Ah, I love stories where the author personifies Death. He (or she, but I’ll call it a he for convenience) gets such a bad reputation. The back of this book refers to the fact that Death will be very busy during the 1840’s during the times of WWII and the Holocaust. There is so much Death that it is mashed in the face of the people. He becomes a more fearful icon than ever, much like He was during the Black Plague when artists would depict him as a dark, evil figure.
But in one of the interviews on Markus Zusak’s (websitehttp://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/press.html ), it says how Death is weary. All he ever sees is sadness surrounding Death and the demands of his chore. And it seems he knows that war will bring about so much pain and suffering. But in the midst of all of this, he’s intrigued by this little girl, Liesel Meminger, who continues to escape the Nazis, and in addition, Death himself.
Death is also fascinated by color because it “distracts” him from his job (which he really wants a vacation from).
*It’s the leftover humans.
The survivors.
They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs. (5)*
I hear a tone of sympathy in Death’s description of these survivors. They are the ones he needs the distractions from and they are the reason why he wants to look for nuances in color around him, so he doesn’t need to focus on their plight.
*There were no books in the house (apart from the one she had secreted under her mattress), and the best Liesel could do was speak the alphabet under her breath before she was told in no uncertain terms to keep quiet. (39)*
The absence of the books in the household is significant to me. In a novel that focuses all about the power of words and language, it’s like the house has no expression. When Liesel is silenced it reminds me of Speak, which was all about how Melinda was silenced both in speech and, in her own perception, artistic expression.
But later, the step-father makes concessions for the absence of books, supplying a place on the wall that becomes like a book and a way for Liesel to associate words with the shapes. These shapes she will use as she is writing her own story much later on.
*”Communist.”
There were boardinghouses crammed with people, rooms filled with questions. And that word. That strange word was always there somewhere, standing in the corner, watching from the dark. It wore suits, uniforms. No matter where they went, there it was, each time her father was mentioned. She could smell it and taste it. She couldn’t spell it or understand it. (31)*
Like Death has with colors, Liesel has a special connection with words. Her senses pick up their meaning and nuances despite the fact that she herself can’t spell it or see it visually. This hints at how she will be able to connect with the books that she will steal later on. She will find specific meanings in the books and absorb their stories when the Nazis so easily dismiss them. She feels that it is important to preserve their emotional impact.
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