Death can be a very scary topic. Many people probably think of Death as the Grim Reaper. The way Death is portrayed in The Book Thief, he is tired and lonely. Death makes for an interesting narrator because he can be everywhere at once, is well versed in the inner workings of people dying, and bears a strange obsession with a book thief named Liesel Meminger.
Death saw Liesel Meminger three times in her life, each a different color. The first time he saw her the sky was a blinding white. Death had come her brother, who died on a train in a fit of coughing. The sky outside was a blinding white, the blinding white of snow.(Zusak, 6). When Death first met her, he became fascinated, with the person he would come to know as the book thief.
Death then met Liesel Meminger yet again, years after that first fateful winter night. The sky this time was black, and as he describes it, that moment was that at which it is darkest before the dawn.(Zusak, 9). Liesel comes to see a pilot who has crashed his plane near Himmel Street. Death again takes time out of his busy schedule to watch the book thief as her friend comforts the dying pilot. Death then steps in, loosens the man's soul, picks it up and slowly drifts away, with the sky still a violent pitch of black.
The final time Death meets Liesel Meminger, known to him still as the book thief, the sky is a deep, dark red.(Zusak, 12). The street on which she lives has obviously been blown to bits by an air raid. There is rubble and debris everywhere, with bodies strewn about. Liesel is holding a book, and Death again stops to study her, even though he has a heavy workload, having hundreds of souls to take to the afterlife that night. He knows that his job that night will be exhausting, yet he still does it. Death is correct on one important point-Who else is going to take his job?
Works Cited
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York City, NY:Alfred A. Knoph, 2005. Print.
7/10:
ReplyDeleteVery nice job discussing Death as the Narrator in The Book Thief, Chase. Your intro paragraph is very well-written and has a nice 3-point thesis statement. Be sure when you set up your organization that way that you follow that same order in your main body paragraphs.
Comments for Revision:
Wordiness: "The way Death is portrayed in The Book Thief, he is very tired and very lonely."
Fragment: "Because Death is right."
Consistent verb tense: "Death makes for an interesting narrator because he can be everywhere at once, is well versed in the inner workings of people dying, and bore a strange obsession with a book thief named Liesel Meminger." Be sure that you stick with one verb tense throughout your post. In this sentence you switch from present tense verbs (makes, is well-versed) to past tense (bore).
Be sure when you are quoting or paraphrasing to use in-text citations and include a Works Cited at the end.
9/10:
ReplyDeleteGreat job Chase--still just two minor changes to make:)
This sentence is still a little confusing/wordy. Maybe we can talk about how to revise it together tomorrow in the lab: "The way Death is portrayed in The Book Thief, he is tired and lonely."
Comma splice: "When Death first met her, he became fascinated, with the person he would come to know as the book thief."