Brianna's Online Journal

Lies- deliberate misdirection
narrator – death or whom
Molching
Symbol
Foreshadowing/flashbacks
Dramatic Irony

WHY?

Challenges our preconceptions
– role of German citizens in ww2
– Removed our comfortable assumption that we would never do what Germany did
– The personification of death, makes us identify with it, normalizing it. Reinforces extreme nature of human behavior.

POWER OF WORDS

Essay Structure
Introduction – Why magical realism ( idea )
3 Body Paragraphs on any of the above

1. Technique. Explanation . Technique . Explanation etc.
2. Idea. Explanation . Idea . Explanation etc.

Let the quotes drive the argument
Plan the essay ( Paragraph 1, what idea, what quote)

In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak illustrates the power of propaganda in the Nazi regime through the use of children’s naivety.
Zusak does this in order to make the reader challenge their preconceptions about the Holocaust and show how people chose to look the other way when confronted with evidence of what was happening in their own society.
Liesel and Rudy are employed as a tool to show how a society could allow itself to be unaware of what was happening. Readers, when encountering a story told from the point of view of children, will often accept the naive portrayal of the situation. This allows the author to present situations without the usual emotional loading, thus allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. This is a form of dramatic irony, where the reader maintains insight into the reality of the situation that the characters themselves do not have.

In the early stages of the novel, Liesel’s naivety is established when her lack of knowledge around her father and the dangerous labels he was given is shown. Liesel never knew her father and the only thing she did know about him was the label he had been given under the Nazi regime.
“It was a label she did not understand. Kommunist“.
Liesel was unaware of what being a Communist in Nazi Germany meant for her father, and would not understand it… “When she asked her mother what it meant, she was told it wasn’t important”.
In a society where evil things are happening to ordinary people, details are often withheld to protect others, and it was easy for people to turn a blind eye to the Nazi regime and its practices. Children are often considered to be naive and blissfully unaware of things that happen in society and for Liesel, this meant not knowing what being Communist was because the information was withheld from her. This meant Liesel did not know the reality behind the disappearances of Communists, Jewish people and other targeted members of society, whereas as readers, we do know the truth and we can see how a society could allow itself to be unaware of what was happening.
Through the use of Liesel’s naivety, Zusak illustrated how society could allow itself to look the other way when faced with the truth about their society.

Rudy’s naivety is established in a similar way to Liesel’s when Rudy did not understand why certain things were happening in society. This occurred after the Jesse Owens Incident. “Son you can’t go around painting yourself black, you hear?”… Rudy was interested and confused… “Why not, Papa?” “Because they’ll take you away”. “Why?” “Because you shouldn’t want to be black people or Jewish people or anyone who is… not us”
Rudy was unaware of the racial prejudices that the Nazi regime was built upon, and did not understand why being black meant being taken away because as a child he is not yet been exposed to the ……. of……..
Zusak utilized Rudy’s naivety to explore how by simply not telling people the truth can ………

Bit stuck now

What is it for, and how does it work?

• A way to present an idea in a new light
• Alters reality in order to expose an idea reader may not have otherwise comprehended
• Challenges readers preconceptions
• A realistic narrative that contains a surreal element
• Forces us to rethink our world
• Lies to you

• Research Germany under Hitler’s reign.  Look into the politics of the time, the class separation, treatment of the Jewish, the position of women and their roles, and uncover any other important information.
• Cover some of the similarities and differences between Germany in the 1939 – 1943 and the present day.
• Discuss the setting of Molching, Germany; write about the way in which the town is ‘separated’ and how the setting is influential in presenting the text’s ideas.

Nazi Germany was led by the NSDAP, under Adolf Hitler’s reign. Hitler turned the liberal Weimar democracy into a totalitarian dictatorship, by legally becoming Chancellor in 1933 and taking control of Germany through Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. He then created laws to enable him to act without the President and the Reichstag ( government) and suspended many of the civil rights of German people.
The Nazi Party used propaganda to ensure that the people blindly followed the Nazi Movement and were open to their ideas.
After WW1, the Germany nation was humiliated and punished, which resulted in a feeling of exclusion from international affairs and bitter resentment in the German people. When Adolf Hitler became an influential figure in German politics, he had a way of making people feel like the belonged, were safe in the Nazis power and their anger unified them.
The Nazis used Propaganda to persuade the people to accept the Nazi ideas and believe that Hitler had their interests at heart. Through patriotic rallies and speeches, youth groups and clubs, the Nazi ideologies were placed into every aspect of German life, and to them, the Nazis were doing good and making Germany great again. Hitler used words to convince people of his ideas, and in the book thief,the power of words …

Add in ides of
– Zusak presents an optimistic view that language ( literature, speech etc.) can save us, but can be manipulated so easily to do the opposite.
– dehumanizing propaganda
– the only way to solve their problems is by removing aspects of society
– using the despair of the people to make them believe they want to commit these horrible things because it is fixing the problem.
– easily mislead, especially when we are told in an authoritative form
– it’s hard to speak up and disagree when people in authority are persecuting others because you don’t want to make yourself vulnerable and open to persecution. Fear of the authority
– subversive , undermining societys.
– Dog whistle phrases/politics (Dog-whistle politics is political messaging employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has an additional, different, or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup)

Among other things, the Nazis wanted to restore Germany to its former glory through removing racial impurities ( Jewish, communists, sick, disabled) and having a superior German people.
They convinced people that Jewish were the biggest threat to racial purity and the survival of the state. Jewish people were shamed, abused, discriminated and excluded from society, and the Nazis made a target for the German people to aim their anger towards and with a common enemy the people were united even more, which allowed the Nazis to carry out horrifying things to the Jewish and other members of society.
They believed in theories of racial purity and decided that the Aryan were the master race. Nazis wanted to overcome social divisions of class and have everyone the same, by removing all of the impurities.
Women were excluded from the political life of Germany and pushed towards the traditional roles of wife and mother.
In September 1939, Germany started WW2 by invading Poland, whom Great Britain had sworn to protect if they were invaded by Germany.

In the Book Thief, Liesel arrived on Himmel st in January of 1939 and lived in Molching during the war. Mölching was described as being outside of Munich, however, in real life, Mölching does not actually exist.
Munich was the capital of the Nazi movement and //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany#World_War_II
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/munich.htm

Politics, neighborhood, publications, clubs, social gatherings, arts + literature, media

Choose 2 scenes and catalogue all information
Touch, smell, sight, taste, sound

Salvador Dali’s surrealist art Metamorphosis of Narcissus depicts the Greek myth of Narcissus, who was in love with his reflection but could never embrace it and died of frustration.
I think Dali has depicted Narcissus as an egg with a new flower growing through it to show the beauty that has plagued his mind because of his obsession with himself.
The flower is called the narcissus, that symbolises rebirth and new beginnings.

Salvador Dali’s Death Tarot Card shows the relationship between Death and New Life. The cypress tree with the skull has been cut at the trunk, representing the trees death in order to make room for the blooming new life of the rose.
The cypress tree is commonly used as symbols in history. They point towards the sky making them be associated with heaven, immortality and hope. However, the tree can also symbol mourning, shown by the dark cloaked figure of death bowing to the Cypress tree. The Cypress tree is a reminder of life and death.
The swallow in the background


La Muerta translates to A death or death. XIII is the number 13 in roman numerals and typically #13 it is the card of death.

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/novel-ambition-20131118-2xpu0.html

Markus Zusak’s mother, Elisabeth Zusak ( Nicknamed Liesel)

But she vividly remembers that time the bombs fell across the road and the little girl and her grandmother died. She remembers when the cuckoo would sound on the radio, the cue for everyone to get out of bed and go to the air shelter – “either die or run” – her foster sister carrying her hairbrush and hair curlers. She remembers when the boy next door ran out of the house to take bread to a parade of Jewish prisoners and was whipped for his compassion. “That was the most tragic thing, you know, it was the most terrible thing anybody could witness.”

Around the kitchen table his mum would tell the kids about her “rough as guts” foster mother, and the bombs coming down “and the ground being covered in ice but the sky being on fire.

Rough as guts foster mother would become Rosa Hubermann.

In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, the significance of words is emphasized through personifying them and showing their impact on Liesel Memingers life.

Zusak uses personification of words to emphasize the power of negative words in Liesel’s argument with Isla Hermann, by showing how words can injure someone, “The injury of words, Yes, the brutality of words… Cuts had opened and series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin, All from the words”
The words were personified to show how Liesel’s words were physically hurting Isla and creating imaginary injuries as she hurled her hurtful words at Isla. Zusak did this to make the reader realize how our actions, even if not physical, can have the power to hurt someone and cause damage.
Another way that Zusak showed the importance of words through personfication was when Liesel began writing her story in the book that Isla gave her.
“She also gave her a reason to write her own words, to remind her that words had also brought her to life”. This line shows how Liesel’s journey from learning in the basement to reading her stolen books and to eventually writing her own story gave her something to focus on during the testing times of Nazi Germany and “brought her to life” not literally but figuratively. Liesel discovered who she was and she was no longer “the book thief without the words”
Zusak personified words to have’ brought her to life’ to show how humans are able to find something to use as a coping mechanism when facing troubling times, by showing that Liesel used words as a way to weather the horrors of the war in Germany and how it was impacting her life.

Another time, when the importance of words is shown through personification, is near the end of the book, when Liesel’s words ‘saved her life’. When Himmel Street was bombed, Liesel was writing in the basement and the only survivor from Himmel Street. “She was holding desperately on to the words who had saved her life”. Liesel was not literally holding onto words, but she was holding on to her black book that contained her words and her story. Her words meant that she was in the basement and safe from the bombing, and the only survivor from Himmel St. This is the second time in The Book Thief that words saved a life. In WW1, Hans wrote letters instead of fighting and was the only survivor from his ‘platoon?’. Zusak is emphasizing the power of words by using them to save Hans and Liesel’s lives.
Zusak personified words in the Book Thief to show how words gave Liesel purpose in life and a means to manage the horrors of Nazi Germany and words also became the thing that saved her life. This shows Liesel’s complicated relationship with words and the impact they had on her life growing up during the war.

Zusak personifies words in order to elevate their meaning in the text and show the reader their importance and effect on the main character, Liesel Memingers life.

Maybe add in Liesels quote ” The Fuhrer wouldn’t exist without words”?
Add in the theme of how words save lives ( saved Hans from WW1 , saved Liesel from the bombing)

In Max’s story The Word Shaker, ‘great forests of words” were planted by the Führer in order to signify how he was able to use words to control a nation. Under his rule, the German people were manipulated and controlled into believing what he was telling them, thus Zusak used words to show that “It was a nation of farmed thoughts”
This makes it easy for the readers to understand the power that words have on the world

The irony of Markus Zusak’s emphasise on words is that he is using words to show their importance.

The irony of this is that The Book Thief is just a series of words strewn together by Markus Zusack, but similar to how Liesel uses words to discover herself and create her own story, Zusak has used words to create a story for us.

Macbeth Act 2, Scene 2 – Is this A Dagger?

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5: Unsex Me Here

Death
” I studied the blinding, white snow sky who stood at the window of the moving train. I practically inhaled it, but still I wavered, i buckled, i became interested in the girl”- Metaphor of the sky
” A small soul was in my arms”
“I clearly remember that my breath was loud that day” – Surreal
“A packet of souls”- Surreal

I wanted to stop, to crouch down. I wanted to say ‘Im sorry child’. But that is not allowed” – Death feels emotion towards a human, How is this possible or allowed
“The cemetery welcomed me like a friend”
“Like most misery, it started with happiness”
“And it would show me, once again, that one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death”
“I guess humans like to watch a little destruction.”
“I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think they’re running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me ” – soldiers running towards death
“In the darkness of my dark beating heart” – Personification
You see? Even death has a heart” – Personification
“Three examples, if nothing else, will give you the ashen taste in your mouth that defined my existence during that year.”
“So many humans, so many colours”
“There are soft, coal coloured clouds, beating like black hearts”
“For me, the sky was the colour of Jews”
“Please believe me when I tell you I picked up each soul that day as if it were a newly born, I even kissed a few weary poisoned cheeks”- Personification . Death convincing us he is good
Sometimes, I imagined how everything appeared above those clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye” – Aryan race
” I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race- that rarely do I ever simply estimate it”
All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Memimger and tell her the only truth I truly know… I am haunted by humans” – The Book Thief addresses the corruption of the human race by addressing a traumatic time that happened in the world, the Nazi Holocaust.

“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. Its his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry” – about Rudys death

Liesel Meminger- The book thief
Death saw the book thief 3 times
1. WHITE – When her brother died
2. BLACK – Years later at a plane crash
3. RED- After Himmel St is bombed

“A girl made of darkness”
” When I recollect her, I see a long list of colors, but its the three in which I saw in her flesh that resonate the most”
“The book thief had struck for the first time the beginning of an illustrious career”
Words : “She was the book thief without the words”
“It’s hard not to like a man who not only notices the colors but speaks them” –Liesel about Papa
“And another ten minutes, The gates of thievery would open just a crack, and Liesel Meminger would widen them a little further and squeeze through”
“Would the gates shut behind her or would they have the good will to let her back out?”
“A book was eating her up” – guilt of stealing from the fire?
“Whatever reason, they were huddled amongst the ashes, shaken. Survivors” – same as death sees human survivors but Liesel sees book survivors.
“The book was starting to burn her, It seemed to be igniting”
“How fitting it was that she was discovering the power of words”
“A girl treading water”
” The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words”
Magical: “Immediately. Her brother was next to her. He whispered for her to stop, but he was too dead, and not worth listening to.” …” She shoved th boy down the steps, making him fall….Her brother holding his knee disappeared.
Words: “She was holding desperately on to the words who had saved her life” – Liesel was in the basement writing when the bombs hit. Words, her words, saved her.
Words: “The words. Why did they have to exist. Without them, there wouldnt be any of this, the Fuhrer was nothing.
What good were the words?
Words:” I was just so angry and afraid and I wanted to kill the words”
Words: ” She gave her a reason to write her own words, to remind her that words had also brought her to life”

Hans Hubermann-Papa
“He had already cheated me in one world war, but would later be put into another where he would somehow manage to avoid me again” -DEATH
“Liesel upon seeing those eyes, understood that Hans Hubermann was worth a lot”
” Hans Hubermann belonged to that 10%” – That didnt suppport Hitler
Words: “Each word fell away at its edged. It broke off and formed the next” – Leisel stole The Shoulder Shrug and it is of some importance ( “Something happened”
“The man was seeing something. He was watching it quickly. end to end, like a race, but it was too high and too far away for Liesel to see” – Surreal??
“His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do- the best ones”

Rudy Steiner– Friend
“Insane or not, Rudy was destined to be Liesel’s best friend”

Ilsa Hermann– Mayors wife
First introduced: ” standing fluffy haired and shivery in her enormous cold aired doorway. Always silent. Always alone. No words. Not once”
“The shadows hands were in is coat pockets. It had fluffy hair” – Isla saw Liesel steal the book of fire.
“If it had a face, the expression on it would have been on of injury”
“A broken woman”
“Something like the imagined breath of a corpse” – surreal
“She looked so vulnerable in the monstrous doorway”
“She stood with a delighted crookedness. A smile appeared to have paralyzed her lips”
“The mayors wife bruised herself again”- what does this mean??
“She usually paid more attention to what was next to her, at something missing” – her son
“He is nothing new in this world, He was my…”
“Isla Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph”
Words: ” Cuts had opened up and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin. All from the words. From Liesel’s words”

Max- the struggler, a Jewish fist-fighter
“Hans Hubermann. Again, he spoke to him, to the distant stranger. He pleaded. Please
“When death captures me, the boy vowed, he will feel my fist on his face, I quite like that. The stupid gallantry. yes. I like that a lot” –
Personification Death is naive.