Similes In The Book Thief

Award winning novelist, Mark Zusak, in his novella The Book Thief (2005), explains that fear in Nazi Germany was widespread World War II. His explanation is illustrating through allusions, highlighting the fact that fear was rampant through similes, and displaying fear through oxymorons. The purpose of this novella is to exhibit fear in order to reveal the life of Germans in the 1940’s. Zusak’s somber, yet comedic, informal novella to young readers shows the angle of German citizens during World War II and the fear during that time. Zusak begins with allusions which were used to show fear by looking into an alternate reality or the past. The first example in the book is seen in Max’s mind during the boxing scene with Hitler, “Max, who stood alone in the challenger’s corner”(251). This shows the fear present inside of Max about Hitler and the whole time period in general. Not only is he in hiding, he is, in his dreams fighting all of Germany in his dreams feeling the weight of the entire country on his shoulders. Another example of this is
Since fear was rampant throughout Nazi Germany the nighttime of many Germans could be described as, “Nightmares arrived … much like the best player on the opposing force”(220). This shows the constant fear present in the country at that time by relating their nightmares to a person that always shows and one that seems to always win. The second example takes place when officers came to Rudy’s house to inform him he is, “The Perfect German”, in the quote, “The dominoes were falling like dead bodies in the living room”(410). This shows fear through two methods, one being the word choice and the setting. The second reason for the fear is it shows that Rudy is maturing, going from a childhood game to death. Both of these quotes relate to the fear present, especially in the children of Germany, who know very little else other than