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.

Intro
Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief is set in Nazi Germany 1939. Throughout the novel there are many references to the power of words towards the Nazi ideology. He does this by using language features such as metaphors and symbolism to show how to challenge our view of the citizens of Nazi Germany. They lived in our society like our own but were indoctrinated by the figureheads of their nation to their own beliefs. This was done by the sheer power that words can contain, and how a few swayed a whole nation.

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief shows us how vulnerable our society can be in colluding to atrocities by reframing. This is done by reshowing events of the Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century in a new light. Characteristics of some characters are used to give us a deeper insight into the true reality of the citizens of Nazi Germany and how they were not all bad people and that they were much like us, only they were suppressed from voicing their opinions or creating a argument.

Purpose of the Book
Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief shows the idea of how vulnerable society can be in colluding to atrocities by reframing and reseeing the events of the Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century. It is written in the genre of magical realism which helps the reader see something familiar in a new light.
Characters such as Death, Rudy, Hans and an old painter show how a society like thiers is much like our own. It also gives us get a deeper understanding of life in Nazi Germany and how most of the German population were not bad people but were manipulated by Nazi society. This also shows how vulnerable society like ours are to this.

Analyse how one or more characters increased your understanding of setting

The character of Rudy shows us the nature of

How could she walk? How could she move? That’s the sort of thing I’ll never know, or comprehend

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief shows us that many German citizens during the Nazi rein by showing were not evil people as preconceptions might tell us but rarther normal human beings. This is shown through many characters throughout the book. “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 in which they gain trust for one another. We see selflessness that Hans shows when we find out that the adopted child is from a communist father who was taken by the Nazis as they do not “fit” in the nazi society. This puts Hans in a dangerous situation by keeping a child with this “blood” as if the Nazis found out he was hosting her he could face serious charges and perhaps death. This shows Hans’s selflessness by risking his lifestyle and what little resources he has to help a girl who may otherwise be doomed. This shows us that there indeed compassionate people in Nazi Germany.

Hans does not give up or alter his morals as many other German citizens did in Nazi Germany through fear. He did not hate Jews. This shows that not all Germans were bad but were suppressed so most were forced to

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.

I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sandcastles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate

I am Haunted by Human

The novel continues to show us the normality“I was being Jesse Owens.” He answered as though it was the most natural thing on earth to be doing” Rudy’s naiveness to the Nazis hatred towards “blacks” shows us. This further shows us that not all germans

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief shows us that not everyone carries the harsh Nazi views in Nazi Germany by showing us a kid who dresses up as his hero. “I was being Jesse Owens.” He answered as though it was the most natural thing on earth to be doing”
Rudy dresses up as Jessie Owens by painting himself black when he goes for a run and he does it without the knowledge of the danger of he’s putting himself in.
This is dangerous in a society such as Nazi Germany because to them black people of a lower class and in many cases were taken away.
Rudy’s nativity to this fact shows us that although they are ruthlessly taught the Nazi ideology throughout school, it doesn’t stop him dressing up as his favourite hero who doesn’t fit there society. Rudy’s friends know that its dangerous and are struck by fear when they realise what he is doing because they know what he is doing is insulting in the eyes of the Nazis. Although they don’t say it allowed

Conclusion
Zusak has shown through the novel how the citizens within Nazi Germany were indoctrinated into their beliefs and were forced into the suspension of their own beliefs. This was done by the extensive control the government had over media, products and leaders. However, comparing our society to Nazi Germany we can see many similarities.

Explain how our society is much like Nazi Germany and ho we are also vulnerable, Use examples such as social media for how we are being manipulated, Explain how Zusack was successful by using the genre of magical realism by deaths god view

Kommuisten… A single word leaned against the girl

I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result

There is Death… On the surface: Unflappable, Unwavering. Below: Unnerved, untied and undone.