Book Thief Compare And Contrast Essay

It is the “willing suspension of disbelief or poetic faith” that people, particularly children, have which enable them to truly enjoy literature in a profound manner, and often times, it is the goal of the author to create a piece of matter which fosters this suspension in an effort to convey their message or theme (Bernett). In an effort to do so, they tailor their work to target audiences. With regards to The Book Thief and All the Light We Cannot See, my initial response after reading them was that they were remarkably similar, what with their World War II settings, their female protagonists, the theme of abandonment, etc. This sparked my interest and led to my desire to examine how the different age groups of each novels’ target demographic
At first glance, this seems to be an odd choice for a book that seeks to appeal to a younger audience because Death has a reputation for being cold and harsh; however, Zusak manages to make Death seem relatable by giving him a very human-like voice. Throughout the novel, Death repeatedly tries to convey that he can be “amiable” (Zusak 3), “bore[d]” (243), and even “haunted” (550). Giving Death this voice allows Zusak to create an unbiased and objective narrator who is genuinely believable, a quality which is imperative to any children/young adult book. Death, unlike our young female protagonist Liesel, can plausibly bring up questions of human nature, mortality, and the existence of God. For instance, take Death’s “Small but noteworthy note” that he’s “seen so many young men over the years who think they’re running at other young men [when] they are not. They are running at [him]” (174-175) which essentially questions the nature of wars and how futile they appear from Death’s point of view. Consequently, Death is the ideal mechanism for Zusak to foster these deep conversations with younger audiences without sounding too unrealistic. In fact, both younger and older audiences are likely to be intrigued by the choice of storyteller and the thoughtful issues brought up as a
Primarily, the narration goes back and forth between Marie-Laure, Werner Pfennig, and the Captain because the three main plot lines revolve around them. Each character has a definitive way in which they approach their stories and the tragedies that befall them. Since Marie-Laure is a both a girl and disabled, she is immediately set up for the victim track; she does not save anyone throughout the book and moreover often needs to be saved. Marie-Laure’s narration is often associated with sounds or smells because of her blindness, creating a unique opportunity for Doerr to use some creative imagery. Consequently, when she is in danger, she describes her predicament in terms of sounds and smells such as when the Captain is in her house, and all she can do is describe the sounds of his footsteps being “whispers” and how the house “smells entirely of smoke” (Doerr 303). Werner’s narration is arguably the one that changes the most over the course of the novel due to his close encounters with death for himself and for his comrades. Werner’s narration grows darker as the timeline progresses. Seven-year-old Werner “seems to float” (24) with his incredibly vast ingenuity while eighteen-year-old Werner has seemingly lost all faith in the purpose of life, walking into a land mine and “disappear[ing] in a fountain of earth.” (483). It should be noted that it is never