Essay Sample: The Theme Of Death In The Book Thief

“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills,” - Chinese proverb. Other perspectives help impact a community by changing the way a group of people or a single person may think or act about an issue. In the book The Book Thief, Death, who narrates the story, relives the life of a girl named Liesel Meminger and all of her life experiences. Death explores multiple perspectives, which lead to new issues that the characters have to deal with, showing how perspectives can lead to people either being healed or hurt.

In the beginning of the book, Liesel is taken to her foster home, where she meets Rosa and Hans Hubberman. When she arrived, she refused to go inside, and after they got her inside, she refused to bathe. The only person who was able to get her to do anything was Hans because of his different perspective of how to deal with the issue of Liesel not listening. Rosa would yell at her and call her a filthy pig while trying to convince her to get into the bath, which naturally made Liesel more scared. Hans, however, used a calming voice and distracted Liesel by teaching her how to roll a cigarette. Death states that she still didn’t have a bath, but that hour-long cigarette lesson would lead to an amazing relationship between Liesel and her foster father. This shows that Rosa viewed Liesel as a child that needed a bath, and she resorted to yelling in order to get her in the bath, which did not work, but because Hans took an alternate approach of a distraction and a kinder, quieter voice, he was able to get Liesel to open up a bit more, which shows how each of their perspectives of the situation affected Liesel.

Another example of this would be closer to the middle of the book, when the Hubberman family allows Max to stay in their basement. This shows the alternate perspectives of the Hubbermans compared to the perspective of the Nazi party. Throughout the book, we are made aware that Hans Hubberman doesn’t think the Jewish people deserve to be treated the way they are. One example of this is when he allows Max Vandenburgh to stay in the basement, stating that “he couldn’t join a party that antagonized people in such a way.” The other perspective of this issue is that of the Nazi party, who believe that all the Jews deserve to be punished and killed. An example of this comes later in the book, when a troop of Nazi’s march Jews down the Main Street of Molching on their way to the concentration camp, Dachau. At this time, many people stand on the street, yelling profanities at the Jews, but Hans decides to give one of the Jews a piece of bread. This shows that while the perspective of the Nazi’s results in communities consumed by hate and resentment towards the Jews, while Hans perspective showed Liesel how to be compassionate and help others around her.

One last example of this would be the perspective Death has of the people and the perspective people have of Death. Throughout the book, death explains how collecting people’s souls is saddening and hard to do, so they use the colors of the sky as a distraction, showing their perspective. While people tend to have a fear of death, or may even be angry about the people who die, blaming death for their loss. One example of death’s perspective would be when they talk about how they feel guilt for the survivors, saying “I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind.” Death also states that they are only a result of what happens to you, they have nothing to do with your demise. An example of a person's perspective of death is when death has to take away the people around them, and all they can do is ask “Why me?” This shows the anger and resentment people have towards death when they are the only ones left. These examples show the contrast of perspectives between death and the people. The lives of the survivors causes death to distract themself by looking at the colors of the sky, while the loss of their loved ones is blamed on death.

The alternate perspectives of people impact a community by changing how people may think or act about an issue. Throughout this book, death introduces many different perspectives, from the Nazi’s, who torture and kill the Jews, to Hans Hubberman, who tries to help them. These perspectives led to many people being hurt or healed as a result of how the people around them think or act.