The Book Thief Response Essay

As my creative response I produced a 3 dimensional, patterned Nazi flag with each layer of the flag placed inside the previous layer. The first layer of my creative is a red rectangular box patterned with lips, symbolic of kisses. The second layer is a circular box made of images of snow, ice and delicate snowflakes. The final layer of my creative is folded black card, forming a spring-like Nazi swastika with the head and tail of an accordion stuck to either side. This creative was in response to the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The book details four years of the life of a young girl, Liesel Meminger, throughout the course of World War Two. The novel differentiates the appearance of a person, event or item when it is only briefly
In this case when the layer is viewed in greater depth, the representation shows a situation of immense isolation. The first time Death saw Liesel was at the occasion of her brother’s death, a moment cast in white. Liesel and her brother had been on their way to her foster parents town with their mother, who was forced to soon abandon them to ensure them greater safety. As Liesel stood outside the train the world coated in stone cold white snow and ice soon to say goodbye to her mother and even sooner to do so to her brother Liesel had very good reason to feel isolated. When the white rectangular square is looked at in greater depth, its pattern of snowflakes can represent both the place her brother is buried, or the moment when Liesel brought Max a sample of the weather. Instead of explaining to Max a picture of the day, Liesel decided it would be more meaningful to bring him a tangible symbol of the first day it snowed. The symbol Liesel brought Max was a handful of snow, which led to a snowman, which led to a snowball fight. This was a moment filled with love and joy as Max joined the family and for that short amount of time lived as normal a life as he had for the entirety of the war, and would until the war was finally over. This moment however also represents a time of fraught worry and dread as the cold and wet from the snow caused Max to catch an almost fatal
The black colour of this symbol is demonstrative of the second time Death met Liesel. She appeared at the site of a plane crash, symbolic of the horrors of war, which had become everyday experiences in Liesel’s life. The first appearance of this last layer is evident, the swastika. It is also very evident that the symbol is meant to form an accordion. This is the reason that this layer is the only layer which is not a box. Given that you cannot open this layer and look further and deeper into it, the representations meant by this symbol are both evident and do not require in depth interpretations. Thus, the swastika and accordion interpretations of this symbol are equally in depth. The swastika represents the horror and tragedies of war. The accordion, belonging to Hans, demonstrates the gift of kindness from one person to another - all necessary because of the effects of war. This accordion shows the gift of life given from Eric (Max’s father) to Hans when Eric gave his life to save Hans and the gift of a shared passion when Eric gave Hans the accordion. It also represents the gift of safety given from Hans to Max when Hans gave Max a safe place to stay for a period in the war and the gift of comfort and love given from Hans to Liesel when Hans played Liesel the accordion to calm her after nightmares and as entertainment after