Maturation of Liesel Meminger

  1. When I think of a person who steals books, I think of someone that doesn’t originally own many books, but likes to read, and so have to find them somehow. Or perhaps an international criminal who breaks into museums to steal books specifically. Not necessarily a bad person, I always just wondered why someone would bother stealing books. I mean, we have library’s, so either they don’t have access to those, or they want to be rich through books specifically.
    Now, in terms of Liesel, I have to say that she was in a position were she didn’t have access to books, and so had no choice but to steal them. However, her reasoning behind it will be more important than just “wanting to read”. So yeah, her reason is different, but still fits the character of the first one.
  2. Next is a description of how messed up a kid will get when someone suffers from the things Liesel did. To be exact, not knowing your father, your mother abandoning you, your brother dying in your hands, with the only way to remember them being a photo and a book. And then being left in the care of some foster parents that you have never met before. Basically, anyone would of went near insane from that kind of suffering, right? Like, how do you deal with all that. As a child she would be withdrawn, with constant mental suffering and nightmares, never able to find a distraction from her memories, which will be constantly fading as she gets older(and would you want your only memories of your family to fade?) Now then, her goals will be at first to find her mother, try and get her back. After that fails, then read the book, which is her only memory of her family. So, yeah, like how the book goes. Oh, or she could of become depressed and not survive beyond a couple of years. I mean, with that kind of suffering how do you not?
    And problems in the future will be dealing with nightmares from the past. Or the many, many, traumas she will face.
  3. First off, Han’s, you are amazing. You brought back a young girl from the brink of insanity. Like, I understand Liesel is a strong minded girl, since she did manage to get through all of that stuff, but still. You used a single book to save Liesel. Next, books are important to Liesel for a few reasons. I have explained each individual book before, so lets put this simply, and connect it to what I already said. Books are the tool for keeping Liesel sane. If you have something like that, then you will want to keep a hold of it. I mean, why get rid of the thing that kept you sane? And also, something to do with words can be used for good and evil. I think that was from when she began to notice how the words other people use can hurt people, or save people. Some words destroy everything, and other words keep someone sane. Perhaps around the book burning time? That was the time she realised many different things.
  4. Rudy! He is a good kid, going to miss him. Even Death will miss him, that’s how good of a kid he is. Anyway, he is the best friend of Liesel Meminger, and one of three people who didn’t care how stupid she is(Han’s, Rosa, and Rudy, Max isn’t there yet). They became friends, and did everything good friends would do with each other. And of course, to Liesel, this would of been great. This is somebody who treats her as a kid in her childhood. You know, she gets a thing in her life that matches everyone else’s. But then, who would’ve thought that Rudy would want a kiss from Liesel. And for Liesel, well, why?! Why would she want a kiss. With everything that just happened in her life, there is no way she would want to have romance at that point in time. And so, this would affect her in the way that she will never want to have any sort of romance with such an insensitive person. So she vows she will never kiss him as long as they both live. And her vow does become true, too, so you know she is serious to her vows(Just kidding, that was a bad joke. ALthough she can keep a promise surprisingly well for a young person like her.)
    Oh, and if they weren’t friends, then we would be reading the story of a depressed, withdrawn, teenage girl later on in the book. She would always be at home, with next to no good memories. I mean, okay, so that is the case, she is withdrawn, and she doesn’t truly trust anyone. But, you know, at least she went outside, right?
  5. Max Vandenburg, someone from a group of people who all suffered things even worse than what Liesel had suffered, from one point of view. And so, when Liesel meets Max, she discovers the fact that her life isn’t the worst. This would of been a shock, as it will show to her that there are other people out there, who are still alive, and sane, who have went through even worse situations than her. And so, after learning about the suffering that Max goes through, it will help Liesel go through her own suffering, as she knows if it is only this much, it can be dealt with. Oh, and Max is someone she can confide even more of her thoughts too, unlike Rudy or something. The reason being that, well, who is Max going to tell? He will understand what Liesel is going through better than anyone else, so of course Liesel will use him to unload all of her concerns, and the same for Max too. And that will lead to a very good friendship, were you both suffer together.
  6. Why does Liesel steal more and more books? Is it because she finished her last book, and wants to read another? Is it because she just likes stealing? Or maybe it is because she knows how powerful words can be, and so wants access to more. Like when Hitler took control of a country through the power of words, and convinced them to go to war with the rest of the world. So yeah, after witnessing something like that, of course she is going to want more words in the form of books.
  7. And Liesel, somehow, got a good ending. She lived in Australia, with children, and grandchildren(If you view that as a good thing), and she even got to see Max again. She lived a successful life, with probably a few more problems along the way, but that is just how life is. And so, assuming she did live a good, fulfilling life; what does this teach us, the reader? Well, it teaches me about how even people who go through a terrible beginning can have a good life in the end. And it also proves that happiness is a thing everyone can have if they survive for long enough. I don’t know what it teaches other readers though. Maybe that childhood sucks, but other people had it worse, but still didn’t let it hold them down? Or maybe that Death likes colours, with a chocolate brown sky being one of the best, and with a clear blue sky being another good one. Or perhaps all you got from this book is that you thinks the ending ruined it. Well sir/madam, I say, this book is great. Really shows you how life can get better even from the worse point, as long as you survive. And if you dislike that ending, then you disagree with that point of view.(Just kidding, if you dislike the ending that is your problem, not mine.)

Rudy “The Book Thief”

I shall say all the meaning behind Rudy’s character after I finish describing what sort of person he is. The reason being is that I want to bring together all the different points into one conclusion at the end.

Rudy Steiner, the blond haired, blue eyed, athletic older brother in the steiner family. Basically the definition of the perfect Aryan boy. But there was a major problem with this, and that is that he hated Hitler(The main advocator for the reasoning that the Aryan race was superior to all others). And why would he hate Hitler, the man who is pretty much saying that he is the best? Because Adolf put Rudy’s and his friends family’s through so much trouble, and caused all of these problems like hunger and making some people disappear. And as Rudy never really figured out the reasoning behind the whole superior race thing, I guess he never bothered trying to win at it, or count it as him winning at something.
And of course I should talk about “The Jesse Owens incident”. And, ah, was this just fantastic. It is wrong in so many ways, and I’m not talking about racist ones or anything. Basically, Jesse owens has just won 4 gold medals at the olympics, and has become the idol of many different people, including our Rudy Steiner. And so, Rudy has the genius idea that he should become like Jesse Owens, and colour himself black with charcoal, like, really cover himself with it, make sure it gets everywhere. And then, go to a race track where he proceeds to imagine himself as Jesse Owens, with the crowd cheering him on, his competitors being left behind, and his father waiting at the finish line. So, yeah, his Dad tries to get Rudy to understand how bad of an idea this was, but completely fails as Rudy doesn’t understand the concept of there being a better race. And of course, the many problems that had nothing to do with race, are how he covered himself in charcoal, and got himself extremely dirty. And this is around about the time most germans are getting pretty darn poor and they can’t afford to lose any charcoal or the water needed to wash him. And the fact that no parent would want to see their kid covered in coal dust, no matter the reason.
Next should be Hitler’s youth! This is the school all kids must go to, as it is that school. You know, the one that indoctinorates all the children into the ‘perfect race ideal mental state’ that Adolf wanted. That is everyone being a complete and utter follower of every word from Adolf Hitler, and everyone wanting to do anything that is needed to achieve what Adolf wanted to do. Of course the school also teaches kids how to read and write, among other things. Now then, what does all this have to do with Rudy? Simple. Kids pick on kid called Tommy Muller. Rudy defends Tommy Muller. Kids pick on both Rudy and Tommy Muller. And so Rudy hates kids Hitler youth, and in turn, ends up hating Hitler’s youth itself. It got to the point that he was skipping out on ‘classes’, and he only went back when they shifted him to another class away from the bully’s.
Then there were the races I somehow nearly forgot to mention. The races being a athletic day being held at ‘school’ where all the different groups in hitler’s youth got together to do the same kinda stuff we do at MAC at the start of the year. Rudy’s goal for that day was to get 4 gold medals. At this time, he did say he wasn’t as into Jesse Owens anymore, and that he just wanted to prove anyone he was right. And so, he won 3 gold medals and then began to feel tired. So for the 4th race he starts digging up the ground and gets told off. Then he false starts. Then, he false starts again. He was disqualified. And the interesting bit is why he decided to be disqualified(Obviously he wanted to be, besides mentioning it later on, he also kept on doing stuff to convince the referee to disqualify him.) And it is interesting because Liesel believes that it was because he didn’t think he was Jesse Owens, like he truly wasn’t good enough to be like him.
Now then, what else is there? Hmm…Oh yeah, Love. Liesel is the girl that Rudy ends up falling in love with, or something akin to love I suppose? I don’t really know, but basically, Rudy is a lady’s man. Always trying to get the girl. That is, he is always trying to get a kiss from his new neighbour Liesel. And of course, Liesel always finds an excuse not to. Not that she isn’t tempted many times over, but she always finds an excuse. Interestingly enough, after a long period of time, like a year or 2, Rudy has ended up fantasizing that kiss so much, that he doesn’t want to risk asking anymore, and then get the kiss, as he is scared it might ruin it(I am not sure here, I never properly understood this point. Guess he just doesn’t want to ruin what he thinks it will be like.) And Liesel does end up wanting to kiss him as well, but she never does because she always thought it would be fine to wait longer or something like that. Well, she does end up kissing him when he dies…
So what else is there? More on Liesel I guess. Liesel is Rudy’s best friend. So, yeah, nead I say more? They play soccer together, they steal together, they run away together, everything is done together(why do you think I mentioned love before). And of course, they rely on each other quite a bit. Always helping out each other and making sure they don’t do something stupid, or at least, they try to stop each other doing stupid stuff. Without Liesel, Rudy would of found another person to be friends with, and he would of found some other girl to get a crush on, and in the end, not much would be different. However, that didn’t happen. But as far as I can tell, Liesel wasn’t necessary in Rudy’s life. Sure, the way she helped him out and the things they did together wasn’t something other friends would of done with each other normally, but still. Rudy didn’t need Liesel, he needed a friend. Liesel just so happened to fill up the position of friend(And crush, arguably). I am also not going to mention how much Liesel needed someone like Rudy, and that no one else could of filled in that position.
Ok fine, I will. Liesel moved into a brand new place after her previous family left her. She would obviously be broken mentally(Nightmares? Why is that all she suffers from?! Seriously. A little kid went through hell, and she has nightmares. Surely there would be more than that, or were they just not mentioned?) So she would need someone her own age to talk to and help her get along. So a friend is needed. It needs to be someone nice, and who she can open up to and not have everything thrown back at her. And so, who else but Rudy? Rudy wouldn’t want to hurt her anymore(If you think he would, then you need help), and Rudy can be opened up to and he can help right back, all because of that innocence and wildness. He possess the right qualities to help someone like Liesel, so in all honesty, Liesel got lucky. Rudy needs more luck if anyone does.
And finally, I just want to mention one last thing before moving on to explaining how all this affects Rudy’s character. Every time I think of Rudy, there are three specific scenes I think of. Two of them more than the other. Those two are the scene were the pilot dies after their plane crashed in the forest, and just before he dies, Rudy comes along and puts a teddy bear on his shoulder. The pilot says thank you, but of course in english so Rudy doesn’t understand. And then there is that scene of Liesel kissing Rudy. Oh, and the other fairly important scene is were Death comes to pick up Rudy’s soul, and just, ‘everyone cries’. If you don’t feel sad over that bit, then your emotions are in even more trouble than mine, so you need to do something now. Get a physiatrist, that stuff is SAD. All of those scenes are just sad when you think about them, and have my thoughts behind what happened.

Pages 288, 315, 384, just chock full of Rudy.

Third book response

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks, is a book that describes a few different patients that Oliver Sacks has had over the course of his work. These descriptions each describe the problem the patient faces, how Oliver reacts to these problems, and then how the daily life of the patient proceeds to be like. Then there is the postscript that has anything else that has to be noted, or anything else that needs to be learned, like if there have been any new patients suffering from the same problem. And, of course, the entire time there are plenty of questions that he wonders about which might get you wondering about their answers.

I would recommend this book to those who want to not only learn more about problems that occur with people’s brains and nerves, but also to those that want to see a view of the world through the eyes of people who see it completely different to us. And honestly, it is quite an experience, which is sure to get you thinking about everything in a new light.
Although it gets a bit annoying when he begins to talk about the brain in detail, while using all sorts of words that make little sense to me. I just want to put up a warning that many things will be difficult to understand if you don’t have sufficient background knowledge. Like a rather large vocabulary, and a basic understanding of the brain and the body’s nervous system.

I shall focus on the first section of the book, ‘Losses’. For the section “Losses”, we get to read about people who are missing something from their lives, like particular senses, or parts of their view of the world. With this section, we can begin to wonder what it would be like to live in a world that is completely different to our own view of it. The reason being that these missing parts have something to do with the brain. The brain controls how we understand the world, and so if the brain starts doing things differently, then the view of the world will change. And as we are reading about those people who have had their brains change in rather ‘interesting’ ways, we can try to catch a glimpse into these completely different worlds. Below will be my views on how these concepts of the world affect us, and how they changed my understanding of reality. Or at least, what got me thinking a little.

Imagine if you were to find yourself in some random hospital, with old people all around you. Then this doctor like person begins talking to you. And of course, you will ask why you are there, right? Well, I wonder what you will think when that doctor says that they have lost count of how many times you have said those very words. And then they proceed to hold up a mirror, showing some random old guy staring right back at you. Wouldn’t that freak you out immensely? Probably would for most people, so I guess its a good thing you won’t be remembering that for long.
For this point I wanted to explain to you how terrifying it is to forget. And how interesting it is to wonder what you personally would think about it. For one of the patients of our author, we get to see someone in this very situation. They have forgotten everything after 1945. Well, more like their memory regressed a few decades at one point after too much drinking, until they reached this point in their memory. This lead to said memory loss, and the inability to make new memories. And so, they are left in a ‘home’, which will take care of him, and other, older, people. I won’t go too much more into detail, but basically, he is fine here. He becomes more ‘animated’ when talking to his brother(Although he thinks his brother is aging kind of fast), and he is also happier when staying at his old house, with his family(Although it sucks for a couple of minutes when he is dropped back off again, since he thinks his wife is abandoning him in a place full of strangers). Now the interesting thing here is what this made me think of. Which is to say, what would I do if I learnt that every few minutes I forgot everything. Like, still got my current memories, but no new ones can be made. Well, the possibilities were few to be honest. Either get depressed over how my life will never develop in any direction. Or begin a document(Or continue it) that will detail my every thought, and everything that is going on. Like, anything I find funny, or interesting. The point being, this document will fill up over time with all these different, and interesting things. And each of these things, I will never of heard of before. It would be like reading over a life of some other person, with the same ideas as me, just that I haven’t thought of them yet. Cool, yeah? These are my thoughts on what I would do. So now here is a question for you: What would you do in this situation?

“She knows it intellectually, and can understand, and laugh; but it is impossible for her to know it directly.” The next point I need to make, is that this is your brain which is missing something. YOU ARE YOUR BRAIN. Your entire consciousness is affected, and controlled, by the way your brain works. And as this is so, if your brain is missing some important piece, then how the hell are you supposed to tell?! The quote I started this point off with pretty much says what I want to say. You are intelligent, or at least, if you can read this, you possess the ability to understand things. However, that doesn’t mean you truly get it. Like if I was to try and explain puberty to a 7 year old. They would say that they get it, but they don’t. Not really. They haven’t experienced what it is like. They have never experienced it, so it would be near impossible to understand what it would be like. And it is the same if you lose something from your brain, or if something stops working. Your entire concept of that thing is gone. You will be like that 7 year old, who can understand the idea behind it, but it is still something outside of your reality. The only saving grace for this kind of situation is that if you posses memories of it, then it could be fixable. But if even your memories of it are gone; or changed into something else; then you might never be able to experience it again, as you won’t know if what you just thought, or did, was that thing. And, okay, this whole paragraph here is something that has always been in my mind, it is just that this book brought it back up with that quote. The idea that something central in my brain(Or maybe someone else’s) could be missing, and I would never know. And if no one ever told me, then I would never notice. I could end up living my entire life, with no idea what that one thing is. And so I mention this here, in the attempt to get you to understand that not everything is understandable. Our brains can only do so much, and they could easily be missing something important, or not so important. There is nothing we can do about this, except question others as to how they see the world and compare it to our own views of it. And then marvel at how different some people’s worlds are.

Okay, so now we can do something a little different. Imagine if one day you go to have a surgery, to remove some kidney stones or something like that. And then you begin to feel a bit odd. And, you fall unconscious. the next time you wake up, well, your fine, but you have no idea what is up with your body. So obviously you try to get up, but you fail to move as far as your concerned. However, to the others around you, your body is flailing about, with no idea where it is supposed to go. Now what am I talking about? This patient had some of their nerves in their spinal column irreversibly damaged. This lead to losing her ‘6th sense’. That is, the ability to know where each of your body parts is, even when you can’t see them. Without this, you can’t do much at all. Like, you can’t walk without constantly looking at your feet. And even then, it will require you to relearn how to walk, as you won’t know where your feet are if you don’t look at them. So what do you think about this? Actually, have you ever spared the time to think about this sense? You should, it is really important. Sure, your sense of balance, and your other 5 senses are really important, and they can make up for it(Spare the time to think about them too). However, they can’t replace it. Sure, they get stronger, like how a blind person can have super hearing, but I still am going to want to keep my eyesight. So yeah, think about it. Without this sense, your life would be so different. So you should think about how important it is to you, and how annoying it would be to not have it.(Apparently the patient in question had to convince herself that was even her body, as she didn’t really know if it was. I mean, how do you prove it? It won’t do as you want unless you look at it, so how do you know if it is even yours?)

And finally, let us talk about phantoms. And even more interestingly, hands. And even more interestingly, corpse legs. Phantoms being where an amputee has lost a limb or something, and begins to imagine that part of their body still exists. And the hands is where 1 person never used their hands, leading to not even seeing a point in them. And the corpse leg being when people think their leg is someone else’s, so they kick them off the bed, only to fall out with it. So let’s get to the point of this paragraph. That is, do you really understand your limbs? Is it you controlling your limbs, or is it your brain convincing you that your body is your body? The first point to prove this is the amazing fact that there was a patient of our author who hadn’t used their hands for 60 years(They were 60 years old). This left them thinking that hands were as useful as ‘a lump of clay’. And so, this story continues on, to show her how useful hands can be, in the way that you can feed yourself. And then, you can touch and feel other objects, and learn what they ‘are’. Ended up turning out she is a pretty good artist, with great ability to sculpt. This patient got me wondering about ‘what if we never used one of our body parts?’ Would we end up the same as her, not knowing what the point is in that body part, and just keeping them around us because we don’t know what else to do with it? Anyway, the next point is the corpse leg. Some people have been known to fall out of bed every now and then. The reason why they did so is because they found the leg of a corpse in their bed, and so in their panic, they threw it out of the bed. Then, they found themselves falling out of bed. And all the while, this terrible, ghastly, leg is still there, still freaking them out. In their panic, they might notice that this leg is attached to them, making them think that someone attached someone else’s leg to them. All the while, not even noticing that they are missing a leg. What this got me thinking about is ‘What do we do when we forget about a limb we still are using and have on us?’ Is it possible to forget about a particular body part, and assume that it is someone else’s? And finally, phantoms. That is when someone has lost a particular body part, however the person themselves can still feel the body part, can still sense where it is, and what it is doing. Interestingly enough, for people who have to use a ‘replacement’ arm or leg, these phantoms can be really useful, as it allows you to use that body part without having to look at it constantly(Reminds me of that women who lost her 6th sense. Like she lost her body phantom, and so couldn’t sense her body any more.) This gets me wondering about if it is possible to remember and use a limb you don’t even have anymore. In any case, all this draws me to the conclusion I wanted to make about limbs, and in general, your body. Your body is something you don’t own. Your brain sets up all this information that allows you to believe that your leg is your leg, and that it still is there and exists. So when it doesn’t exist, well, your brain still thinks it does.  And if your brain comes to the conclusion that your leg doesn’t exist, well, clearly that lump in your bed isn’t a part of your body, but somebody else’s. And in the event that you never use your legs, like, at all, then clearly your brain can only come to the conclusion that your leg must be useless, and so it is basically just a lump of clay. What I’m trying to get at here is that your brain decides if your body is your body, and so if your brain decides that it isn’t, then too bad, you don’t have your body. And if it thinks it is your body, then good for you, you have a body, even if you really don’t. And the only thing you can do is trick your brain into thinking something different if you want that limb back, or not at all.

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks, is a very good book. Just the first section alone, and you can already draw so many different ideas, and world views from it. Like what it would be like to lose the ability to make new memories. Or how your brain is you, and deciding to change it is near impossible, as impossible as describing colour to a blind person. Then there was the idea of what it would be like to not own your body anymore, and the revelation of how your brain controls all the data for your body, so it is not you that you need to convince about it, but your brain. However, there are so many more things I could of talked about, like the concept of the abstract and what sight has to do with it. Or how an entire view of the world, the very concept of left, can just disappear. Oh, and I haven’t even begun on the other sections of the book.
In the end, this book is really quite good. Read it, I guarantee that what I have so far said hasn’t even begun to spoil all the new ideas you stand to gain from reading this book.

The significance of books: “The Book Thief”

“The Gravedigger’s Handbook” is a rather important book to Liesel. Why? It represents many different things to Liesel.
First: Liesel’s brother died when she was 9, nearly 10. To remember this moment in time, the moment when her brother died, she wanted to keep something with her. And the item was…”The Gravedigger’s Handbook”. The book represents the memory’s she has of her brother.
Second: Her mother left her after this. And because of this, she will want to remember her mother in some way. And so, she decides to have “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” be her memory of her mother who left her as well.
Third: So now the book represents her dead brother who she will never forget as she always has visions of him, and also the last time she sees her mother. All this can be described as “Family!” The book represents her family, that she will never truly see again! She even goes so far as to hide a picture of her dead brother in the book too! And if your not sad yet, you will be when you realise the name of the book is “The Gravedigger’s Handbook”. It is literally a handbook to help bury the dead, and her family is represented by it. What the author might be trying to get at is how Liesel wants to bury her memories of her family away from her daily life, in a place no one else ever has to see them. So it represents her family and how she wants to bury her memories of them.
Fourth: Remember how Liesel can’t read yet? Well, lucky us, the book gets a new meaning when Hans uses it to teach Liesel how to read. Yep, she couldn’t read yet she had already connected so many things to the book, and then asked Hans to teach her how to read with “The Gravedigger’s Handbook”. And so the memories she would want to bury stay forever present whenever she reads.
Fifth: I guess I should also include the time she was supposed to read out loud to her class, but got nervous and found herself unable to read, so she just used some memorised paragraph from “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” and recited them. This ended up leading to the first time she beat someone up. So, I guess it could connect to that in some way?
In any case, “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” represents the death of Liesel’s brother, the last time she saw her mother, the burying of her family’s memories, what Hans used to teach her how to read, and a small connection to her first fight in school.

“The shoulder shrug” is another rather important book to Liesel. The reasons are below:
First: University students back in Germany had decided to start a book burning. This book burning’s purpose is to remove the past of germany, and begin a new history for germany. All things that were even slightly Jewish, or from another country, had to be burned. Anything that didn’t follow the values they wanted there new germany to follow must be burned. So, you know, massive amounts of books are being burned, and you can’t exactly do anything to stop them, since literally all of Germany was into this mass destruction of books. And you know what Liesel did? She stole a book that survived this fire. From right under the pile of ash. And just from that, the reader will know, Liesel doesn’t want this knowledge destroyed. She wants to read, and learn, and there is no way that she is letting this book get past her. And this signifies how she doesn’t want the destruction of Germany’s past; the history being burned will be saved by her, at least a bit of it.
Second: And just so you know, she knew the dangers. For ages afterwards she was scared of how she might get ‘taken away’, or her family might be ‘taken away’. Why? Because 1: Frau Hermann, the mayors wife, saw her steal the book. And if she decides to mention it to the police, then her and her family is doomed. 2: As she knew the dangers behind taking the book, of course she would be scared. Even if Frau Hermann decided not to turn her in, if anyone else saw, then she is doomed. 3: She stole a book and there is danger in that. This is the first time she properly stole a book, and so the first time she can feel the fear behind stealing something. “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” was taken in a far away place, from someone she will never see again. So why be scared of that? But “The Shoulder Shrug” is different in the way that it was done in the same place she lives, so if anyone saw, they can do something about it. And so this book represents what it means to steal a book.
Third: Well, besides the small part in stopping the destruction of Germany’s past, and the idea of stealing a book, there is also Frau Hermann. What I mean is that “The Shoulder Shrug” being stolen got her noticed by Frau Hermann, which ended up getting her into Frau Hermann’s library. Yes, that’s right, she sees a library! Isn’t this fantastic for her! Which is why this is important. This book got her connected to a library, and the next books she shall steal, which will be spoken about soon.
So basically, “The Shoulder Shrug” represents to Liesel: The saving of Germany’s history from complete destruction; the idea of what it is like to steal a book; and Frau Hermann’s library and all the books in that.

“The standover man” was the first book that Max gave to Liesel. So, it was a rather important book, that was full of different ideas and meanings, and of course, represented a lot to Liesel.
First: Max spent a week in the basement painting over the Mein Kampf books pages. The entire time it was kept secret from Liesel. The reason he did all this was because he wanted to give Liesel a gift in return for all she has done for him. And what better way to do this than to use the pages from the book that had literally saved his life(Fake papers where hidden in it, while it also got officers thinking it was legit as they were in the most famous book in the country, written by their leader).
Second: The book was 13 pages long. It followed the life of Max, and his standover-man. A standover-man being someone standing above you when you are down. As so, we see multiple different standover-men, like his father(He thinks this is so, apparently he disappeared quite quickly), or the people he used to fight when they won and he lost. Then there was that one page that talked about the first basement he hid in, and the friend that was always standing over him. And then the final standover-man, who wasn’t even a man, but a little girl called Liesel.
Third: Each of these standover-men had their own meaning in Max’s life, as each one covered massive amounts of his life. Like his father. He imagines that his father must of once been there in his life, looking down on him. But as he left before Max started forming memories, he would never know. And so in his childhood, and all the way to adulthood, we know he never had a father, which, now that I think about it, is the same as Liesel. Basically, a 13 page book with 13 different meanings and concepts that connect to Max’s life, and an important part in Liesel’s life.
Fourth: So some of you might be wondering why I am putting most of these meanings to Max’s life, and not Liesels. Well, that is because you can use this book to reflect a large part of Liesel’s life. One of the pages even talks about this, how the two of them are so similar. The dreams that they each have, the fact that they both came to Himmel street on a train, and then there is the fighting that they both do. And now that I noticed that there is the fact that both of them never knew their father, and their mother and siblings are long gone, I realised they have another connection in the way that their family is gone. But they both now have Rosa and Hans who took them in and is keeping them alive. Oh, but their is still a difference, which is that Liesel said Max looks like something else, which he always found odd. Oh, and the fact that the book always made sure to say “a german and a jew” and not just “these two normal people”.
So yeah, this book represents many things to Max and Liesel; like how the book that saved Max’s life was used to make it; the many standover-men in Max’s life; the meaning each one held to; and how Lisesl is so similar to him in both life and mind, but still different in race. Honestly, the meaning behind this one book is quite impressive, but it contains to much for me to include it all here. Suffice to say, every page denotes years, and the pages with Liesel denotes an importance in Max’s life that will span years ahead.

“Mein Kampf”- Hitler’s published philosophy, Max’s camouflage traveling to Molching, and the pages used for “The Standover Man”. How was it represented within “The Book Thief”.
First: This is the book all Nazies must read. The reason being that it was written by their leader, and the book itself contains all of Adolf Hitler’s ideals in life, and what he hoped to get from Germany. And so when Han’s son said to Liesel that she should read the book, then you knew exactly where he stood, which is with the Naies.

 

 

“The Dream Carrier” – The text Liesel steals from Frau Hermann’s library.

“A song in the dark” – The text Liesel steals from Frau Hermann’s library.

“The Word giver” – Another gift from Max to Liesel.

Characterisation of The Book Thief

Liesel:

For this task, my job is to do the same for these characters as I did with Death. Now then, let’s begin!

Liesel was first seen as a 9, nearly 10 year old girl, who standing in the snow, crying over her brothers death. “Tears were frozen to the book thief’s face.” At the time, besides having her brother die, it was the last time she saw her mother. From this we can figure out that the past of Liesel before she first sees Hans is quite bad. Or at least, it was a unhealthy situation. “There was an intense spurt of coughing. Almost an inspired spurt of coughing. And soon after – nothing.” This was a moment where the sickness her brother was probably suffering from finally caught up to him. He was sick, so why couldn’t Liesel of been too? There living conditions had to of been bad, to the point where you can die from sickness, meaning Liesel was in those conditions. I know I am not even about to begin going on about all the terrible things that happened to Liesel because of the Nazi’s, but from this beginning we can tell that Liesel and her original family where in bad living conditions. Barely any school, leaving Liesel illiterate. Sickness, leaving Liesel’s brother dead. And as her mother was communist, her mother had to leave her, because if she stayed, the living conditions would get even worse(Like, slavery).

So yeah, terrible beginning. Her character at this point is one of what you would expect a little girl to be like. You know, freaking out over how her brother died, and trying to remember something about this moment by stealing “The GraveDigger’s HandBook”. But if you take into account her sad past, you begin to see a tale of a determined young girl who won’t let anything hold her back. Her determination to find her mother again, and not be held back too much by her brothers death, even while dealing with a heavy and sad past, is extremely impressive and inspiring.

And now we know what kind of person she is at the beginning of the tale, a little girl going through so many terrible experiences that it would’ve been fine if she went insane from it(I would of, pretty much anyone would).  So then we move onto the next part, where she meets her new family!

Hans and Rosa. They deserve their own write ups like this one, but basically, Hans is the kind hearted father, who taught Liesel how to read, and helped keep her sane when anyone else would go insane. And Rosa, who is the mean talking, but kind hearted mother. . ““Saumensch, du dreckiges!” Liesel’s foster mother shouted that first evening when she refused to have a bath. “You filthy pig! Why won’t you get undressed?” She was good at being furious. In fact, you could say that Rosa Hubermann had a face decorated with constant fury. That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion.” That was Rosa, the filthy mouthed women who was mean to everyone, and always angry. But in that quote, you can still tell that there was a certain amount of care in there, towards Liesel. Both Hans and Rosa set up Liesel with a family, with all the love and care you can get from it. This is something she never would of had before this, and would be something she always remembered. And as this came after such a large turning point in her life, this family would of saved her. If Hans or Rosa had acted differently, the Liesel we get later on would of been completely different(If Hans was more mean, she would of never been saved mentally, and if Rosa was nicer, then the concept of meanness would never be present in Liesel).

So basically, we have managed to get past the first chapter or so, and we have already had massive amounts of development, from a little girl with a terrible past, to a little girl who is developing with her new family. Honestly, I could go on and on about how every single person she meets changes her, like the school incident and the bully she beat up, or Tommy Muller who she beat up because she thought he was making fun of her too, but then had to convince him for ages “that she wasn’t going to kill him.” Just this one incident changed Liesel into a person who isn’t afraid to hurt others, while also making her more determined to learn how to read so she doesn’t mess up in front of others again, and also taught her how to tell the difference between friends and enemies. This massive change, and it was one short chapter. So I will shorten down what I say(And luckily at around this point there was ‘less’ development.) The next part is about the middle of the book, after the library incident.

At this point, Liesel can read, but is still increasing her knowledge of words. She can hurt other people if necessary, and also steal from other people to get what she wants. She has Rudy as a friend, and someone for her to talk to, but still not quite confide and trust in, meaning she had social abilities. And Max was living in her basement around here in time, who is someone she always talks to after the near death incident from the snowman. From this, her knowledge on death has increased, and she can ‘better’ handle the concept of people she cares about being in precarious positions. And the library incident got her to know more books, and also developed the idea of ‘treachery’ and ‘guilt’. Treachery from how the mayors wife stopped paying her, which was akin to kicking her out of the library, and stopping her from reading(Which was literally keeping her sane a few years ago, so reading is extremely important to her). And guilt from when she insulted the mayor’s wife, and realised that that might of been a bad idea. This particular incident would of changed her into someone less trusting, and less susceptible to guilt. It also had risen her confidence to overcome guilt and fear, which she used to feel when going to the mayor as she feared being in trouble.

And after all that, I suppose all that is left is the ending. Oh, well, a brief note, I didn’t include the summer of going around painting; or the reading aloud of the book in the shelter; or the suicide of the soldier who came back but who didn’t want to live because he couldn’t handle the guilt of wanting to live; or Rudy and the romance/friendship between them; or Max and the fear of his death or capture, and the many books she got; or the champagne she once drunk and loved; or the time she went into that thief group again, but she left quite quickly because the new leader didn’t like her or Rudy. So yeah

Hans:

 

Rosa:

 

Rudy:

“The Prologue: Colour Imagery”.

1.During the prologue, we get Death, just a chapter full of Death. Well, to be exact, we see Death talking about his job, and how he treats it. Then we see him talk about Liesel in the 3 situations he sees her in. Each of these situations has a colour attributed to it. “When I recollect her, I see a long list of colours, but it’s the three in which I saw her in the flesh that resonate the most…Red, white, black. They fall on top of each other. The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.”
The colour white was the colour of the snow white sky at the time Liesel’s brother died. “Yes it was white. It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater.” This colour was a major part of the book. Why? Because her brothers death affected her always. She never forgot, and neither did Death. And for Death, it was the colour of the snow white sky that he remembered. And so this colour of white became the colour of grief, making everyone remember their own sad memory’s when they see the colour.
The next colour was black, the sky was black at the time, an eclipse had occured at the next death, and there was smoke everywhere from the plane crashing “As with many others, when I began my journey away, there seemed a quick shadow again, a final moment of eclipse – the recognition of another soul gone.” The colour black symbolizes many things, but in general for this book, it will be referring to death and fear, and in the book, the main portrayer of this is the Nazi’s. Everytime the colour black was used, there was fear, or hatred, or death. Basically, the colour black isn’t a good colour to have around.
And the final colour is red:
“The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked amongst the redness.” The colour red represents the destruction of everything. This quote, for example, is at the time when Himmel street was bombed. And there are other examples, like the book burning. “To their left, flames and burning books were cheered like heroes.”  Whenever the colour red comes up, so does destruction. The destruction of many lives through the bombing of Himmel Street, and the destruction of the past of Germany through the book burning. This destruction never stops, and neither does the colour red. “The blood enlarged on Ludwig Schmeikl’s ankle.” Every now and then, like with the last quote about bleeding, there was danger, and the colour of red. To finish this off, and as you can surely tell by now, the colour red in “The Book Thief” stands for destruction, through burning, through bombing, and even through bleeding. 

2.“When I recollect her, I see a long list of colours, but it’s the three in which I saw her in the flesh that resonate the most…Red, white, black. They fall on top of each other. The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.” This is the image of the Nazi flag. Why does this have anything to do with Liesel, who hated the Nazi’s? Well, you see, I have made this point before. It is that all our problems are caused by humans. And in this case, every single problem Liesel ever encounters is because of the Nazi’s. “‘You think you’re the only one, Saukerl?’ She turned away. ‘And you only lost your father…’… Her mother. Her brother. Max Vandenburg. Hans Hubermann. All of them gone. And she’d never even had a real father.” All these people, gone from her life, was caused by the Germans. And we haven’t even reached the ending yet… In any case, she has a lot to do with the Nazi’s, and their flag can be used to represent her young life quite well. The scribbled black, symbolizing all that fear, hatred, and death. The blinding global white, representing all her grief and sadness. And the thick, soupy red, representing the destruction of everything she knows. Her life was first caused and made by what the Nazi’s did, and so their symbol will of course be able to be used to describe her.

3.So far, I should of only been talking about what happened inside the prolog, but to be honest, you can never accurately describe each colour with only that, much as “A single hour can consist of thousands of different colours.”, each colour has symbolic meanings that are far deeper than just her brothers death, or blood washing down the street. You can’t forget the book burning, which represents the destruction of the past of Germany, and the creation of a new Germany. You also can’t forget Max, and all that time he spent in the darkness of the basement, within his own dark thoughts. And then there is the white women in the white bathrobe, being the literal representation of grief and sadness.
Each one of these points is important, as are many others throughout the text.They can all be pulled back out, and allow us to see the world in a different light to our current one, and also show us how Death views the world, through some assumptions on his power.

First is the colour white. “She stepped aside and motioned with her chalky hand and wrist for the girl to enter.” There was plenty of grief and sadness within “The Book Thief”, and each time this person was described with a colour to represent this. For instance, the mayor’s wife, who at all times is described as white, to the point where a random off handed comment describes her as ‘chalky’, aka, white. And we all know that the mayor’s wife is grieving, constantly trying to convince herself that her son only froze to death(Which death revealed he didn’t). Then she starts trying to freeze herself as a form of catharsis. Her entire life resolved around her sadness, and the colour white was used in all cases to describe her. The colour white, just from the mayor’s wife’s sadness, is shown to mean grief and sadness. Then the even sadder thing is how this entire book is trying to describe world war 2. World war 2 really happened, with many, many people dying. And so, it is a given that somewhere out there, at least one person did this to themselves, most likely more. So when I read “The Book Thief”, I end up thinking about all those people out there in similar positions, and the fact that anyone had to ever go through that in the first place.
So all that and far more is described by the colour white.(Did I mention that Max was always described as pale? Clearly, he would be sad, and always suffering from nightmares, but I didn’t mention him because the colour black far better reflects him.)

“Dark. Nothing but dark now. Just basement. Just jew.” Max Vandenburg is a jew, who ‘abandoned'(He thinks he did, but his family was pretty much making him leave) his family, and came to live in the Hubermanns basement. And sure, the Hubermanns are quite nice people, they kept Max alive in their basement for years, having fun with him, feeding him, reading with him, describing the weather to him, worrying about him dying or living, all good things good people do. However, this doesn’t change the fact that he was in a basement. It was dark in that basement. He had nearly nothing to do. Only counting the days until the war ends, or he dies. This generated hatred really quickly. And this hatred was pointed at Adolf Hitler, who he imgagined getting into fistfights with. And of course there was fear. Why wouldn’t there be? There was the fear of being abandoned, the fear of dragging down the Hubermanns with him, fear of the Nazi’s, and fear

 

 

 

Death from the book thief.

Markus Zusak had Death as the narrator of “The Book Thief”. This character is quite different to what Death is normally perceived as. Here is a quote that shows this: “Where was Rudy’s comfort? Where was someone to alleviate this robbery of his life? Who was there to soothe him as life’s rug was snatched from under his sleeping feet? No one. There was only me. And I’m not too great at that sort of comforting thing, especially when my hands are cold and the bed is warm. I carried him softly through the broken street, with one salty eye and a heavy, deathly heart. With him, I tried a little harder.” This tells us that Death cares, at least a little. He was saddened by the idea of Rudy dieing, and wanted Rudy to be comforted like Rudy comforted the dying soldier. This is different to any idea we might have of death. If at any point people managed to begin liking Death, the ending will destroy that as he tells them all about how everyone dies, and Lieselś reaction to this, causing people to associate everyones death with Death. However, I disagree, this quote quite clearly explains how Death cares, and how he is saddened; “One salty eye”; by Rudy’s death. Death was just doing his job, saying “It helps me cope, considering the length of time I’ve been performing this job. The trouble is, who could ever replace me?” Which pretty much means that he can’t leave his job, and no one can take it over. He must pick up the souls of the dead, which includes Rudy, and the rest of Liesel’s loved ones. As this is his job, we can’t judge him for it. Death can feel, and he can care about others, yet his job is to pick up their souls. No other idea of Death would feel saddened by this, but this one. And so, because of this difference, it can be possible to care about this Death. Even if he is death, symbolizing the end of our existence, I can definitely care about Death, if he cares about the people he is working with.

Book report: The Book Thief

Book Title: The Book Thief

Points to talk about will be: The books, the people, and the ending. I need to combine the personal, and story parts together. I also need to fix up the message, or at least present it better. And add quotations.

“The Book Thief”, by Markus Zusak, is about a little girl called Liesel Meminger, who lived during world war two in Germany. The entire story is narrated by Death, with its own points of view added in. For instance, The Files Of Recollection” “Oh yes, I definitely remember him. The sky was murky and deep, like quicksand. There was a young man parceled up in barbed wire, like a giant crown of thorns. I untangled him and carried him out. High above the earth, we sank together, to our knees. It was just another day, 1918”. To be more exact on the plot, it follows the time when Liesel Meminger lived in Himmel Street, and what happens in that time, like the stealing of some books, the discovery of a Jewish fist fighter, who would live in the basement, and other events. The book finishes when Liesel’s ‘normal’ life ends, with the death of nearly everyone she ever cared about or loved.

The message the book presents, from my point of view, is that humans are the creator of nearly all of our problems, and these problems have an effect on everything. Even Death admitted to being affected right at the end when it say’s “I am haunted by humans”. I also find that many problems I face normally, and the problems other face, are all caused by humans. My problems might not be as extreme as the one’s Liesel face; like having to do exams; but they are still problems caused by humans. Liesel’s everyday problems included starving to the point where an apple looked amazing; “Sitting on Rudy’s front step, they noticed Fritz Hammer—one of their older counterparts—eating an apple. It was of the Klar variety— ripening in July and August—and it looked magnificent in his hand.” Clear symptoms of starvation when apples look that great. This problem was caused by humans because a war is going on, which takes up the resources in a country at a massive rate, often leaving the people living in the country with less food to eat, among other things. Now that is just one of the many problems surrounding Liesel, not including the others like illiteracy and discrimination against Jews. All these problems were caused by humans, like the war, or an excuse to start a mass murder campaign. Now, there are 3 different ways I will show you how this book showed this message. They are: The books that were stolen, the people Liesel surrounded herself with, and the ending of the book; also how all these connect to me and our world.

The book thief stole books. That is how she got her name. Throughout the story she stole many books, the first of them being “The Grave digger’s Handbook”. Each book had its own meaning, and reason for being stolen. “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” was stolen when Liesel’s brother was buried. The assistant to the gravedigger was walking back, and the book fell out of his pocket. This book ended up symbolizing her brother, and his death, and also the last time she saw her mother. This book was also the first book she finished reading, and the one she learnt how to read from. I can sort of relate to this, in the way that I still remember the very first book I managed to fully read by myself. It was called “Are You My Mother?” by Dr. Seuss. Even though I have read hundreds of books at least since then, I still remember it. So I can definitely understand some of her feelings towards this book. Other books where also stolen, like “The Shoulder Shrug”, which she rescued from a book burning. It got the attention of the mayor’s wife, leading to Liesel going to the library that the mayor owned. That book represented what it meant to steal books, and the threat it could hold. And of course for a kid, this was a big deal; “Every minute, every hour, there was worry, or more to the point, paranoia. Criminal activity will do that to a person, especially a child.” Another point to this is the fact that the burning of these books represented the destruction of the past in Germany, and the creation of a new Nazi Germany. By stealing that book, she is deciding to keep a part of that past with her, which is similar to when she befriends Max. All the other books also have meaning, like “The Whistler”. She stole this one from the Mayor’s Library, to get rid of the guilt she was feeling, and to get back at the wife of the mayor, for the crimes she imagined them doing. However, even though every book she stole had its own meaning, and played into her life in an important way, those first two books have to be the most important. One symbolizing her brother’s death, the disappearance of her mother, and the wonderful world of books; while the other represents the art of stealing, the disagreement with the Nazi party, and hatred towards Adolf Hitler.This is what the message of the book is, that humans cause all our problems. Those being: The death of Liesel’s brother in the cold train; the book burning happening because of Hitlers birthday; and the mayor running out of money to have others wash their clothes. All these problems were caused by humans; the meaning behind the books for Liesel were caused by these problems. The problems humans cause have many effects on the world, some good, some bad. And for these books, they had a generally bad meaning.

The people in Liesel’s life each did their own things, and had their own meaning to her, as it is with people.
The meaning and impact each of these people had on Liesel is huge. Her brother was her family, somebody she loved. With his death, it nearly broke Liesel’s mind, and ruined her forever. Then her mother, who abandoned/ left her at the Hubermann’s. With that, keeping in mind she is still quite young, would think that all of her family is gone and stopped caring about her. Good luck trying to convince her to stay sane. Which is where Han’s came in, and did the amazing thing of keeping her sane, and introducing her to what a family can be like, and how wonderful books are. So, a lot of stuff was done by Han, and Han meant quite a bit to Liesel. “Papa—the accordionist—and Himmel Street. One could not exist without the other, because for Liesel, both were home. Yes, that’s what Hans Hubermann was for Liesel Meminger.” Then of course there is Rosa, who was constantly mean to everyone, and still managed to get Liesel to love her as a mother, and we all know how important it is to have a mother(If you don’t, then you had a sad childhood. Or someone else as a mother figure.). Rudy too, was an important person, who was the first friend she had. When a person gets a friend, they get someone they can talk to, someone they can be more “them-self” with. And Rudy was that person for Liesel. He was also the first love interest, someone she often thought about. “She would lie in bed, missing Max, wondering where he was, praying that he was alive, but somewhere, standing among all of it, was Rudy.” Then there was Max, which as said before, was the Jew in the household. Another term for him would be the member of the family who everyone liked and wanted to be around. He was that important to Liesel. And even though he left, she never stopped hoping he would live; “Liesel? Do you think he’s alive?”…”I hope so, Papa.” All this relates to us, the reader in the way that we each have a person like this in our lives. Han’s, the kind father/father figure. Rosa, the mother/mother figure. The brother and mother, being your siblings and family. Rudy, the friend you should have. And Max, the person you care about and always talk to, about anything. Basically, the people in your life and the people in Liesel’s story are similar in the way that we all have someone like that. But once again, humanity caused some problems. Han’s was made to go to war, Rudy was forced to go to a special school, Max had to leave for the safety of the Hubermanns, her brother and mother both either died or left; basically, she lost everyone due to the problems caused by humans. And I haven’t even begun the ending of the book yet.

The ending of the book was best described as “Rudy Steiner slept. Mama and Papa slept. Frau Holtzapfel, Frau Diller. Tommy Müller. All sleeping. All dying.” At the end of the book we first get to see nearly everyone who Liesel had left die. Then we got to see her mourn over them, and a bit about how life continued on afterwards for her. The death of everyone was sudden and shocking. No one was expecting it, and I even heard one person talking about how they were expecting Liesel to do something big, like the story was building up to it. Basically, everyone died, and the buildup was ‘destroyed’, which caused many people to disagree, and even dislike the ending. However, keep in mind that death never kept the ending a secret. From the very beginning, it mentioned how everyone died: “Within minutes, mounds of concrete and earth were stacked and piled. The streets were ruptured veins. Blood streamed till it was dried on the road, and the bodies were stuck there, like driftwood after the flood.” Clearly, everyone died, and yet people complained that it ruined the book? In fact, this ending gives the book even more meaning, which is that it shows how suddenly death can arise, and how terrible it was to live in WW2. If a different ending had occurred, like if everyone lived happily ever after, then how is this message supposed to get passed on? How would the book end? It can’t be a cheesy ending like she steals some important book, as she is just a little girl; so how else does the book end? The ending tied off any loose ends, set up the future of the main character and everyone around her, and helped out the main message of the book. It also made sense story wise, and was always going to happen. Yes, it was sad, but it was a good ending nonetheless.

“The Book Thief”, by Markus Zusak, was a rather good book. It taught me how many problems are caused by humans, and that no matter what you do, these problems will affect you. The book had a few different methods to show this to the reader, like having Death be the narrator, and every now and then mentioning yet another death. Or Liesel and her often happy, but still terribly sad childhood, which is filled with death and fear. This book relates to our world through many different means, but I suppose the main one will be that the war really did happen. And as there are so many humans who went through that war, and many others, their are bound to be someone with a similar story. And really, the fact that can happen is truly sad, and quite regrettable. But once again, it would all be humanity’s fault. War would not happen if all humans were peaceful. But as there will always be that one person who wants what that other guy has, problems will occur, sometimes as a small fight, and sometimes becoming a war.
This book was an amazing one, probably one of the better books I have read for the past year or so. I would recommend it to anyone who not only wants to learn a bit about how it would of been in Nazi Germany, but also for those who want a new perspective on death, and how the world really is.
Finally, thanks for reading, and make sure to read “The Book Thief” at some point!

 

Reading response “Suicide in the Trenches” by Siegfried Sassoon

Poem title: Suicide in the trenches

Siegfried Sassoon, in the poem “Suicide in the trenches” describes the death of a soldier who killed himself. He first describes the situation he is in(“In winter trenches, cowed and glum,  With crumps and lice and lack of rum,”) , then how he died(“He put a bullet through his brain.”) , before proceeding onto a message for the reader(“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.”)

This message is simple enough: War caused at least one person to get to the point where they saw no reason to live anymore. No one should ever have to face that kind of existence, and yet, instead of trying to help these people,  the people are merely cheering them on. So of course, this poem is trying to convince people that not going to war would be best, or your life will soon having no meaning, and so be in hell.

This poem taught me that there are many different kinds of people out there. Some who don’t want to live, and so kill themselves. And those who watch on, knowing what happened, but not wanting to discuss it. And with this I realised: There are many different situations out there that people could end up in, but in general, people are always similar; there is always going to be that one person who doesn’t want to live on, but tries to find a reason. But if a war happens, well, what reason could there be? From this lesson I realised that I really don’t want to go to war, for the very fact that I am probably that one person.

The reason for this is that I can understand at least a bit of the mindset that ‘soldier boy’ has. That is, the ideas of “Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark.” And I guess that the war was just a final tipping point for the person. I mean, how are you supposed to keep yourself alive when you struggle to enjoy and find meaning in life; Particularly when a war is going on around you. The tipping point I am talking about is that the war caused him to lose all reason for continued existence. He was quite possibly already close to this point before the war, for instance that there where only about one or two reasons for life, and that war closed them off from him. Perhaps they where family and friends. Or maybe it was a belief that the future will be a good one. It could even be he actually enjoyed life normally, and had something to do in it he found enjoyable. Maybe even a few things that he finds fun to do. But in any case, a war like the second world war would never allow something like those things to continue on existing. No family; no future but an endless war; nothing that could be fun. What reason could there possibly be when that sort of mindset is used. That mindset which would convince others that everything is fine; even themselves; by grinning without reason; always being alone, and then looking at the morning like you might as well do something with it. That is most likely the mindset this kid has, and I can definitely understand it since I have it.

Really, I’m just lucky that I’m not in a war, and still have some reasons to exist. But that doesn’t change my mindset at all. For instance: I don’t really enjoy life at all, instead, most of the time I just pretend to. I mean sure, there’s happiness, but never for long. And excitement, that’s something I remember feeling thrice in living memory(I lied all the other times I said I was excited). Then there is loneliness. I have one friend, A great friend, sure, but still only one. Oh, and family? My views on my family is that they are all more amazing than me, by one really large degree. How could I not be lonely around them, when I view myself as the only loser amongst winners. And the morning; great time, really. I do enjoy the morning, more than any other time of day(besides when waking up, sleeping is better), as the air is cold, the sun is just shining, and there is only bird chatter. Unfortunately, I don’t really do much at all, so the morning means nothing else but a good atmosphere to me compared to the rest of the day.

Then what about things I enjoy? What reason do I have to live? Well, I love my family, and would do nearly anything for them. I don’t want to lose any friends, and being with them makes me happy. I also believe that a good future for myself is possible, although improbable. Then there are the things I enjoy: there are books(Love those, they let me feel emotions normally! Well, for a few minutes anyway), Food(Tasty, with a hint of satisfaction that my stomach is full), and walking(Who doesn’t like some exercise in their life!). So yeah, there are reasons for my life and continued existence.

Simply put: That kid and myself have similar thoughts about our reasons to live. He just had said reasons taken away from him by the war, which is why I’m lucky. I still have some reasons, and no one is taking them away from me.

This poem also got me thinking about the state the human species is always in. That is, there are always those few people who are getting quite close to death, because they keep on running out of reasons to live. And as the reason “Live because that is the purpose of existence”, well, that just doesn’t cut it. As there are going to be many people out there who think like this, doesn’t that mean that a large portion of humanity is under threat? And if a few of these people die, no one will talk about it, like the people in the poem “No one spoke of him again.” But what if the world goes into another war? How can these people live on when the war takes away a person’s reason to live? Doesn’t this mean that a large portion of humanity will die, leaving the world in a really bad state?

The poem “Suicide in the trenches”, by Siegfried Sassoon, describes the suicide of one person.  And what I did after that was analyze and explain some of the many thoughts and reasons for this poem, and what it means for the world. I went into some depth of a possible state of mind of the person who died, and linked it to myself. And then I talked about how this state of mind could affect the world. Then I stated some questions to make all you readers think a bit more into the situation this world is in. The conclusion we reached was that humanity is in a pretty bad state, as people continue to lose reasons to stay alive. But as long as we don’t enter into another world war, it shouldn’t be too bad. 

2.4 Wilfred Owen poem essay.

The poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Exposure”, which where written by Wilfred Owen, used different language techniques that helped the reader to understand what the poems meaning was. Every paragraph will have its own theme, which is because every quote and language technique is different and represents a different theme. However, the general theme will be that war is pointless, and that there are many different aspects as to why war is both terrible and pointless.

In the poem “Exposure”, by Wilfred Owen, there are many different sentences where personification is used. This will be analyzed about how personification was used by the use of quotes. Here are a few of them: “For hours the innocent mice rejoice:the house is theirs;”, “Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army.” The reason these were added was because it makes it feel like everything that surrounds the soldiers have their own lives; their own power. By doing this, it makes it seem like their surroundings are human, easily capable of being the enemies of the soldiers. Like when the mice are referred to being in control of the house, which is generally how humans are viewed. Yet it is used to describe mice being in control, saying the same as if these mice are above the soldiers.The weather in this case was one of the other enemies of the soldiers, which is referred to in the second quote, particularly when the incoming clouds are described as an army. Then there is the fact that every single other sentence described how the weather killed the soldiers, for instance “Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us . . . “. This quote is one of the ones that describe how the weather kills the soldiers, and so yes, the weather is another enemy of the soldiers. The poem also talks about the soldiers as ghosts being forced home “Slowly our ghosts drag home:”, they aren’t even referred to as human, which puts humans even lower on the scale of reality. This affects the readers understanding by changing who they view as the true people in the poem, as well as changing who the reader thinks to be the enemy of the soldiers.  This personally affected me in the way that I started to wonder about just what is the most dangerous thing in war. Is it the enemy soldiers, constantly shooting at you, and trying to kill you, or is it the weather and environment around you, that are the true enemy? This poem got me to wonder about that, causing me to come to the conclusion: No one can ignore the weather and environment around you, it is a powerful enemy.

In the poem “Exposure” by Wilfred Owen, there is some listing. Some of this is in the next quote. “But nothing happens.” This sentence is used many times throughout the poem, which drives home the point the sentence is trying to make. In this case, the sentence is trying to drive home how “nothing happens” in the war. It makes sure the reader knows how the soldiers are just sitting there. Sometimes they die from the enemy. Sometimes they die from the weather. And yet, “nothing happens” in the way that the soldiers themselves are doing the same thing everyday; nothing new ever happens. That is, they are sitting in their trenches; attacking the enemy soldiers; watching their friends die from both the bullets and the weather, and just wondering why they are there. This affected my personal understanding by changing the way I think about the war. It is similar to some people lives today. Everyone knows of those people who do the exact same things everyday, just living out there lives without even a hint of reason as to why they do so. It generally leads to depression, and then potentially even suicide as a way to escape the boredom and sadness they feel. The only difference in war is that there is a bit of bad weather and there are bullets constantly whizzing by causing them to die by other means. This ended up changing my view of war from one of protecting other people from the enemy who is invading your country to one of war being pointless, and only leading to death no matter what is done.

In the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, written by Wilfred Owen, repetition is used a few times. Here are some quotes where this is displayed: “All went lame; all blind” With this one sentence, the reader understands that the soldiers ability to move and process what is happening around them is practically gone. Without this, the reader wouldn’t of understood just how bad the situation the soldiers were in when the gas bombs dropped, and might of gotten confused at the point of saying “An ecstasy of fumbling,” as it could’ve also had a happy feeling to it. Another thing is by using repetition here, it creates a more powerful effect, making sure the reader knows that the soldiers bodys are failing. By doing this, the reader will know that the war has been tough against them, and that it has ruined their bodys. It affected my personal understanding of the poem by making sure I knew just how bad it was for them, and how terrible war can be for both the people who survive and for the people who die. The people who die, die an excruciating death. And the people who survive have to live with both physical and mental traumers for the rest of their life. This point also happens in the poem “Exposure”, when “Tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us, Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp. The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp, Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,” which describes how both the people who died, and the people who survived, are in terrible conditions. They barely even know who they are burying, and all the while they bury them, they are slowly dying. This truly showcases how terrible war is, and how sad it is that these soldiers went to it and died; only to be barely recognisable by their fellow soldiers.

In the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, by Wilfred Owen, emotive language is used many times. This is an analyzation of some of the quotes showing emotive language: “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;” By using this in the poem, the author can help describe just how nasty the gas is. It affects the readers in the way of telling them that this soldier, fighting for you and your country, is looking about as good as a pile of sick. So it will create large amounts of the feeling horror in the reader. Without it, there is still plenty of emotive language to describe the situation, but each sentence builds up on another to describe an image of how bad the soldier is looking. Because of this building up of horror of how bad the situation is for the soldier, it will better affect the reader than if only one or two sentences where said(In which case there would be no build-up, and the reader will only feel a slight disgust). This personally affected me in the way that I now better understand just how horrible being on the receiving end of a gas attack is. It also got me to better understand that war is a really terrible thing; every part of the poem had something to do with the suffering or worry caused by war. This means that no matter who the reader is, if they read this poem, they will understand at least a little of how terrible war is. Wilfred Owen’s other war poems also had a similar idea. That is, they would explain a view or time he had personally experienced in war. Which led to every war poem he made explaining how horrible war is, and convincing many people that it is a terrible thing.

The poems that were talked about were “Exposure” and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. 4 language techniques where discussed: Personification, listing, repetition and emotive language. Themes presented are: There are more than one enemy on the battlefield, you have to watch out for the environment too; In life, there will be points were everything feels meaningless, were “nothing happens”, war is no exception; War is horrible, it leaves everyone who survives grieving in pain, and everyone who died, had died a horrible, quite possibly pointless, death; War causes many to die, and it is rarely as simple as just being shot in the head, instead many will go through many different tortures, trying their hardest to survive, only to end up dying at the hands of a gas attack that no one noticed coming. From this, it is obvious there is plenty to learn from these poems. Each one will have affected the reader in powerful ways, so that it would be difficult not to realize something from it. For myself, every theme I just writ where some of the lessons I learnt that I could more easily describe. But in general, I learnt that war is a terrible and potentially pointless thing. Or at least, it isn’t worth the massive amount of sacrifices given to it.