This is an informal response: References to the text should be present, but quotes are not required
Perform an initial characterization for the narrator, Death, in The Book Thief through Part One. Describe what he may look like, his personality, and any other points of note that seem important about him.
What do you think of Zusak's choice of narrator for this story? Why do you think he chose this "being"to tell it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Theodore C
ReplyDeleteI think Markus Zusak's choice to have "Death" narrate his novel is brilliant. The character of Death is not corporeally bound to this world, so this allows him many more abilities as a character. Death has access to viewpoints of others, such as the daily nightmares in Liesel's bedroom. The only other character able to witness this account is Hans, but since Death is not a real flesh and blood person, he can be there in the scene as well. In addition, Death's view of colors seen in situations adds much more emotion to a scene that a regular character couldn't. And this is why I believe Zusak chose Death as the narrator. He adds so much more to the story that no regular character, such as Rudy or Hans could ever add.
Ian H.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator of The Book Thief, Death, appears to me as having the physical features of a tall, lanky man in his early 40's, graying pepper colored hair. He seems to have the emotional range of a teaspoon with chronic depression, and stikes me as having a personality to match. I think that Zusak chose Death as a narrator to set the overall tone of the book. How many happy endings could you possibly have, when the story is being related by the Harbinger of the Afterlife?
Courtney C.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Book Thief,” Death gives off the impression that he is compassionate towards humans, especially courageous people such as Liesel, since he selected her story to tell. On page 3, he described himself as cheerful, amiable, agreeable, and affable in his mannerisms towards the bridge from life to death of living creatures. In addition, he describes himself as fair, since one person cannot be given preferential treatment to live forever. Also, he says that he finds the human image of him with a scythe to be amusing, which means he doesn’t carry any weapon of some sort. I think he is an idealistic character with no physical attributes, which is why he is drawn to colors so much.
I think Zusak chose such a character to tell a story to be able to tell in a third person perspective that would allow the author himself to give some input throughout the story.
Claire O.
ReplyDeleteDeath
Through my prospective I see death as this scary looking thing like the grim reaper, but he has a very soft and gentle personality death, even though he is death. Death has compassion towards humans. When they are dying he has to look up in the sky for the colors as a distraction. He also says that one of his saving graces is distraction. Is almost seems like he has feelings towards humans because he is so interested in their stories.
I also believe that Zusak picked this “being” as a narrator because it is not common for something like Death to narrate a book. Death is very different and keeps the readers thinking when he gives them information that is going to be brought up in the book later. When you read it it’s like “Oh my gosh.”
Alyssa S.
ReplyDeleteI like Deaths personality and the way the Zusak portrays him throughout the book. I view Death as a grim reaper type of thing, something that is not really there. Death is just a bystander watching everybody’s life. Death tries not to see everything; he says that he cannot stand to see the survivors. He can be anywhere at any time in the book.
Brooklyn D
ReplyDeleteWhen I picture Death its a tall, thin male with white almost gray skin.He's not dressed in all black but he wears nice clothing with no color just dull. Death comes across as wise. He doesn't enjoy taking souls but it is his job. He exist for the distractions like colors or the stories from the souls he takes. He has a slight sense of sarcarstic humor and makes his own side comments that only death could make for example on page 79 "Liesel did not kill him. But she came close."
Zachary Z
ReplyDeleteDeath is an interesting character. He is a "man" who enjoys colors or sights, but I feel as though Death does not completely understand the fear that others have of him entirely as he takes away souls, undamaged by the crying humans that surround the dead bodies. Sarcastic, and witty would be two words that describe how he portrays the story of Liesel. Being the narrator, he entrigues readers about what is to come without spoiling the meaning of the events and thier importance. This would also be why Zusak chose him as the narrator. Because Death is a bystander to the story, only observing, but not interfering, he offers his own insight into the story, showing sympathy towards the ones who deserve it. Death has also been around since the begginning of time as indicated when he claims he could not give up his job when he has been doing it for long. This allows him to notice the perplexity of Liesel's story and the things that encompass her world. He is able to compare or stress the importance of points that would otherwise not be importnat.
Whitney W
ReplyDeleteI like the choice of Death as the narrorator because it is sort of an all knowing but not really knowing everything at the same time. It's almost strange beacause death knows some of Leisel's thoughts but only knows them if she wrote them down, and he doesn't know anyone elses thoughts. Death is very quirky and sarcastic and the little interludes of his own opinion or definition add to the understanding of the story. Death is not evil and in fact Death doesn't enjoy his work, but it has to be done. Death has a certian intrest in Leisel and meets her in his duties multiple times which means Leisel has experienced a death multiple times.
Zach P.
ReplyDeleteDeath is invisible, at least to humans. He describes himself as being able to crouch down and touch things, meaning he is in the shape of a man. However, he says he is amused by people envisioning him as the grim reaper, which leads us to believe that is not what he really looks like. Death has a to-the-point, almost whimsical view on the world and his place in it. He has an understanding of humans that seems to point out that he has never been one. That being said, he has criticized himself for being capable of mistakes, such as how he took interest in Liesel in the first place, meaning there is a human-like aspect to him. His ignorance shows that he is not omniscient. Death is the most creative narrator I have ever encountered in literature. It allows Zusak to tell what would have been a third-person story in a more interesting way, especially since Death is such a likeable character. Death is a fitting narrator for this story because of how many people died in WWII and the Holocaust. Death’s personality is almost a comic relief to such a dark topic.
Mary R
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Death, I imagine him as a grim reaper type figure, dressed in black with a long pointed hood over his head, causing his face to be invisible. Although in reality he probably does not look like that, on page 75 he says “(By the way- I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.)” For this reason that is how I imagine him. He seems to be very sarcastic and does not have any sympathy at all. He shows his lack of sympathy when he says, “Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me” (Zusak 3). He is obviously not human because he does not show the traits of humans, like being sympathetic and wanting to please others. His job of taking people’s souls when they die is the only thing he actually does, and he doesn’t really care about anything else. Death uses distraction to prevent him from becoming attached to any human being. I think Zusak chose Death to be the narrator so we could see the point of view from someone who does not show any human emotions, which allows us to generate our own emotions to the situations in the book. He may have also chosen him to keep the interest of the reader, or me at least, because I have never read a book from the views of a character that someone created to represent Death. He also gives a more surreal feel to the book, but at the same time a very real feeling, as if I were Death and I was witnessing all these things, like watching a movie.
Justin T.
ReplyDeleteDeath is a very interesting narrator. I think he looks like a ghost. He isn’t like your average “Casper the friendly ghost;” I think he is all black. He deliberately says he isn’t the general human idea of the grim reaper. Death doesn’t seem to enjoy his “job” particularly. He focuses on colors of things to try and make his job better. He uses sarcasm and a dry sense of humor too.
I like death as the narrator. He tells what is happening, while giving his own little spin on it. I like how he gets ahead of himself and tells what will come. It’s kind of funny that the first book Liesel stole was about burying bodies and our narrator is death. I think that Zusak chose death as a narrator to put an interesting spin on the story. He wanted to tell a story, but first person view of one character wouldn’t tell enough. Just using a nondescript narrator wouldn’t make sense, and wouldn’t make sense when Death tells us things that will happen later in the story.
Ethan T
ReplyDeleteOverall, Death seems pretty chill, but I don't like the way he tells Leisel's story. Death likes to say what's going to happen in a chapter at the beginning of every chapter, which makes most of the book feel redundant. Also, his personality tends to take away from the seriousness of the book. On page 12, Death describes a bunch of children playing hopscotch in the street and all of a suddenly kills them off with just two words at the end of that paragraph, and then says nothing else about it. His wise cracks and attempts to bring humor to the story also makes reading the more emotionally stressing parts of the book more difficult, such as when Hans and his son get into an arguement about the Nazi party on Hitler's birthday. Possibly because of his humor, Death also seems more interesting than Leisel's story and thus takes away from it. When I picture Death in my mind's eye, I see a skeleton wearing a black robe who drinks tea and enjoys boardgames, because he just seems like that kind of guy.
Zusak's choice of this narrator lets him show any bias he has more easily than a nameless, omniscient narrator. Because Death has a personality, it's okay for him to have opinions of things, and those opinions are likely going to be the same as Zusak's.
Sydney R.
ReplyDeleteI think Death's appearance is not visible, his presence can be seen everywhere, at any time, place, or single moment. I don’t view “him” as a person, or any living thing for that matter, and not even the Grim Reaper. I view him as an ordinary aspect of life, even though life and death are opposites; Death is a part of life. The reason Death may pay such close attention to colors is because he himself does not have his own color or shade, so he recognizes colors easily on other things. Death always describes the color of the sky, the shades of people’s eyes, and the flavors and shades of every tiny facet. “A Small Theory: 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-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my life of work, I make it point to notice them.” Death is a very witty, blunt, bold character with a lot of compassion, which is a strange thing to say. Since Death is typically perceived as a malevolent character in life, its weird to think he could be caring or compassionate, but I think his. Death says, “Please be calm, despite that previous threat. I am all bluster—I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result.”
Lynsey B
ReplyDeleteThe narrator in The Book Thief, Death, is a being that tries to see things through colors. He does have vision, and caring emotions which is why he has a fascination with a nine year old girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and a lot of thievery. Any soul picked up will be carried away in his arms, with a color perched on his shoulder. According to page four, “The only sound I’ll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.” He has stress and can relax when he sees a chocolate colored sky. Death is also sarcastic and witty. He adds his own comments to the story of Leisel Meminger which sometimes give little hints as to events soon to come.
In my opinion, I very much enjoy how Markus Zusak uses the character of Death to narrate this book. It shows the point of view in a very different way that I have never seen before. I think Zusak chose Death as a narrator because he did want to take on narration in a different way. In my opinion he succeeded.
Finishing my quote, "At that moment, you will be lying there(I rarely find people standing up).
ReplyDeleteAbby G.
ReplyDeleteDeath is an interesting and different character. He has an odd way of telling Liesel's story, by addding his own twist to it. When Death narrates, it feels like you're siting across from him and he is just sharing a story with you. It doesn't feel like you're reading his story, it feels like he is directly speaking to you. He frequently tells you what will happen later in the story, then informs you that you find out more later. Kind of annoying, but kind of fun. I can't decide whether I like Dealth's style or not. I feel the author's choice of Death as the narrator was a better choice than any other character would've been because he knows things that Liesel and other characters don't know. He not only uses Liesel's book to share the story, but also adds his own knowledge which is often important information that you need to know. Death seems to have a different opinion about the world then we have. He understands things that we don't, and teaches us some of those things. Death also is super happy and positive for having a job I consider horrible. He's a very interesting narrator and character. He has an odd way of doing things but it makes the book enjoyable.
Cheyanne H
ReplyDeleteI believe that Death being the narrorator really helps the readers understand what's going on without difficulty. He helps show what's going with each person, he knows everyone's internal conflicts and can discribe them with great detail. I enjoy the fact that he almost has a sense of humor with the reader and almost talks to the reader after each part.
Marissa R
ReplyDeleteWhen i picture death i picture something scary. I believe the author of The Book thief made death the narrator to show a completly different side of writing. Death is very witty and has a happy, positive outlook on things which is the complete opposite of how people see death. Death knows things that not even Liesel knows. He also uses Liesel's book to tell a story, so its like a story inside a story. I believe that having a narrator so different than people are used to creates a twist on the book. He's very interesting and does things in a different way which makes the book better than most other books i've read.