Literary Devices: The Book Thief parts 5-8
Diction
"The glittering anger was thick and unnerving, but she toiled through it." (262)
Simile
Metaphor
Symbolism
Personification
Parallelism
Paradox
Juxtaposition
Zeugma
Litotes
Synesthesia
¨The town that afternoon was covered in a yellow mist, which stroked the rooftops as if they were pets and filled up the streets like a bath.¨ (170)
"Jewish blood was everywhere. Like red rain clouds on the white-sky canvas at their feet."(253)
"His thick blond hair massaged his head and his words manipulated Tommy's face."(269)
"Where Hans Hubermann and Erik Vandenburg were ultimately united by music, Max and Liesel were held together by the quiet gathering of words." (248)
"For Max Vandenburg, there was cool cement and plenty of time to spend with it. The minutes were cruel. Hours were punishing." (250)
"Liesel stopped breathing. She was suddenly aware of how empty her feet felt inside her shoes. Something ridiculed her throat." (178)
"It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me." (243)
"His mustache was knitted to his face." (173)
"Liesel, however, did not buckle. She sprayed her words directly into the woman's eyes." (262)
"The crowd vibrated, the bell still in their ears, and their satisfied smiles hurdled the ropes." (252)
"If the summer of 1941 was walling up around the likes of Rudy and Liesel, it was writing and painting itself into the life of Max Vandenburg."(277)
"White light lowered itself into a boxing ring."(251)
"Standing above him at all moments of awakeness was the hand of time, and it didn't hesitate to wring him out. It smiled and squeezed and let him live. What great malice there could be in allowing something to live." (250)
"The table could smell it on your breath." (257-8)
"'Alles Gute zum Geburtstag.' [Max] smiled weakly. 'All the best for your birthday.' His hands were in his pockets. 'I didn’t know, or else I could have given you something.' A blatant lie—he had nothing to give, except maybe Mein Kampf, and there was no way he’d give such propaganda to a young German girl. That would be like the lamb handing a knife to the butcher." (149)
"When he was alone, his most distinct feeling was of disappearance. All of his clothes were gray—whether they’d started out that way or not—from his pants to his woolen sweater to the jacket that dripped from him now like water. (250)"
"A sun that had broken through like God sitting down after he'd eaten too much for his dinner." (250)
"The crowd oohed, like human ghouls." (173)
"Late in February, she stood on Munich Street and watched a single giant cloud come over the hills like a white monster." (220)
"On the way home this time, [Liesel] imagined the fate of that paper the next time it rained, when the mended glass house of Molching was turned upside down."(264)
"For a long time, [Liesel] sat on the steps and watched Molching. It was neither warm nor cool and the town was clear and still. Molching was in a jar."(261)
"Liesel imagined what [Mama would] look like if she untied her bun, to let it fall out onto her shoulders. A gray towel of elastic hair."(264)
"Strings of mud clench [Rudy's] face. His tie is a pendulum, long dead in it's clock. His lemon, lamp-lit hair is disheveled and he wears a sad, absurd smile."(267)
"Seven. You roll and watch it coming, realizing completely that this is no regular die. You claim it to be bad luck, but you've known all along that it had to come."(257)
"Her brother was next to her. He whispered for her to stop, but he, too, was dead, and not worth listening to. He died in a train. They buried him in the snow. Liesel glanced at him, but she could not make herself stop. Not yet. 'This book, ' she went on. She shoved the boy down the steps, making him fall. 'I don’t want it.' The words were quieter now, but still just as hot." (180)
"[Liesel] was afraid to turn around because she knew that when she did, the glass casing of Molching had now been shattered, and she'd be glad of it."(263)
"When the reading petered out, Papa fell asleep. It was then that Liesel spoke what she’d wanted to say all along. 'Papa, ' she whispered, 'I think I’m going to hell.' Her legs were warm. Her knees were cold. "(266)
"At any rate, she decided, they could do their own blasted washing and ironing, like normal people. Like poor people."(261)
"The same pattern continued through the end of summer and well into autumn. Rudy did his best to survive Hitler Youth. Max did his push-ups and made his sketches. Liesel found newspapers and wrote her words on the basement wall."(282)
" Oh, the eyes, the Führer’s eyes. They were so deliciously brown—like Jews’ eyes—and they were so determined that even Max stood transfixed for a moment as he caught sight of them between the healthy blur of punching gloves. " (174)
"Diagonally across, Adolf Hitler stood in the corner with his entourage. His legs poked out from a red-and-white robe with a black swastika burned into its back. His mustache was knitted to his face. Words were whispered to him from his trainer, Goebbels. He bounced foot to foot, and he smiled. He smiled loudest when the ring announcer listed his many achievements, which were all vociferously applauded by the adoring crowd. " (251)
"Grimly, [Liesel] realized that clocks don’t make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave." (259)
"“In the blue corner, ” he quietly commentated, “we have the champion of the world, the Aryan masterpiece—the Führer. ” He breathed and turned. “And in the red corner, we have the Jewish, rat-faced challenger—Max Vandenburg.”" (251)
"She imagined herself walking over, gently tearing some fluffy hair to the side, and whispering in the woman's ear:" (246)
"You hide a Jew. You pay. Somehow or other, you must. In hindsight, Liesel told herself that it was not such a big deal." (258)
"'Goodbye,' the girl said, and slowly, with great morosity, the door was closed. Liesel did not
leave." (260)
"His ear infections and nerve damage were still contorting the marching pattern at Hitler Youth, which, I can assure you, was not a positive thing."(268)
Asyndeton
"Beig-colored skin. A swamp in each eye. And he breathed like a fugitive. Desperate yet soundless. It was only his chest that gave him away for something alive." (248)
"The smoky breath of Hitler steamed from his mouth as his hands bucked at Max's face, collecting him several times, on the lips, the nose, the chin - and Max still had not ventured out of his corner." (252)
"For Rosa, the few scraps of money had still helped in various alleyways. An extra hanfull of flour. A piece of fat." (260)
"She could already see the words dissolving letter by letter, till there was nothing left. Just paper. Just earth."(264)
"He had what he called just a small ration of tools: A painted book. A handful of pencils. A mindful of thoughts. Like a simple puzzle, he put them together."(277)
"Roll a die by hiding a Jew and this is how you live." (243)
"Liesel had never seen someone so miserable yet so wholeheartedly alive." (185)
"For a moment, Liesel longed for the reappearance of Arthur Berg. Or would he, too, have fallen under the leadership of Chemmel? It didn’t matter. Liesel only knew that Arthur Berg did not have a tyrannical bone in his body, whereas the new leader had hundreds of them. Last year, she knew that if she was stuck in a tree, Arthur would come back for her, despite claiming otherwise. This year, by comparison, she was instantly aware that Viktor Chemmel wouldn’t even bother to look back."(274)
“Although the front and back pages were streaked with black tears of print, she folded it neatly in half and tucked it under her arm.” (170)
"Fruit was out. Rudy snubbed his nose at onions and potatoes, and they drew the line at another attempt on Otto Sturm and his bikeful of farm produce. Once was immoral. Twice was complete bastardry. "(284)
"When Rudy caught up, she slowed a little in the vain hope of achieving a little more clarity. After all, the guilt was already there. It was moist. The seed was already bursting into a dark-leafed flower." (285)
The simile concluding this excerpt closely ties back to the course of events taking place around the Hubermanns in the time of WWII. Hitler and his Nazi party are vehemently against everything Max comes from and stands for, hence why he must remain in hiding. For Max to spread the influence of a man who wants the genocide of all who practice Judaism to a girl whose family is his last chance of survival would only add to the growing threat of being caught, if not guarantee it. This is analogized with a lamb aiding with the slaughtering process to show the potential danger of the spreading of Mein Kampf, and the irony in Max being the one to do it.
"Then she lay back down, leaned on him, and together, they slept, very much in Munich, but somewhere on the seventh side of germany's die." (266)
Zusak uses the words "black tears" to manipulate the imagery of bleeding ink seeping through a retired copy of Mein Kampf into a depiction that makes the former autobiography seem almost alive. The reader gets the impression that the previously imposing, historically sensitive print is bleeding out it's manipulative nature and it's author's hatred for the copy's current owner, and in turn making way for it's new purpose: The explicit expression of exactly what the book was published to detest.
"They carted his paint through town, smelling the hunger on some of the streets and shaking their heads at the wealth on others." (241)
The author uses synesthesia for this quote to illustrate how these streets really were. It sets the negative tone of how the people are living. One cannot actually smell hunger, but the quote being said like that adds a deeper significance.
The author wrote this quote like this to show the characters train of thought. there needs to be periods listing things as if they were bullet points to make the reader stop after every period to have a picture painted in the reader's head to see the scene. This makes the reader slow down and think of what's going on in this scene in the book.
There's the idea of life being a game, and during this time, people are playing by hiding a jew. Of course people are not rolling actual dice to see what's next, but there's a double meaning because it feels like these people are rolling an actual die because they're not 100% sure of what's going to happen next.
In this quote, Max and Hitler, who are completely different people on opposite sides of the spectrum, are being compared by saying how hitler is a "masterpiece" and Max being a "rat-faced challenger".This sets an image of how unjust the situation is since Hitler could be a rat-faced challenger instead of a masterpiece.
"I climbed through the windshield of the truck, found the diseased man, and jumped out the back. His soul was skinny. His beard was a ball and chain." (263)
This is a very self-contradictory statement but when you start to think about it, how can someone be miserable and so wholeheartedly alive at the same time? this contradiction, may prove something deeper to be true, being miserable in this situation and feeling so wholeheartedly alive can go together.
Liesel's brother symbolizes her conscience, or at least the part of her that is too shy and scared to fight. She knows deep down that taking out her anger on Mrs. Hermann will not fix or replace anything that has happened since the train ride at the beginning of the novel. This side of thinking is portrayed as her brother, whom she loves and misses. However, Liesel's dimissal of her brother in her fury shows just how hurt she is by losing everything she once knew. Her brother isn't really physically there, but her feeling of his presence heavily implies his role in grounding Liesel and his symbolization of justness.
"Roll a die by hiding a Jew and this is how you live." (243)
Zusak's personification of time shows just how excruciating it is for Max to live in hiding, despite it being the only other option besides persecution. Life itself has become so anxiety-ridden and dully repetitive for Max that he feels as though it is cruel for him to be alive, as if time is only working against him.
Lisel is trying to convince herself that it in not a big deal, but of course it's a big deal. In Nazi Germany, hiding a Jew was a huge crime where you would probably die, might as well go slap Hitler while you where at it since you're gonna die because you where sent to fight in the war, or to a champ.
The metaphor in this piece of dialogue is directly comparing Liesel's guilt with a blooming flower. The metaphor here shows how guilty Liesel already is. It isn't just starting, but it was already starting to happen. It is saying that Liesel's guilt IS a seed that was already bursting, directly comparing the two.
The parallelism in this quote shows that even though some people are brought together by their special talents and gifts, others are brought together by everyday things. Max and Liesel are both connected by words. Reading, writing, things almost anyone can do bring those two together. Thew way the quote is written is how the parallelism is shown. It's not repeating any two things, but rather it's two parts of the sentence that have the same grammatical structure.