Preview

The Book Thief-Constructed Response

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
600 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Book Thief-Constructed Response
The Book Thief - Constructed Response Writing Assignment 1 - Option 1 In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the use of Death as a narrator impacts the tone of the story by making it mysterious and also sorrowful. The tone becomes mysterious because humans do not have a very good understanding of death and what happens when one dies, and it becomes sorrowful because Death allows the audience to witness and understand the deaths of so many people in the war and in life. The use of Death as a narrator makes the story seem very confusing and mysterious to the reader because the reader does not know what happens after death or any of the specifics about it. For example, the author introduces Death by stating that “you are going to die” (Zusak, 3)

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the chapter “The Sound of Sirens” in the book The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, is such a strong chapter filled with emotions. Max (a hidden jew) has been hiding from the Nazis in Liesel’s basement for the past twenty-two months. In the middle of the night, sirens go off warning the town to evacuate into bomb shelters. As Liesel and her family scramble with fear, they left Max behind, so they do not get caught for hiding a jew in their house. For Max, he is not allowed to leave the basement because people might see him in the widow. “There were stars,” he said. “They burned my eyes.” While the whole town has evacuated, my prediction was that Max walked upstairs knowing no one would see him, and looked outside for the first time in years. The…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This Passage reminds me of the similar situation that has happened to Liesel when her younger brother, Werner, died suddenly during their trip to Germany. Similarly, Arthur Berg is also going through this situation, but with his sister dying in his arms. Also, when death, the narrator says that he "could sense [that] he would hold her for hours," it reminds me of Liesel shaking his brother as she doesn’t believe that he is dead. (Zusak 167) As well, these passage allows the reader to understand that death can arrive at anytime, leaving their loved ones in sorrow, which is also one of theme that is revealed through this piece of…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The power of words have a big impact in this world. What would be appealing without words? Even actions are worth a thousand words. Books wouldn’t exist without words. Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief demonstrates throughout the book the power of words.…

    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Authors use a variety of literary devices to make a book more interesting and keep the reader in suspense. The author of the “The Book Thief”, Markus Zusak, likes to use the literary device called foreshadowing. He makes the book suspenseful, revealing how characters die early on and telling the reader the outcome to certain events. By revealing how characters die early on and telling the reader the outcome, Zusak makes the novel more suspenseful with his use of vague descriptions of the scenes which he is foreshadowing.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Book Thief, guilt can be found as a recurring theme, especially in the cases of Hans Hubermann and Max. In a deeper analysis, the reason as to how and why can be answered.…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay On The Book Thief

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. (Death)”…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    At first glance, the concept of death seems simple; one tries to live as long as possible, and when the time comes, he goes. However, there is much more to it than that. There is everything that leads to a person’s death and there is the aftermath. In her article “Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder,” Beth Loffreda talks about the outcome of a gay young man named Matt Shepard being murdered, and how he became lost in the wake of the movement that followed. Similarly, Jon Krakauer retraces the story of a young man named Chris McCandless who died in the Alaskan wilderness in his piece “Into the Wild.” The death of a person can become gradually more complex based on if it was natural, accidental or murder, if it was sudden, or slow, or if it was intentional. These are things that are easy to tell people, but make a big difference in the story. When writing or reading about a person’s death there are certain limits one comes across where it becomes very complicated to get the right story across. There is a great deal of limitation in writing about a person’s death because it is challenging to get all the correct details. Communicating the story of someone’s death can be complicated because many people lack the experiences to understand the events one goes through before dying and the true story often gets obscured by a shroud of drivel.…

    • 2036 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, one theme the author includes in the work is the power of knowledge.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Death is a horrendous thing that can cause an irreplaceable hole in somebody’s life. Death can also represent chaos and the pain of another character in the story. In Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the deaths of Johnny, Dally, and Bob created an intriguing plot and unveiled the hidden feelings and personalities of characters who react to the deaths, like Dally and Randy. The major deaths in The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, which are the deaths of Candy’s Dog, Curley’s Wife, and Lennie, displayed the personalities of the characters who killed them and developed the story in the book. The theme of death reveals hidden elements of characters who strongly felt a certain way about the character. Even though death is the end of a character, it…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Research Paper

    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The author’s perception of death is interesting and multifaceted. He uses death as a messenger sent by God to Everyman. Death the character is summoned by God to retrieve Everyman. Death answers God immediately. Everyman is a metaphor for mankind. God commands Death to retrieve everyman for his day of…

    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Student

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The author not only uses death as a theme but he uses it as the narrator. He gives death human like qualities and emotions. He personifies it as a character who has thoughts and can tell the difference between right and wrong. Death is portrayed as having characteristics of a human but it also inhuman as well. The irony of this is that Death, the storyteller is also the biggest reoccurring theme of the story, therefore, it can be said that he is telling a story that revolves around him. Death’s words are…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout this journal, one can question why the author wrote the book from the perspective of death and what will happen to Max Vandenburg. Initially, there is the question of why the narrator of the novel is the entity of death. One answer to this question is that writing the book through death’s perspective is both creative and different. Having death speaking personally to you on the first page is a unique draw-in. There are no other books popularly known that can claim to have such a narrator, which makes it stand out from its competition on the bookshelves. As the New York Times states in a review for the book, “brilliant… It’s the kind of book that can be life-changing” (Zusak). This quote clearly shows that the author’s decision in having death be…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is narrated by Death who tells the story of Liesel Meminger. The reader can learn a lot about Death through his narration. Consequently this essay focuses on the question: what effect may Death’s narration in The Book Thief have on the reader and what does the reader learn about Death? Death is a metafictional and omniscient narrator who sometimes speaks in first person. The different styles make up a freestyle narration, which is unique. The metafictional narrative catches the reader’s attention since it directly addresses the reader. The omniscience of…

    • 3915 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Facing Mortality

    • 2565 Words
    • 11 Pages

    In this paper I have been asked to compare and contrast literary works involving the topic of my choosing. For this paper I chose the topic of death. Death can be told in many different ways, and looked at the same. This paper is going to decide how you feel about death, is it a lonely long road that ends in sorrow, or a happy journey that ends at the heart of the soul? You decide as we take different literary works to determine which way you may feel.…

    • 2565 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    As time passes and as the world shifts, people pass away and they never come back. People who are left on the world, now without the others’ presence, must live with knowing they will never get to see them again and that now all they have left is the memories of when their loved ones were still around. Judd Mulvaney has the realisation and through it, the reader is able to see how he is caring and innocent. His naivety is something not to be ashamed of, nor is it something that he should keep. He must learn about death in order to move on and live life to the fullest of his own potential. From here, he can treasure each step, each moment, and each breath, knowing that he only gets this one shot to live. And he…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays