Although most assume Death looks like the Grim Reaper or a scary skeleton thing, in The Book Thief, Death is not. In fact, he even tells us what he looks like when he says, “I do not carry a sickle or a scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it’s cold. And I don’t have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance… Find yourself a mirror while I continue” (Zusak 307). Essentially Death is saying that because all humans die, we all resemble death. Humans can and will die, and thus he is one of the things that is constant between all humans. Due to this reason I drew a man looking into a mirror to show Death. I just…
The Hero’s Journey is a common template of how a tale/story about a hero will go. It usually involves a hero that goes on a journey/adventure and defeats/solves something and comes home changed/transformed. It was the American scholar Joseph Campbell that introduced this concept. Spiderman is one of many heroes that follow this outline.…
When examining Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief and the Office of War Information's poster This Is the Enemy, I could not help but to notice many similarities scattered among the two works. The similarities between their settings, conflicts, and atmospheres are striking, leading me to the conclusion that both the novel and poster are relevant to each other, despite not being created in the same time period. Within the settings of the two works, I noticed how the years and locations corresponded.…
Storyline 1. At the beginning of the month of October, a little Canadian student named Charles had a day off from school, so he decided to go for a walk in the forest right near his house. He packed a bag, took a map, and now, he’s ready to leave his house. 2.…
This photograph shows a man giving his sandals to a homeless girl in Rio de Janeiro. This picture shows significance because the man showed empathy to the girl and he cared about how bad she was living. It also shows that the man gave his sandals to her because she needed it more than he did. This picture is similar to the scene in the Book Thief where Hans Hubermann offers a piece of bread to the Jew. Personal Reflection Personally, I think that relationships do not always involve two people who are in love with each other, but it also involves friendship and family.…
Courage is a trait that can be found in everyone, but is rarely exhibited. It can be hard to show courage at times because of the situation you are in: also, characters that you wouldn’t expect to be courageous sometimes end up showing the most courage. Marcus Zusak’s book The Book Thief shows that courage can be shown by unexpected characters in the most unexpected situations.…
Think of Germany as a heads and tails coin. The book Thief is about a girl named Liesel who lives with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubberman. Liesel has a friend named Rudy. They both go around stealing food, but Liesel not only stole food, she stole books. Death (Narrator) was soon fond of Liesel and he then gave her the nick name The Book Thief. This novel is great to understand the other side of Germany. Unlike other stories that talk about Jews, concentration camps, Nazi’s, this novel talks about how a family were not influeced by Nazi propaganda. In addition your see that Germany has two sides to it; one that obeys Hitler, and one that goes against him.…
Most kids when they are young, dream of being a hero or having hero-like abilities. Percy Jackson, in the novel The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, lived that dream. Percy heads on a journey to fix the gods problems by going over the united states to collect orbs for them to get back to the real world. Percy fights many enemies on the way and through it all, he completes his task and get backs to where he belongs, Throughout the novel, The Lightning Thief, the hero's journey is shown through the plot.…
War is a foul and nauseating occurrence throughout history. Nevertheless, it is something that has happened more than once. There are numerous amount of people who have experienced the events of a war. Each person can have a different perspective and experiences. However, those people can be categorized as victims, perpetrators, or bystanders.…
The hero’s journey, if executed properly, can create some wonderful stories. A lot of the most praised and well known books, movies, and plays follow the hero’s journey almost exactly, even some with the steps in the same order. For example, The Hunger Games, The Giver, Divergent, Twilight and many more enjoyable books and novels match up with the hero’s journey fairly closely.…
Red. Book. Family. Coward. Jew. Death. One may say that they are just words, but is that really all they are? Throughout The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words bring joy and comfort as well as rage and heartbreak. Liesel Meminger is devastated by the loss of her brother and feels that nothing will relieve her of her agony, until she picks up a book that was left in the graveyard by a gravedigger. This is just the beginning of words playing a major part in Liesel’s life. Words have more power than one could ever imagine.…
The Hero's Journey is a physical progression through a literary tale. In some cases the hero’s journey follows not only a physical progression but a rebirth or coming of age. The stories “Parker’s Back”,”By the Waters of Babylon”, and “Initiation” all follow this progression. The Hero’s Journey help the reader understand the story more deeply. This progression is useful to understanding culture and traditions in our own life.…
POW! Right smack in my forehead leaving a dent and a gash right in my skull. The metal baseball bat swooped around and made hard contact with my skull. It was a warm sunny day in the middle of the summer. Joey, my brother, was hitting tennis balls over my house. Little 10 year old I was playing in the yard. My brother (who had more brains than I have had) purposely pushed me far away so he wouldn’t hit me while he was swinging. Oh how I was a stupid little kid. I was so intrigued by that darn bat and ball going over the house I just had to get a closer look. I started wandering over to him, like how not knowing little kids do. As I approached my brother, he was so convene on himself that he did not see me. When I finally reached him, he had…
The main conflict in The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is Hitler versus Liesel, which is a man versus man external conflict. The conflict between Hitler and Liesel is Hilter was the one who took away her birth mother, and her brother, both acts that Liesel despises him for. The author wrote, "...the suffering of her mother + the death of her brother= the Fuhrer" (Zusak 115). Since Hitler, or the Fuhrer, took away Liesel's birth family, a conflict was created between Liesel and Hitler. The lyrics in the song, "Fight Song", by Rachel Platten, described Liesel and Hitler's conflict perfectly. Platten wrote, "And all those thing I didn't say, wrecking balls inside my brain. I will scream them loud tonight, can you hear my voice this time" (Platten…
The archetypal quest, also known as the hero’s journey is effective in revealing which ways a person’s values, ideas and ambitions can be explored and changed throughout society. The hero’s journey is a genre that is prominently seen through nearly every sort of text, written or visual, usually representing an internal or physical struggle to gain a sense of personal character, personal identity or achieving a goal that one has claimed to be unachievable. On occasions the composer of a narrative, film or story will alter the hero’s journey to challenge or perceive a variation to ones society. Mathew Vaughn’s film ‘Stardust’ and Homers epic ‘The Odyssey’ represent all aspects of the hero’s journey, including the original quest narrative of facing and overcoming multiple obstacles to obtain the reward in the end, whether the reward reflects a growth in self, realisation or a rare possession. In both texts, the characters Tristan from ‘Stardust’ and Telemachus from ‘The Odyssey’ undertake a hero’s journey which sees their transitioning from being a boy to becoming a man, and it is proven that the society which the hero lives, dictates the representation of the hero.…