Author: Jack

In the text “The Book Thief.” Authored by Markus Zusak there are many themes portrayed in the text which are deeply influenced by one or more insignificant events. This is typical of the genre of Magical realisim where the An example of this is when Lisle ( the main character in the text) steals her first book, this insignificant event in the text of the book stealing influences one of the main themes in the book of the power of words. Another insignificant moment in the text that influenced the main idea of the power of words is the painting over the Mein Kampf book

Early winters morning. The township lying below you had not yet woken from it’s deep elongated sleep. Curtains and drapes covering every square inch of window attempting to keep the darkness out, however it still finds away to crawl through the unforeseeable cracks to invade the sleeping households. Trickles of thin grey smoke produced by the dying breath of the last logs on the fire meandered through the frozen air, providing proof that the town was still alive. Stars would have shone high and bright above you, if it weren’t for the thick light sucking inversion layer consuming the town. Not even the penetrating rays of illuminated light reflected from the moon could puncture the belly of the beast. Leaving all beneath in an awe consuming sea of darkness.

You step outside into the frost soaked morning. Sheets of ice, layer after layer concealed everything in a colorless cloak. Frozen strands of grass shivered in the heat sucking breeze. Threats of overnight snow was traded for a frozen lifeless breeze sucking the heat right out of your lungs with each abrupt breath, and on release forms a cloud of mystical floating mist which quickly evaporates into the thin mountain breeze. The frost carrying trees struggle to stay upright with the extra baggage swaying side to side. Each slight movement getting closer, and closer to the seemingly inevitable collapse.

Listen. Can you hear, the the uncanny silence of the early morning advancing through the neglected streets, passing over the tranquil stream, surrounding the town. The first breaths of the towering top’s of the commanding mountains as the first golden rays of light make there mark igniting the face in bright yellow light. The lone bird clambering its way up a bare apple tree coated with unforgiving icicles, searching desperately for a morning snack. The deep winding river meandering down its elected path, hiding it’s unforeseen power in the murky depths of its beating heart.

You can see the great towering bodies of the ancient mountains disappearing through the soupy thick clouds with only there feet showing beneath. You can see the twinkle of lights in the vast corners of your eyes as the township below starts to wake. One after the other the houses come to life eventually illuminating the valley floor with a sea of light. plumes of smoke now bellowed from neighboring chimneys as fresh logs of wood are thrown onto the glowing embers of the dying fire, adding to the thickness of the lurking fog.

The vast outline of the burning sun climbs higher and higher into the sky with each dying minute. The piercing rays of boiled light commence a raging battle with the thick soupy fog, burning through the blanket of dense moisture, until trickles of light poured down onto the lifeless countryside coated in a thick icing of frozen dew. As soon as the light hits the shivering icy valley floor, it irrupts into a glowing explosion of fluorescent light flooding the gaping valley.

Sparkling sheets of ice covered to the exterior of the flimsy weathered window, retreating second after second. Fumes of hot dry air boiled by the heater polluted the vast depths of the small room. the putrid lingering smell of cheap deodorant mask’s the deadly aroma of BO.

Imagine being 13. having your whole life in front of you. Then suddenly it all tumbles down. It all started back in 99 with a young boy called Jeremy. Jeremy was a very shy lean scruffy child with dark beady eyes who was currently refereed to at school as bean pole because of his long lanky figure. Jeremy was brought up in a poor family on the brink of bankruptcy with his two older brothers Dave and Zack. All three of these brothers were adopted into the family just so the parents could gain there inheritances from the government to enabling them to stay on there feet. However this did not mean that the three brothers were not loved by there foster family.

Jeremy mother and father both slaved away day and night in order to get three meals in front of there three sons. At the age of twelve Jeremy was just a kid brought up in a poor family dreaming to do something great in the world, however he lacked the skill and motivation to put his dreams to light.

Life was going well for the three kids, all were attending school, playing sports, and living life to the fullest. Jeremy’s parents were moving up in the world, both had managed to gain decent reliable jobs providing a constant income stream for there family. All was going well until tragedy struck. It was a rather fine start to the Wednesday. The three kids were taken to school in the old battered sedan which had been in the family for well over 15 years and was starting to show signs of fatigue on its old rusted body. The sun was perched high in the sky and showed no sign of coming down soon. The sky was blue with only a couple of white puffy clouds dotted through it. The day dragged on and by the time both parents came to pick the kids up from school a dark wall of clouds had encased the sun and the rain had just started to bucket down.

And when I say bucket down I mean absolutely bucket down. The whole family, Jeremy included took refuge in the body of the old sedan, still panting from the journey from work to school. The mother started the car, It usually took a few tries to get the old fart of a motor going, but this time it spurted to life straight away as if it wanted to take refuge from the pelting rain as quickly as possible. Rain thundered at the windscreen of the car making it near impossible for Jeremy mother and farther to see the road in front, not even the window wipers on full tit could provide a real view of the winding road home.

I mean considering the circumstances it was no surprise to see the old battered sedan toppled head over heels in a drainage ditch with water pouring in from both ends. Glass and burned rubber scattered the roadside and sirens blared in the distance getting closer and closer. It was an ambulance that arrived first on the scene The officer’s carried bodies out of the crippled body of the now dead sedan, it was impossible to tell who was who, all were caked in blood and drenched in drainage water. They were then all rushed to the nearest hospital all in critical conditions.

Imagine this, you wake up in a hospital, you don’t know where, you’ve been asleep, you don’t know for how long and your strapped to a bed with needles and tubes sticking into you with chemicals running through them into your body. How would you feel? Well this is pretty much what happened to Jeremy and he lost his shit. Jeremy had been in a coma caused by the injury’s that he received in the car crash 3 months ago, since then he has been in a coma on the verge of death until under remarkable circumstances he was pretty much brought back from the dead.

The rest of Jeremy’s family however were not so lucky, His mother and father both died at the scene of the crash and his two other brothers Dave and Zack werent lucky enough to make it to the hospital, Even though they weren’t Jeremy’s real family it was all he ever had and this nearly killed him a second time over. With nothing to lose Jeremy started to rebuild his life and live his dream, of going to the Olympics. And this time around he had motivation as each time he felt like giving up he saw his family staring right back down at him pushing him forwards causing him to rise up. from this day forwards Jeremy hit the gym every day building himself up for his chosen sport of weightlifting, Now lets just say that the reason for Jeremy choosing weight lifting instead of any other sport was due to his new found mental and physical strength that he mysteriously gained after waking up from death.

Jeremy was moving up the ranks in the weight lifting world getting stronger and stronger every day constantly lifting heavier and heavier weight, with the Olympic qualifiers just around the corner it seemed that by the age of 18 Jeremy was going to be one of the youngest ever weight lifters to go in contention of the podium. Due to Jeremy’s status he was scheduled for a stock standard drug test just before the Olympic qualifiers, Due to this being Jeremy’s first ever drug test his results were unknown. However this did not bother him as Jeremy was sure that he had never taken performance enhancing drugs in his life, well at least not to his knowledge. So when a mysterious person arrived outside Jeremy’s well you wouldn’t really call it a house, maybe a small cabin of such if you were lucky. The mysterious man stated that Jeremy had tested positive for every single type of performance enhancing drugs known to man and was disqualified from the up coming Olympics destroying his life long dream.

Imagine being 13. having your whole life in front of you. Then suddenly it all tumbles down. It all started back in 99 with a young boy called Jeremy. Jeremy was a very shy lean scruffy child with dark beady eyes who was currently refereed to at school as bean pole because of his long lanky figure. Jeremy was brought up in a poor family on the brink of bankruptcy with his two older brothers Dave and Zack. All three of these brothers were adopted into the family just so the parents could gain there inheritances from the government to stay on there feet. However this did not mean that the three brothers were not loved by there foster family. Jeremy mother and father both slaved away day and night in order to get three meals in front of there three sons. At the age of twelve Jeremy was just a kid brought up in a poor family dreaming to do something great in the world, however he lacked the skill and motivation to put his dreams to light. Life was going well for the three kids, all were attending school, playing sports, and living life to the fullest. Jeremy’s parents were moving up in the world, both had managed to gain decent reliable jobs providing a constant income stream for there family. All was going well until tragedy struck. It was a rather fine start to the day all the kids were taken to school in the old sedan which had been in the family for well over 15 years and was starting to show signs of fatigue on its old rusted body. The sun was perched high in the sky and showed no sign of coming down soon. The sky was blue with only a couple of white puffy clouds dotted through it. The day dragged on and by the time both parents came to pick the kids up from school a dark wall of clouds had encased the sun and the rain had just started to bucket down. And when I say bucket down I mean absolutely bucket down. The whole family, Jeremy included took refuge in the body of the old sedan, still puffing from the journey from work to school. The mother started the car, It usually took a few tries to get the old fart of a motor going, but this time it spurted to life straight away as if it wanted to take refuge from the pelting rain as quickly as possible. Rain thundered at the windscreen of the car making it near impossible for Jeremy mother and farther to see the road in front, not even the window wipers on full tit could provide a real view of the winding road home. I mean considering the circumstances it was no surprise to see the old battered sedan toppled head over heels in a drainage ditch with water pouring in from both ends. Glass and burned rubber scattered the roadside and sirens blared in the distance getting closer and closer. It was an ambulance that arrived first on the scene The officer carried bodies out of the crippled body of the now dead sedan, it was impossible to tell who was who, all were caked in blood and drenched in drainage water. They were then all rushed to the nearest hospital all in critical conditions. Imagine this, you wake up in a hospital, you don’t know where, you’ve been asleep, you don’t know for how long and your strapped to a bed with needles and tubes sticking into you with chemicals running through them into your body. How would you feel? Well this is pretty much what happened to Jeremy and he lost his shit. Jeremy had been in a coma caused by the injury’s that he received in the car crash 3 months ago, since then he has been in a coma on the verge of death until a mysterious chemical was administered to him which pretty much brought him back from the dead. The rest of Jeremy’s family however were not so lucky, His mother and father both died at the scene of the crash and his two other brothers Dave and Zack didn’t make it to the hospital, Even though they weren’t Jeremy’s real family it was all he ever had and this nearly killed him a second time over. With nothing to lose Jeremy started to rebuild his life and live his dream, of going to the Olympics. And this time around he had motivation as each time he felt like giving up he saw his family staring right back down at him pushing him forwards. from this day forwards Jeremy hit the gym every day building himself up for his chosen sport of weightlifting, Now lets just say that the reason for Jeremy choosing weight lifting instead of any other sport was due to his new found mental and physical strength that he mysteriously gained after waking up from death. Jeremy was moving up the ranks in the weight lifting world getting stronger and stronger every day constantly lifting heavier and heavier weight, with the Olympic qualifiers just around the corner it seemed that by the age of 18 Jeremy was going to be one of the youngest ever weight lifters to go in contention of the podium. Due to Jeremy’s status he was scheduled for a stock standard drug test just before the Olympic qualifiers, Due to this being Jeremy’s first ever drug test his results were unknown

Markus Zusak in the book ‘The Book thief’ creates realistic narrative that contains a surreal element to convey ideas. Zusak illustrates magical realism through the character death being the narrator to draw the reader in. Considering that death is inevitable to everybody and is some thing that we cannot yet fully comprehend. We are forced to believe in death as our human nature of curiosity pulls us into the concept of death. This is shows that we as humans want to gain further insight into the character Death. The book The Book Thief which is narrated by death evokes the reader to the narration forcing them to pay attention to the story line. Death being the narrator is something that we as humans cannot fully comprehend making the reader read on to learn more about the character of death. the quote ” I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think that they’re running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me.” this quote demonstrates deaths unemotional views on world war two and what was happening at the time with concentration camps and the Jews. Since death has authority over us as the human race as we cannot fully comprehend him we are forced to see the horrific events of this time such as the concentration camps in a new light.

Markus Zusak in the book ‘The Book thief’ uses realistic narrative that contains a surreal element to convey ideas. Zusak uses magical realism through the character death being the narrator to draw the reader in. This is because death is inevitable to everybody and is some thing that we cannot yet fully comprehend. We are forced to believe in death as our human nature of curiosity pulls us into the concept of death. This is because we as humans want to gain further insight into the character Death. The book The Book Thief which is narrated by death draws in the reader to the narration forcing them to pay attention to the story line. Death being the narrator is something that we as humans cannot fully comprehend making the reader read on to learn more about the character of death. the quote ” I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think that they’re running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me.” this quote shows deaths unemotional views on world war two and what was happening at the time with concentration camps and the Jews. Since death has authority over us as the human race as we cannot fully comprehend him we are forced to see the horrific events of this time such as the concentration camps in a new light.

• death is something that occurs to everything and is something that we cannot yet fully comprehend meaning that we are forced to believe whatever death says.
• Death is perceived to be human like making him seem naive
• Death sees things with a new light and sees things in a new perspective with colours.

Markus Zusak in the book the book thief uses realistic narrative that contains a surreal element to convey the ideas. Zusak uses magical realism through the character death being the narrator to draw the reader in. This is because death is inevitable to everybody and is some thing that we cannot yet fully comprehend as we as humans do not understand the concept of death. We are forced to believe in death as our human nature of curiosity pulls us into the concept of death. This is because we as humans want to gain futher insight into the character Death. The book The Book Thief which is narrated by death draws in the reader to the narration. Death being the narrator is something that we as humans cannot fully comprehend making the reader read on to learn more about the character of death. the quote ” I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think that they’re running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me.” this quote shows deaths unemotional views on world war two and what was happening at the time with concentration camps and the Jews. Since death has authority over us as the human race as we cannot fully comprehend him we are forced to see the horrific events of this time such as the concentration camps in a new light.

work on structure of sentences and the grammatical errors.

Add in a quote on how death is surreal and explain, then relate how deaths unemotional views on to what was going on at the time with the concentration camps

use different words to explain how death is not fully comprehended

Futher explain why we as humans want to gain futher insight into death.

gliding across the spinal cord of each book. pg 146

in the darkness of my beating heart, i know. hed have loved it alright, you see ? even death has a heart pg 262

“I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think that they are running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me.” 

 ” To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: “get it done, Get it done.” So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss however, does not thank you, he asks for more.”

“Words can inspire. and words can destroy. Choose yours well.” Robin Sharma

 “The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing.” 

 ” Beneath her shirt, a book was eating her up.”

“Quite a way beyond the outskirts of Munich was a town called Molching, said best by the likes of you and me as Molking. That’s where they were taking her, to a street by the name of Himmel.”

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

quote: “In the darkness of my dark beating heart, i know. He’d have loved it all right. You see? Even death has a heart.”

Marcus Zusac uses language features to give us deeper knowledge in to the book the book thief. The quote “In the darkness of my dark beating heart, i know. He’d have loved it all right. You see? Even death has a heart.” this quote explain how death the narrator of the book thief is perceived to have human like features such as a heart which defies our previous image of death as being an evil dark being that has bad intentions. This use of personification in making death, the thing that people want the least, seem human gives us the image that death is not as bad as it is seen to be as it is perceived to have a heart. This gives deeper meaning to the text the book thief as it shows that death which controls the fate of the characters is described to be human meaning that death can gain feelings towards other characters. This is important to the text as death is growing feelings for lisle, this could change her fate and therefore the fate of the entire book as death will not want her to perish.