The Book Thief_my contemplation

5pm. 10.04.2020

A small theory

“People observe the colours of a day only at its beginning 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 colours. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.” – the Death narrator

What matters when life and death are most concerned?

In World War II, Germany were among the powerful nations in the world, under the brutal command of Hitler. His notorious fame itself could be enough to scare anyone hearing of it. Pragmatically proven, citizens in Germany are enforced to follow whatever demand from the man. The injection of “serving the war” to become citizens of good manners spread across corner sin the nation, while millions of people hope to stay in peace. In that situation, it was not that people had many choice as how we can now, but it was they had no choice but to give up what they love. They might know in advance when taking the job that their life will end up dying with strangers, they never got the second chance to live a happy life. Supposed we live in war time, what might be the thoughts that come to our mind the most? Be strong to fight? Or how to have enough food to eat daily? This concept is actually ongoing as the epandemic COVID 19 crisis is shadowing the world. And indeed, all people care is where to buy food to eat, how to survive amidst social distancing. Yet, there is a girl called Liesel Meminger, or the book thief, who is portrayed to have endless thirst for books. She never says books are her dream or motivation but her actions throughout the turbulent trajectory illustrate how passionate she is to gain a life of knowledge, happiness and privilege to live. This is one of the features of the book “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, one of the striking novel making readers not able to escape from gasping and contemplating the time and space back then, about some fanatical Germans…

The story goes...

Liesel Meminger has an unfortunate and obsessing childhood. Her blood mother sends her and her brother to foster parents when she was only 12 years old because she could not afford to raise them. During the travel to her new home in Molching town, she faces the death of her brother by her own eyes because of the freezing coldness on the train. The image of her brother being dead sticks to her mind till the day she dies. During that event, she “steals” a book from the gravediggers for the first time. She then spends her time growing up with a mother expressing hatred and anger on her. Fair enough, he foster dad, Hans Hubermann acts as both her friend and teacher, gives her unspoken love and accompanies her book-reading journey. He is the only person in the crowd to give a Jew a piece of bread during their march on the street and ends up being whipped by the Nazi soldiers.

She starts to deliver laundry as an alternative role of her mother. She is invited to read at the mayor’s house which offers her space to read at the heaven of books. The second time Liesel steals book is on Hitler’s birthday when the town put books on fire for the celebration. She tries to make sense of their ridiculous behavior of burning books and she couldn’t figure it out.

Sometimes, she could not resist herself from hunger. She with her best friend, her neighbor, Rudy, join a team of young “thieves” sneaking into apple garden and got several proud accomplishments. At a point, she hears the news from the Mayor’s wife that they could no longer pay her for the service. She does not understand their broken situtation meanwhile her family is starving at the bottom of their wealth. She throws insulting words into the lady in the rage of the thoughts on her miserable childhood. She never appears as that rude in front of adults. She leaves the place in tears, then comes back several times to steal books.

One day, a strange boy called “Max Vandenburg”, a Jewish, came to live in the basement of her house, which twists her life forever. Max is son of her dad’s close friend fighting together in World War I. Getting to know Max, Liesel goes through hesitation, curiosity, alignment, joy and more fabulous emotions. They grow their feelings towards each other after stories being told. The stories about their dreams, their childhood, and especially the books they love. They read books for each other, and write about each other’s using words to convey their heart messages. The fate destined them not to say goodbye properly. Max left the house after 2 years of being harbored by the family. He thought he does not deserve what the family gives and accounts for. He understands his presence carries along burden for the family, both mentally and physically. They constantly argue where and how to keep him safe from the “Jewish seekers”. Yes, the only reason for all of the dread is that he is Jewish. All Jewish were being chased and killed by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSAP) led by Hitler that antagonized people. Raid constantly happen when the sergeants come over to scrutinize houses if they are sufficiently deep to set bombs.

Along the storyline, the book pictures a miserable and brutal wartime in German, demonstrating such eye-visualizing historical events. At the end of 1938, the Jews were “clear out completely” after the visit of Kristallnacht and Gestapo (Official secret police of Nazi Germany). Kristallnacht represents the disastrous violence by Nazis across Germany and Austria against the Jews that caused all of their property to smash.

The author used such master language to describe the surroundings in the middle of the battle. “Lucbeck was hailed with bombs. Next in line would be Cologne, and soon enough, many more German cities, including Munich.” “The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out, amongst the bodies”, “The sky was yellow, like burning newspaper”, “The sky was slowly taken from the stove”, “Earth was destroyed”, “shattered glass, obliterated shop, photo taken from wall and thrown to the floor”, “a mountain range of rubble”, “the red, hot, burning sky”, “dreaded witnessing of human outcry” “everything was apocalyptic” “the sky went on heating and showering ash” “the rubble climbed higher” “concrete hill with caps of read” “a beautiful tear-stomped girl, shaking the dead”.

The ending scene brought in a myriad of emotions, movement, sounds as a result of the bombs that kills the entire Himmel street except for Liesel, and Alex Steiner who was not there at the time. Liesel woke up and wailed for her dad, her mom, Rudy and the world around. It must be the worst feeling when she is the only survivor as opposed to all of her beloved people passing away.

“Outside, the world whistled. The rain was stained.”

The book projects readers back to the past through the storytelling voice of “the death”. Never before, the narrator, disguised as a real human, can confidently talk about humans without even breathing, yet with excellent observation and philosophy about human psychology. The author makes the death-narrator alive. That said, the reality might be harsher under his art of language. The reality of Nazi “dynasty” left imaginary memories in our head that makes us feel lucky to live in the current world. How pitiful it is for Jewish, the fist-fighters being hunted like animals while they are supposed to enjoy a normal life. The story doesn't end with the end of the war but the claim of the Death narrator that “in 1943, I was just about everywhere”. The last page jumps over to the old age of Liesel Meminger, passing by days of emptiness and missing for her loving ones…

#heavyheart

#escapism

#loneliness