In The Book Theif Death
is the narrator. Death was reflecting on the life of Liesel during Hitler’s
reign. Because he was reflecting on the past he used a lot of foreshadowing.
One of the most prominent examples was when Death says Rudy, “didn’t deserve to
die the way he did.” He then elaborated by implying that a bomb blast had killed
him and Leisel finally kissed him. Death’s foreshadowing signified a distinct
change in the reader’s perception of the book. Leisel’s life up to that point
was mostly happy and constantly improving. She was learning to read and becoming more comfortable with her
foster parents; especially papa. The reader was hopeful about Leisel’s life and
happiness. The foreshadowing apprised the reader of the horrors to come. It
made every instance of happiness that followed a lot more potent and
meaningful. Every time Leisel ventured out to play soccer with her friends
again there was a sense of combined happiness and dread. Every time Leisel
refused to kiss Rudy instead of seeming playful, as it did before, it seemed
cruel. Death sucked the hope out of the novel. The foreshadowing also
introduced a new period in the novel that dealt more with the negative affect
the Nazi’s had on the character’s lives and the more serious situations Leisel
would have to face. Her papa brought a Jew to their home and hid him in their
basement. She was confronted with the horrors that led him to her home. She
played less with her friends and was confronted with Max’s mortality. Her
friends, Rudy and Tommy, were mistreated by the Hitler Youth. She had to
prepare for bombings and hide in shelters. She watched the Jewish march and her
father get whipped simply for being kind. Leisel’s innocence and childhood was systematically
battered and eventually lost. Death showed her loss of innocence and childhood
even more with his descriptions of her writings where she reflects on her
experiences. In the end, Leisel lost almost everyone that meant anything to
her. Death’s mention of the loss of Rudy was just the beginning of her road to
loss.
I thought the concept of death narrating the novel made it really interesting and different, although it was definitely more somber as you said. As I was reading, I couldn't get the first scene in the book out of my head where Liesel's brother dies. It was such a sad and somewhat strange beginning to a novel, however as I continued reading and understood more about the purpose of death in the novel, it began to make more sense. I agree that with your statement that "death sucked the hope out of the novel" because as I was reading I constantly thought that something bad was about to happen and I knew that the novel would not have a happy ending. Although the concept of death essentially took over the novel, it made the story even more powerful and real considering the context of the novel, and I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the idea of death as the narrator was interesting. I thought it was insightful to portray him as almost empathetic to Rudy's death. The quote "There was a chaos of good-bye" in the beginning was all the foreshadowing I needed to realize that Death would play an active role in the novel. I thought having death as the narrator really drove home the theme of loss.
ReplyDeleteHi Heidi,
ReplyDeleteI agree. I find that death's foreshadowing does rob the novel of hope and cast a grim shadow over moments of happiness, especially since Death seems to throw his morbid warnings out when the reader would otherwise be beginning to feel hope for the characters. I'd like to see you stay specific in your analysis. What, exactly, does knowing Rudy's death do the text as a whole? You could stick with one example and just expand your analysis, or you could add in another example. When is another moment of foreshadowing and how does that insertion affect the text in specific ways?