In January 1943, Liesel reads at Frau Holtzapfel's home to an old man who is severely injured. The wounded man tells Liesel to come back later; hours later, the old man visits Liesel at her house. The injured man is Michael, one of the Holtzapfel's sons and has recently been involved in battle. When Michael has a lit cigarette he informs Rosa of his brothers passing and that Hans Junior is alive. Death explains that Robert, Michael’s brother, died because his legs were blown off on a cold day during January in Russia. . He died in the hospital days later with his brother at his side. Liesel reads to his grieving Mother at Frau Holtzapfel's house.
Liesel imagines her deceased brother while returning the plate that held that held the stale cookies to the Mayors house. Rosa is grieving over absent of her husband, Hans, while...
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• “Rosa with sitting with the accordion, praying. ‘Make them come back alive’ she repeated.” (p.474)
Frau Holtzapfel
• Frau is grief-stricken when she hears the news that her son, Robert, died in Russia. Due to her grief, Frau refuses to leave her home and is during an air raid.
• “The women looked up and made her decision. She didn’t move. Liesel left. She withdrew herself from the able and rushed from the house.” (p.486)
Michael Holtzapfel
• Michael comes back from war without his brother or three of his fingers. Michael tries to comfort his mother, Frau, by getting Liesel to read as asked by her.
• “Can I take the girl to read? I doubt my mother will hear it, but she said for her to come.”
Death
• He/She feels remorse for how people die. In this case Death feels sorrow for how Hans will die.
• “It kills me sometimes how people die.” (p.464)
Part One: The first book that Liesel “stole” was The Grave Digger's Handbook. This is ironic because it was the day that her brother died and it was the last time she saw her mother. Himmel Street is ironic because Himmel= Heaven and Himmel Street did
The next day Dieter woke up in an hospital, he didn't know what was going on so he asked a general what happened to Schaefer and the American boy that helped me. The general answered that they both died. But Dieter would be to if Spencer wouldn't have helped him.
After Liesel learns how to read and write, she receives the task of , “completing a letter for homework” (Zusak 95). Eventually she arrives at the conclusion to write to her biological mother. Liesel then continues to write more letters, but lacks the money to purchase stamps in order to send them. On her birthday, she would give “a present from herself. She would gather all the accrued letters to her mother, stuff them into one envelope, and use just a tiny portion of the washing and ironing money to mail it” (Zusak 98). Consequently, Liesel’s foster mother, Rosa soon discovers the gap in her laundry payments. When enraged, Rosa makes Liesel break just by asking her about the missing money. It was Liesel’s guilt that made her feel the need to confess so easily to the crime.
He understands Liesel’s experience more than any other human and later they become soul mates. Rudy Steiner is Liesel’s best friend. Rudy has a sensitive and compassionate side. He loves Liesel very much and will always be there for her. Liesel slowly adjusts to her new life, she is still plagued by the nightmares of her dead brother Werner. This book has many themes such as love, the books focus is on the characters who are learning to love in war times. The Book Thief is set in war times between the years 1939 and 1943 in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust and World War II are going on at the same time. The war shapes the characters’ lives and makes a huge impact on their life choices. Death lets us know early in the book that this is a very tragic and emotional book. We witness many deaths of innocent people. Death informs to us that many people we grow to love in this book will die. As the characters grow and change, their courage becomes a bigger factor in their lives. It becomes a life-sustaining attribute and a testament to their humanity. She later meets and becomes friends with a neighbor named Rudy, who is quite fond of the American athlete Jesse Owens and constantly bugs Liesel to kiss him. Hans had discovered that
Liesel’s mom leaves her with foster parents because she wishes to protect her from the fate she is enduring. The words Paula, Liesel’s mom, uses go against Hitler because she is a communist which resulted in her being taken away and Liesel to lose her mother and experience the loss of her. This shows Liesel experiences unhappiness because of her mother’s disappearance which is caused by the words she openly uses that contradicts Hitler.
Death watches Liesel’s story from beginning to end, until the very last minute of the you Book Thief's life.
The “liquidation” process of the Jews in Elli’s town has begun. Everyone’s prized possessions must be brought to city hall, where they will also be registered. Elli has just gotten a new bike and does not want to give it up. After they come home, her father shows her and the rest of the family a spot where he has buried their most prized possessions. He tells her that he does not know who will survive. He then asks her if she will remember the spot. She yells that she does not want to be the only one to survive, and she does not want to remember.
Liesel Meminger went through a great deal of survivor’s guilt but she managed to get back up after every single moment. Liesel was the only one to survive from her family in which that caused guilt to build up. When her brother Werner died she had the guilt spill out. As she lived with her foster parents every night she wouldn’t have a pleasant dream she would have a nightmare. The guilt of surviving while her brother didn’t, was one of her factors of survivor’s guilt.”As usual her nightly nightmare interrupted her sleep and she was woken by Hans Hubermann. His hand held the sweaty fabric of her pajamas “‘The train?”’ he whispered Liesel confirmed,”’The train.”’ (Zusak 86) The nightmare of the train is her seeing her brother dead on the floor in which happened to her and the survivor guilt comes to her causing her to have these nightmares. As she learned to read and write, she went on many exploits and met many people. Ilsa Hermann gave her a book to write in, leading to her being the only survivor on Himmel street. Since she was the
Louise Mallard has not yet heard the news of her husband’s death. As the news is revealed to her she went into a state of unhappiness, and she had a hard time “accepting the significance” (463). She “wept at once” with “wild abandonment” and the “storm of grief” (463), passed over and she went alone to her bedroom with no one to follow her. The author describes in the previous sentence that the storm of grief has passed over her,
Exposition: Death begins to narrate Liesel’s story as she is sent to her foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermann, on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany.
Ellen got lucky, and she was able to stay with her best friend's parents fathers brother-in-law named Henrik. After a few days at Henrik’s place, one night there is a funeral, and Ellen reunites during that funeral, with her parents, which was disturbed by the Nazi soldiers. Annemarie, her best friend, and her relatives along with Ellen’s family and relatives managed to trick the Nazi from opening the coffin. This happened because what was inside of the coffin could cost their life if caught by the Germans. With the help of Annemarie's mother, Ellen and her family were to be taken to the docks to be potentially shipped away to safety. As one family geso one by one to leave it became Ellens turn to go and leave the household. Annemarie as sad as she is about letting her best friend go she gives up and allows ...
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
In this frame Spiegelman displays his anger with being compared to his died brother, Richieu. His aunt poisoned Richieu because she did not want the Nazis to take him to the concentration camps. The only thing his parents had to remember him by was a picture that hung on their bedroom wall.
The fictional life and death of a twelve year old little boy named Robert is vividly articulated in this moving tale by Thomas Wolfe. The reader learns of the boy’s life through four well developed points of view. The reader’s first glimpse into Robert’s character is expressed through a third person narrative. This section takes place on a particularly important afternoon in the boy’s life. The second and third views are memories of the child, through the eyes of his mother and sister. His mother paints the picture of an extraordinary child whom she loved dearly and his sister illustrates the love that the boy had for others. Finally, an account from the narrator is given in the ending. It is in the last section of this work that the narrator attempts to regain his own memories of his lost brother.