‘The Book Thief’, written by Markus Zusak, is a book about a girl and her life during the events of World War II. The book stands out from others as it is written with aspects of magical realism. The most noticeable is having the story as more of a narration, with the main narrator being a character we only know as Death. The reason that they are clarified as the main narrator is that the main character Liesel Meminger also has brief periods where the story is told by her. Magical realism is well known as being just the “real world with a twist”. There are many mainstream ideas presented to us by Zusak through the use of magical realism, but there are also a number of more hidden abstract ideas which can be explored in depth and be more rewarding to analyze them. Markus Zusak utilizes magical realism to present the audience/reader with his message mixed in with his story. Zusak uses the Book Thief as a wake up call, to people who can read more than just the words, to the people who can understand what we are and what we need to change.

Death is one of the first characters we are introduced to in The Book Thief, although we do not know him as death in the beginning, only as a narrator. As the text develops and the story moves forwards, Death has points where he describes how fascinating the humans are to him. With him being Death, it is unusual that he cares enough to notice humans more than just carrying their soul away. But he says he is “constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race” which is saying that the humans are constantly surprising him and he is unable to “simply estimate it”. Zusak giving the book a narrator such as Death is a technique he used to make it so the humans are not the ones who are in complete control. It is interesting to see an author create a character with such power but also make him seem to care about humans. It is a way to show us that humans are capable of great things, that we can do almost anything, just as long as we believe in it.

The Book Thief takes place during the events of World War II. Which was one of the globally known events of the world. But what Zusak does is show the life of Germans during that time, which a large number of people refuse to acknowledge as they were the ‘bad guys’ in the war. But having a story from their point of view, one that brings the struggle for the German people into the light. Markus Zusak is able to focus the audience’s attention onto German life during this event, and opens up a new view for people, how there was a small minority of Germans who disagreed with the treatment of the Jewish people by their Fuhrer. Zusak’s most noticeable character for disagreeing with the mistreatment of others is Hans Hubermann. Hans is many things: an accordion player, a painter and a generous man. But what he is not, he is not a supporter of the Fuhrer as others are, he is unable to speak out though. Which is perceived when it was explained in the book as “dangerous” to not have the flag of the Nazi party displayed in the window of ones home. It was placed within the text that any emotions against the mighty Fuhrer was treason and anybody who was found to disagree with the actions of Nazi’s were punished.

There are times in The Book Thief were Death seems as though he feels sorry for humans, because they miss so many things that happen around them. “People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends” Death says this, and he says it in such a way it shows us that he knows how narrow-minded humans can be, how we only focus on the beginning and ending colours of the day because they are the most noticeable, and because we aren’t out doing something we see as important. We only see the colours when we are not busy, which could be construed as how we never just exist, we always have to find a meaning to everything. We can never just be there, just existing and watching. A whole day goes by, with thousands of different colours and shades happening all around us. But we miss it, because we are all too caught up in something to make us busy, because humans are always busy, we always need to be doing something. Which Markus Zusak points out as one of our major flaws. Which connects to a previous quote from Death, just as he is always over-estimating or under-estimating, and never just estimating, we are always trying to find meaning to exist, never simply just existing.

The Book Thief. It seems like just a book about a girl in Germany, but as you read, the more you understand. The small actions of one person can change everything in such a big way. Adolf Hitler believed his ideology to be right and just, so he did something to make it known. Markus Zusak created a story about a girl, and he turned it into a book of ideas, of thoughts. A book to open peoples eyes to what was unknown, he showed us the life of Germans who did not agree with Hitler, he presented us with the message of hope. Hope that tells us we can do great things. He made us think, what if there is a being such as Death? Watching us since the start, knowing everything we do, and following a story of someone, somewhere, who is able to be more than the others. Zusak’s characters are all so different, but the same, they all are true to who they are, even if it makes things worse for themselves. they do what they perceive as the right thing to do. which is more than a lot of people in the real world can hope to achieve.

“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.”

This is said by the first narrator of the book thief, who we know as Death. Death’s meaning behind this is simple, people are not very observant, hence we only notice the bright and red colours of the day, and we miss all the other many shades that appear during the time we are all busy being alive. We get a sense on just how different our narrator is, in two ways. First, he refers to humans as “people” leaning towards him not counting himself one of them. He then says at the end that he “makes it a point to notice them”, “them” being the colours that we all miss. Him saying this tells us that Death is not just a soul carrier who exists only for the job, he either enjoys or just has a respect for the colours, so he pay attention to them when no one else does.

“Here is a small fact. You are going to die”

“I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables.”

“Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out, like the rain. (p. 85)”

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.”

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”

Definition: The principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations

Macbeth. The play by William Shakespeare, the idea it presents to us is ambition, but not just plain old ambition, it shows us how someones ambition can be corrupted by ones morals and how they are set. This idea of the corruption of ambition is brought to our attention by the short part of Macbeth’s life that we see and how quickly it degenerates.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow thingy can be two paragraphs, what we see because of what he presents to us by what hes saying and the metaphors and text things

William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth depicts the dangerous effect that the lack of morals brings ambition towards the more malice filled side of the

How Ambition can be Pointless

Macbeth: He was Told he would be king by witches but that all kings who come after him would be Banquo descendants. Yet he still tried to stop this from happening by committing lots of murders and starting a war. But he ultimately ended up failing in his task and was killed. ” Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” As a direct quote said by Macbeth himself, it is not too hard to come the conclusion that in the end, you can try all you want but you can’t beat life. But Macbeth still tried too, even when he was directly told by supernatural forces that he would not remain king and the kingship wouldn’t even stay in his family. He still tried to outsmart the inevitable. And he failed. Just as everyone else who tried did.

Ozymandias: He created a statue that was supposed to show all who saw it that he was indeed the “king of kings” and having all of his works on display. But when someone did find it, there was nothing but desert and all that was left was the legs and base of the statue and a half sunken face in the sand. Even after trying to immortalize his legacy of power in stone, Ozymandias still wasn’t able to beat the power of time in the end.

Gattaca: In the film Gattaca, Jerome Eugene Morrow has the most superior genes seen, he used to be the best of the best. He had been told and had believed that he was to be the best, for he should’ve been with his great genetic makeup. But even though he was supposed to be the best, and tried to be the best. He finished second in a swimming championship and tried to commit suicide, but only succeeded in putting him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. There is a dark ironic twist in this scenario though, as Eugene’s genes were supposed to be “second to none”, and still he ended up second place when he was supposed to win.

Red Queen: In Red Queen, society is separated by the colour of your blood. You’re either a Red, or a Silver. A peasant or high class. And if you’re born a Red, well there’s nothing you can do to be accepted in the much higher status class of the Silvers. Not even if you start a revolution to get rid of the corrupt system of Red and Silver. You just have to accept what you are, and you can’t do anything to change that.

In Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, he speaks of ambition with several relevant ideas about ambition. The actual poem is written with the style of a sonnet but also not as it does not match a true sonnet. It speaks of a statue missing the upper half of its body, with its face sunken in sand, barely visible.

How does Andrew Niccol encode his ideas in the visual language of his film, Gattaca?

In the film Gattaca, Andrew Niccol is able to use visual language efficiently and subtle enough to leave the audience noticing small details that represent something bigger than they seem. The biggest and most noticeable is the obvious modernism society: the simple and straightforward but still elegant buildings, the double breasted suits, the absence of colour is most scenes. Everything the film shows points to this idea of modernism. And we know that he meant to do all this as Niccol was the actual screenwriter for this movie and came up with all the ideas for it.