Mortality In The Book Thief

The second main influence on the theme of mortality in the story is the narrator, Death. To begin with, throughout the story the narrator often delivers blunt comments about dying that often trigger deeper thought from the reader. An example of this comes from the prologue of the book, during which the narrator comments, “You are going to die.” (Page 3). Later on the same page, it adds, “Does this worry you? I urge you- don’t be afraid.” When the narrator makes such a sharp comment, one cannot help but to be drawn in by the thoughts of death presented by the author. This causes the whole book to have a looming sense of what’s beyond life, just because of the ways that the narrator speaks on death. Next, Death often uses foreshadowing of a character’s …show more content…
In the first fifteen years of her life, Liesel suffers more loss than some do in their whole life, which definitely pulls the book into the theme. To start, Liesel’s first and one of her more influential losses is the witnessing of her brother’s death, which impacts her greatly for much of her young life. Mentions of her brother begin to pop up in the form of nightmares; one such dream is found early on in the book and is written as, “Every night, Liesel would nightmare. Her brother’s face. Staring at the floor.” (Page 36). When Liesel’s brother passes, she has nightmares similar to this for a great portion of the first half of the book. Each time a nightmare is described, the reader is reminded of how much sorrow little Liesel is feeling without her brother around, and the mortality theme shines through. Another moment that shows Liesel’s contribution to the mortality theme of the book is found near the end of the book, where the text reads, “Papa- the accordionist- and Himmel Street. One could not exist without the other, because for Liesel, both were home.” (pg.538). In the moment that Liesel loses Hans, her father figure, the loss feeling is concrete in the book. The sorrow that Liesel feels glows through the words describing her reaction. With each blow that Liesel takes to her family, the theme becomes more and more clearly about mortality. Lastly, Liesel’s departure from the world tops off the theme. As Death talk with Liesel, one quote on page 550 describes, “The fingers of her soul touched the story that was written so long ago in her Himmel Street basement.” After Liesel’s passing, she has a few moments to converse with Death and revisit the autobiography that she began to write when she was younger, the story of The Book Thief. The fact that the core of the book was something that was brought to Liesel after her death is a solid

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