The Book Thief Death Analysis

Markus Zusak’s poignant novel The Book Thief chronicles the struggles of a young bibliophile who suffers great losses during the time of the Holocaust. Death trails Liesel Meminger as she slowly develops literacy and a passion for pilfering novels. The theme of death recurs throughout the novel as it presents itself continuously within tragedy and suffering. The presence of death reveals itself to the book thief within both celebration and mourning as her life of words cycles on. In a state of partial sleep, Liesel “could see without question that her younger brother, Werner, was now sideways and dead… [for] his blue eyes stared at the floor seeing nothing” as Death tenderly “knelt down and extracted his soul” (20-21). The book thief’s primary encounter with Death would always stay with her as she watches her sickly but beloved brother depart from this world in a train carriage. Liesel senses Death’s presence as she gazes at the dying pilot and the two “recognized each other at that exact moment” from the scene of “a train and a coughing boy [as Death] slowly extracted the pilot’s soul from his ruffled uniform and rescued him from the broken plane” (400-401). An intimate sharing of identity occurs as Liesel faces the sight of death’s mark on humanity alongside Rudy and recognizes a sense of solemn passing in this occurrence. This passionate adolescent witnesses death at its climax as she sees “the bodies of Mama and Papa both lying tangled in the gravel bedsheet of Himmel
Grief and a sense of the tenderness of death assimilates itself throughout the tale of Liesel Meminger and hearkens us to what will one day be the fate of all. In conclusion, death possesses an omnipresent outlook within this novel and exemplifies the tragic unfolding of the life of Liesel