Analyse how one or more characters increased your understanding of setting

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief characters are used to challenge our preconceived idea that the people of Nazi Germany were evil and responsible for the holocaust. The text exposes the suppression and control that the Nazi party had over their citizens during the Nazi Rein and therefore shows us the mindsets and sacrifices the citizens made. Ultimately we see how they were not all bad people and that they were people like us. This also shows the vulnerability that societies like ours are also capable of being brought to knees and being feed one-sided beliefs. This is determined through the use of three distinct characters who each play a very different role in the novel. One shows the suppression of the morals of an insignificant character shows the thoughts of the larger population. A hero who stands by his morals by defying the Nazi ideology but by doing so explains the dangers that come with it.and the omniscient narrator Death surreal view on the world.

The Book Thief explores the fear many German citizens possessed regarding bravery to speak out during the Nazi reign. This is achieved by showing the thoughts of a background character: “Somewhere far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out”. This quote uses the metaphor to illustrate a normal german citizen’s true morals, his true feelings towards the Jews as they make they way to a concentration camp. The itch that the German refers to exhibits his feeling of uncomfortableness as he watches the Nazis torture the Jews, however, he doesn’t ‘scratch’ this itch due to the fatal repercussions he may face as a consequence. When the German says he is “afraid of what might come leaking out,” it is suggested that he is far more uncomfortable than he may appear to be. The Book Thief challenges the preconceptions that all Nazis at the time of World War II were immoral and heartless people because although their actions are unjust, behind a despised uniform dwells a man uncertain in his country’s motives and concern for another race. The power comes with the thoughts of a
simple background character, whose role is seemingly insignificant,
which indicates that many people are not confined to Hitler’s reign. They don’t like what they are seeing but are paralyzed with fear as they know speaking out could give them the same fate. This lead people to see only what they wanted to see and live life as normal as possible. From a
historical point of view, we know this is true as the Nazis had slowly indoctrinated everyone into their beliefs, and anyone who didn’t like it and tried to speak out would be punished significantly or even killed.
This also shows how societies such as ours, no matter how safe they seem, are vulnerable to this same cause. Zusak tells when a hand as
unmovable and ruthless like the one of Nazi Germany’s has a hold over
your nation, then their thoughts are yours.

The heroes that lived in Nazi Germany took the biggest risks. Zusak shows us a character who does not sacrifice his morals for his own safety. Instead, he takes a silent, lonely step into helping those that weren’t as fortunate as he. He shows us that just because everyone else may believe in something doesn’t mean you have to. Zusak uses character whose strength comes through as kindness to illustrate this. “Trust was accumulated quickly due primally to the brute strength of the man’s gentleness“. The oxymoron of brute strength and gentleness highlights Hans’s kindness towards their newly adopted daughter of danger. We find out that this adopted child is from a communist father. Communists were considered a danger and a inbreed to the Nazis and just like all the rest of their ideas they fed it to the people of Germany. If Hans believed what he was told then he should hate this girl and the last thing he should do is look after her. However, Hans sees beyond what he is told and does not surrender his morals for his own safety. Instead, he takes the risk of looking after this girl, hiding her identity and share what little resources that he has with her. This does put Hans in a dangerous situation where he could face punishment. He also takes in a stranded Jew. This shows Hans’s selflessness by risking his life and what little resources he has to help people who may otherwise be doomed. Hans does not sacrifice or alter his morals as many other German citizens did through the fear that Nazis subdued onto them. Hans because of this is a hero who defies the Nazi ideology and gives us a glimpse to the heroes of nazi Germany.
However, as evident in the book these heroes are spread thin as most were not were simply too scared to face the consequences. The only way to stand up against this is if everyone rises up together and fight back in what they believe in which is asking a miracle when you feel like the only one. Markus Zusak shows us how our society is susceptible to this as going with everyone else in society is the natural, safe thing to do. In some ways, we are already going through this through things like social media where unknowingly we are told what to think even its just the simple stuff like what’s good to wear. It takes wisdom to realise when its happening and bravery to stand up to them.

The surreal, Omniscient narrator of the novel The Book Theif Death has the unique ability to be able to see everything that occurs where there is life. As we see throughout the novel Death is unable to understand why the Nazis did what they did but he also questions why very few people stood up to them and simply just bowed their heads. Death uses two guards as an example of this. “When it came down to it, one of them called the shots. The other did what he was told. The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one?”.
The guards are a metaphor for the people of Germany
Deaths view shows People just did what they were told by the superiors.
However, in reality, there were a lot more citizens than officers
Deaths view tells us that their were many people that didn’t like fully following the Nazis rule.
This shows how fear managed to cripple there society
This shows how Nazi Germany was unable to stand up against this
This shows the importance to stand up to something you believe in

Zusak has shown through the novel how the citizens within Nazi
Germany was indoctrinated into their beliefs and was forced into the suspension of their own beliefs. This was done by the extensive control the government had over media, products and leaders. This is also evident as we have brought up all our lives that the Nazis were evil people.