Tag / writing

by Logan Lambert

Portfolio written text essay “The Book Thief”

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, is about Liesel, a little girl living in Nazi Germany during World War 2, and Death’s view of her life. Death speaks to the reader about Liesel, and while doing so, describes his own situation as well. This essay will explain how Death can’t be blamed for everyone’s deaths, then Liesel’s life, and how she is constantly around death, and then how life is important in every situation. This is all to describe the following point.

World War 2 was an absolute nightmare. It was full of death and destruction, and got everyone trying to survive, with plenty failing. With this novel, we can use the life of Liesel, and the narration of death to describe how important life is, and how unfortunate it is that World war 2 happened for everyone involved.

“As I’ve suggested, my one saving grace is distraction. It keeps me sane.” As this quote suggests, Death requires distraction to save himself mentally. The things that are causing him to go crazy are the fact that he has seen the death of everyone, ever. Very, very few people could say that they could get through that and remain sane. To actually get affected though, you have to be able to care about people. We know Death cares because of this quote: “I carried him softly through the broken street, with one salty eye and a heavy, deathly heart.” “He makes me cry.” He was saddened by the death of Rudy, and Rudy’s family. The words ‘broken’, ‘salty’, ‘heavy’, ‘deathly’, ‘cry’, all prove that he can care about people, and feel something for them that is more powerful than a bit of pity. This all once again proves that Death needs saving mentally. Which also means, that if Death is affected so much, he can’t possibly be blamed for being the cause of all the death in the book, since no sane person would continue to do something that will drive them crazy unless they have no choice. That is why distraction is the one saving grace from World War 2, and why it is the one thing protecting the idea of life from death.

“Rudy Steiner slept. Mama and Papa slept. Frau Holtzapfel, Frau Diller. Tommy Müller. All sleeping. All dying.” This quote explains Liesel’s childhood life to us in a simple enough way. Everyone she knows, dies at some point while they sleep. The reason this is important is that it shows us an example of what happens to a person when they lose everyone they ever cared about because of World War 2, and how they think of life afterwards. Liesel never knew her father, her brother died in front of her, every person she knew, like Papa and Mama died while they slept, and Max’s very life is constantly at stake since everyone is against him being a Jew. After all of that, what would Liesel think about death? I personally think that she would never forget them, however, she would still move on. This is because Liesel isn’t mentally weak enough to stop living from that. She is young, so it did serverally damage her ability to trust others, and make friends(She became like that from her brother and mother leaving, so it will become even worse after the people who saved her from her previous trust issues also die). She still isn’t going to die even if all of that happens though, she will ‘move on’, and live her life. There is evidence she did that from the quote “There was no recovery from what had happened. That would take decades. It would take a long life.” This quote demonstrates how the only way to save her mind is to live a long life, and let all of the new experiences, and all of that time, heal over the damage caused during her childhood. Liesel’s life is full of death, all because of Nazi Germany, which leads to our main point. That is, World War 2 ruined many lives, and caused many, many nightmares. However, it also strongly shows how Liesel viewed life, and how even after all of the crap she has been through, she can still appreciate life for what it is.

To properly understand why life is important, we need to understand why it matters if we die, and so the final question is: “What does it mean to die?” My own belief(A part of it, anyway), is that if something dies, that is the end of its existence on this world. Everything it did has been in affect, and there is nothing left it can do. In its life, it will of caused the death of many other lifeforms in an attempt to survive for their own life, so when you die, it signifies the end of a life that has caused the death of many others. It becomes quite an important death, at least for a few other lifeforms that were affected when they were alive. What this shows is that death only matters when life matters. And life matters because of the effects it has on everyone else, the same as death. What does this have to do with “The Book Thief” then? It is the fact that Death at least recognises how when people die, every one of their deaths matters, and when people kill other people, it really sucks to watch it happen. It leads to this kind of thought: “I am haunted by humans.” Because he knows how important life is, and how bad it is that people caused World War 2 to happen, and started the death of so many people.

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, is about Liesel, a little girl living in Nazi Germany during World War 2, and Death’s view of her life. Death speaks to the reader about Liesel, and while doing so, describes his own situation as well. Above I have described how Death can’t be blamed for death as he is being forced into it, Liesel’s life and how even though it is full of death, she can still handle it, and then how life matters because death matters. All to describe how important life is, and how the nightmare that is World War 2 is so important to everyone.

by Logan Lambert

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.

by Logan Lambert

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.