Narrator:
The Book Thief is narrated by an extremely overworked being who identifies himself as "Death". He goes about describing his work as doable, yet not pleasant or nice. He lurks from place to place with the relatively menial duty of carrying away the souls of the recently deceased, bluntly just taking them out of the rotation. Just like the quote above, Death gives himself quite humanistic characteristics, saying that his job is rather being, and not as much supernatural. During one part of the story, he's collecting souls in his "[...] fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the children I carried in my arms." (p.336)
Death had a purpose, just like the rest of us. But his motive was to send us to our final purpose. Unfortunately, Death's plan was his job, which he viewed as an endless nightshift with no promotion. His job was emotionally demanding yet unrewarding. Even though death is not an omniscient narrator, he doesn't see and hear everything. He gets his information from personal experiences and through his chief source: the book Liesel writes about herself. He interweaves his larger context with the story of Liesel and the people she has loved and lost. It's almost as though Death and war were best friends. War is like the boss at your shoulder wanting more, and Death is this fatigued, weary character who is haunted by what he sees humans doing to each other.
"They Say that war is death's best friend,
but I must offer you a different point of view on that one.
To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible.
He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing. Incessantly:
'Get it done, get it done.' So you work harder.
You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you.
He asks for more." (p.309)
but I must offer you a different point of view on that one.
To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible.
He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing. Incessantly:
'Get it done, get it done.' So you work harder.
You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you.
He asks for more." (p.309)
In the prologue, Death takes on a sarcastic and cynical tone as a he goes about addressing the reader and describing his work. However, as the story continues, Death starts to convey the dramatic events in Liesel Meminger's life. Markus Zusak decided to use Death as the narrator because not only could he provide Liesel's point of view, but also information that Liesel, who was a young girl in a rather isolated town, wouldn't know about. Zusak could have just used a third-person narrator, but by using Death we are given snapshots of WWII outside of Himmel Street as well as a unique perspective on all the death occurring during this historical period.
Death explains that he intentionally notices colors as opposed to bodies as a way to sidetrack itself from the survivors, which Death sees to be more tragic than the actual dead. Death briefly reveals the three incidents in which he will be encountering Liesel Meminger by foreshadowing three events scattered throughout the book. The first is Death taking the corpse of Liesel's brother, describing the snow as a blinding white. The second is ash from the bombs from the multiple air raids, which was black. And the third is a fiery sky of a massive bombing raid. "The last time I saw her was red."
Death explains throughout the book that the three colors evoke his memories of Liesel: a red blot, a circle of white, and a swastika for black. We believe that Death has a bit of a blurred vision and can only really pinpoint death itself or the nazi flag. These are the symbols of the nazi flag, suggesting that nazism is accountable for all of the deaths.
Death explains throughout the book that the three colors evoke his memories of Liesel: a red blot, a circle of white, and a swastika for black. We believe that Death has a bit of a blurred vision and can only really pinpoint death itself or the nazi flag. These are the symbols of the nazi flag, suggesting that nazism is accountable for all of the deaths.
Death allows you to see the in-between of good and bad. Normally, when you read a book about the holocaust, it tends to focus on bad Germans, concentration camps, Jews dying or in hiding - but Death as the narrator allows you to get a different viewpoint: not all Germans were supporters and lovers of Hitler.
"I carried him softly through the broken street, with one salty eye and a heavy, deathly heart." Rudy got to him, and so did Liesel. It was almost as if Death grew fond of Liesel and the people who surrounded her. As he said before, Death wasn't a grim creature with skull-like features that carried a scythe, but more so the person looking back at you in a mirror. Death had a heart. He was endlessly fascinated by Liesel and her story. Throughout Death's time working, he occasionally bumps into some of the most inspiring people that help his work become a little more meaningful. An example would be Liesel. For every loss and struggle Liesel has to conquer, we see a new side to Death. With that being said, we start to see that Death is a limited omniscient character: even with the knowledge that he has, Death always shows some kind of stupefaction of what the human race can be. Even though he is haunted by them. "The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and their worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both." (p.491)