Essay: “The Book Thief” Planning

I can’t remember what I was planning from last term, and that plan is really messy, so…lets do something new!

  1. Analyse how language features were used to reinforce or challenge a point of view.

Analyse how the narration of Death was used to challenge our idea of what Death is like.

World war 2 was an absolute nightmare. However, from whose point of view can we possibly describe it all? With this novel, we can use the concept of Death to describe the horribleness of World war 2, and in particular how terrible it is to have the people around you die.

We start off with an introduction that explains what happens in the book thief, then move onto a paragraph that introduces our well written point. Then a paragraph to explain one aspect of our point(lets say how Death views the death of people), then another paragraph(All of the deaths that Liesel has to deal with), and another paragraph(What Death thinks of world war 2 and Liesel) before putting everything into the conclusion that will sum up the meaning of the last 3 paragraphs before this.

“The point is that as World war 2 is full of death, we need to figure out what it means in the book thief to die, and the only one we can use to figure this out is Death and his job of narration.”

By the way, this is a good point, unlike the other one that needed to have so many words to convince others that it had worth.

 

So my plan is to convince everyone that dying isn’t good, in an effort to convince everyone to live a little longer than others.

 

 

4. Analyse how language features revealed the writer’s purpose in the written text(s).

Characterisation

personification of death

symbolism of colours, books, nazi flag, hunger, words, characters

imagery of weather, colours, events (Jesse Owens incident)

Planning for this question:

This question basically allows me to use any particular symbol(language features) to talk about anything Liesel might of been trying to do, or whatever I say the authors aim was. This means I could use any symbol to talk about anything. Like an event(World war 2, the situation of the Jews), or the character Liesel(Why is Liesel important, how does she affect the story, what does her life mean to us, the reader), or perhaps any other character, as long as it is talked about in a way to change the readers view, and that it is written like that was the author’s purpose. And since this is the book thief, it might be possible to talk about what people meant to Liesel since she did write a book that the book we read originates from.

Let me just say this again, characters are a symbol, they symbolise all of the things that happened in Nazi Germany. As long as I focus there, all is good.

How the narration from Death gives us a view of Liesel’s life that no other point of view could give. (The point to achieve is how important Death is to the text; how irreplaceable he is; the importance of Liesel to Death; how any other point of view could of changed the text completely.)

How the books that Liesel sees and reads changed Liesel into a completely different path on life, which changed what the book could of ended up being like. (The point is how each book is very important to both Liesel and the story; how if any one book wasn’t there, the story would of been quite different; the point behind the book thief is to tell us what it might be like to live in Germany during world war 2 from the eyes of a little girl, and that the books that this girl reads is just one symbol to tell us what it was like.)

How the purpose of the book is to showcase how all problems that people face was caused by humans, and how the proof for that is with how people were written into the story. (The point is simple, that all our problems are caused by humans. The important part to take note of is that to prove this point, we shall be using how each person lives their life, and how all the problems in that life, or the problems they caused in their life; will be used to prove how all the problems we face originate from humans. Like how Tommy Muller is bullied by people, his ear infections started from being left out to freeze by people, he was beat up by Liesel because he was smiling for her victory in a fight that was started by people. Or how Death wouldn’t have to work seriously hard between 1938 and 1945 if it wasn’t for people. That kind of thing.) (I know that thinking all problems were caused by people is a bit of a tunnel vision of the whole thing, but still. Most of our problems exist in some part due to people.)

How colours in this book is used to describe the world of “The Book Thief”. (The point of this is how Death usually sees a different colour in the sky every time he picks up a soul, and how each of these colours mean something different. And because these colours are repeatedly used throughout the story, we can use them to explain the story, and in turn, our own world.)

 

Now to talk about the exact point I want to make and why. Personally, I have used the ‘Humans cause all our problems’ in the book report for the book thief. And even if it is a pretty good point, I have done it before…which is something the markers probably won’t know. And because of that, lets do that! All of the other points are fairly good, but I personally think the best is that one. Or at least, I can write the most for it, and with a different proof than to my book report.

Structure:

Introduction/overview of story, point I want to make stated, first person/group of people, second person/group of people, third person/group of people, conclusion based off of all this/reverse introduction.

People I could use:
Rudy, Hans, Rosa, Liesel, Tommy muller, Adolf, the thief’s group, the school teachers, the people who tried to take away Rudy, the bullys, Death, Max.

Point: Symbolism – How characters represent various problems in Nazi Germany in 1939-1945

Rudy: Hitler Youth and bullying from Franz Deutscher only could happen in that way in Nazi Germany.. Jesse Owens Incident and how that would only happen in Nazi Germany.

Problems are caused because Rudy rebels against Nazi control.

Lets see, Rudy has problems caused to him through the bully, and through Germany/Hitler, and then there is how he caused problems for others by stealing from people (Nazi Germany), cutting line, that kind of thing.

Hans: Painting over the rude words on the Jews window. Saving the Jew being pushed over on the street. All problems only in Nazi Germany.

Problems are caused because Hans rebels against Nazi control.

Hans life is just full of different problems that he endures somehow, although it is better than what either Liesel or Max went through(Arguable); he never causes a problem besides when helping other people out, causing him to get in trouble with the Nazi’s.

Max: Jews being persecuted, him rebelling against this. Hiding away to stay alive while everyone else hunts him down. All only possible in nazi Germany.

Problems are caused because Max rebels against the persecution of Nazi control.

Rosa is nice and never really causes problems, although she can shout and swear all she likes, she is still too nice to cause problems; her own problems are the same as everyone else’s. Liesel’s life is full of problems that we all know, and she causes problems through her stealing and being nice to others. Tommy has problems from constant twitching and not being able to hear, caused by being left in the freezing cold too long as a kid, he causes no actual problems. Adolf Hitler did some bad stuff; not talked about if any problems were done to him, but clearly something must of went wrong to dislike everyone but his own race that much, I guess it would be his heritage from his ancestors which caused this. The thief’s group stole food from farms; there were no problems caused to them besides not having enough food. The school teaches were pretty darn rude to Liesel, and so caused some kids to end up getting beaten up(Although they probably didn’t realize that would happen); their problems are the same as everyone else.The people who tried to take away Rudy caused problems in the way that were they nearly got Rudy to go too was pretty much a death sentence; problems to themselves is having to do that kind of job. The bully’s that I forgot the name of is pretty darn mean, and causes problems for Rudy and Tommy again and again; problems to him is having to live in Nazi Germany where they suffered from food shortage(Not to say other countries weren’t like that, but they were all problems caused by humans).

Death: Having to watch on as Nazi germany causes massive amounts of suffering across the world and within the country itself. Having to pick up the souls of EVERY SINGLE PERSON who died because of Nazi Germany. All of the mental trauma’s caused by this is because of Nazi Germany.

Death has problems in the way that humans are dying constantly, and he has to pick up their souls, and this is in the millions(A self named, but completely correct, miracle worker); he causes no problems, he just watches as humans stuff up everything, and cleans up afterwards. Max is the representation of all the problems Jews faced(Besides the whole dying part); the only problems he causes is imposing on the Hubermann family, which they were fine with.

So, now that I have written the basics of each of these people, let’s choose 3, with 1 back up in case I need an extra point, or one of them becomes unusable due to not having enough information. (Have to remember I am describing how each character was written into the text, not what kind of character they are, although I will include that too). So: Death(I did a lot on Death, somebody who can showcase all of humanity’s problems from outside of humanity, so a great point of view to prove my point), Hans(Hans suffers a lot, but still deals with it, and even goes so far as to solve other people’s problems; in general, he is written as an amazing person in a terrible situation), and Liesel(Yeah, I know that everything is about Liesel, however she is the main character who we know the most about, and she is written with plenty of problems already). The back up character is Max(Great guy, made 2 pretty interesting books, but mainly is the fact that him being written into the story was done in the sort of way that his very existence is caused by other people’s problems, and that him ending up in Himmel Street for such a long time was a mistake too, and also him leaving).

So, Hans is first, to showcase how a normal person leaving their life, could in fact have many problems. Then Liesel to show another person with their own problems too. Or Max instead, so as to show how his entire race had a problem caused by Hitler; although I need to make sure I stay on point. Then Death, as the final to prove everything once and for all(And like they say, leave the best to last).

So, shall we begin? No, we shall not.

P.s Quotes will be done during the writing since at the time I will know what quote is needed the most.

 

Oh yeah, there were different methods to fix, and cause problems. Like words, or the usage of paint. Perhaps even the colours of the night sky can be included? I just have to make sure I keep to the point.

 

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