Ally Wentworth, Kristynn Krupp, Alana Spayd

A Schoenborn

23 September 2016

Summer Reading Comparative Essay

In literature, aspects of life seem to have hidden meaning, nothing is as it seems,

whether it is a sickness, weather, or even death, there is something else beneath the surface. In
both The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Obasan by Joy Kogawa, a reader can discover a
whole different story within the text, which can be discovered through the text How to Read
Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster.

As told in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, weather is always more than just
weather, it usually represents a feeling, or symbolizes what is to come in the book. Weather
symbolizes hard feelings and troubled times in a text more than it will represent good, but it can
represent both. When there is weather of any kind in a story, the reader should pay close
attention, it is a representation of something soon to come, and will help you understand the
story better. In the both The Book Thief and Obasan, weather plays a significant role, always
representing a feeling, but for each book, the feelings are different.
In The Book Thief, weather serves to exemplify a tragedy, or something bad to come.
When Liesels brother dies on the train in the beginning of the book, it begins to snow, and it is
freezing and snowing when it becomes time to bury the young child. From there, when the
reader sees snow in the book, or any type of bad weather, they associate it with a bad feeling,
or event to come. When Liesel is dropped off at her new foster parents home, there are curtains
of rain outside, yet another part of the book where bad weather is associated with strong,
gloomy feelings (Zusak, 27).
In Obasan, weather symbolizes a happier feeling, rather than sad. Naomi recalls a time
when it is snowing when her beloved uncle arrives home to their hut in the woods. Snow
represents a time where Obasan and her uncle are together, and it allows her to recall a happier
time. The weather portrayed in stories, does not always mean a form of precipitation, it can also
be within the color of the sky; there are many examples of this found in The Book Thief. What
color will everything be at the moment I come for you? What will the sky be saying? (Zusak, 4).
This is a superb example, that the sky is a representation of different types of emotions and
death. If the sky is dark, with many storm clouds, the reader can understand the the emotions
and events ahead will be gloomy and dramatic. In Obasan, when Naomi found out about her
mother, the night was flooded with darkness, and there were no stars in the sky. The conditions
of those nights tied together with the sadness that was felt when the truth about Naomis
mothers fate was uncovered.

When an individual is baptised, they are dunked underwater and when they rise from the
water they are clean. Not only are they clean of the dirt physically on them but according to
many religions their sins are wiped away and they now have a clean slate. However the
significance of baptism does not necessarily involve water. There are many examples of this in
The Book Thief, such as when Hans survives the war, Max arriving at Himmel street, and Liesel
surviving the raids. Part 10 begin with the chapter A end of a World. Notice how it says a not
the, this leaves room for the destruction of something but space for replacement, possibly a
new life or person. Rudy Steiner slept. Mama and Papa slept. Frau Holtzapfel, Frau Diller.
Tommy Muller. All sleeping. All dying. Only one person survived. She survived because she was
sitting in a basement reading through the story of her own life, checking for mistakes. Previously
the room had been declared too shallow but on that night, October 7, it was enough (Zusak,
498). The bombs came and hit himmel street and nobody knew, so everyone died except Liesel
who was the only person from her town pulled from the rubble. This is baptism because in How
to Read Literature like a Professor it says that So hes not just alive. Hes alive all over again.
Not only should he have died out in that storm, we can say that in a sense he did die (Foster,
154). Symbolically, thats the same pattern we see in baptism: death and rebirth through the
medium of water (Foster, 155). Figuratively one could say that the whole time Liesel was on
Himmel street she was underwater and the bombing were her rising up. She learned so many
way of life when she was with the Hubermanns and after the bombings and her time there she
was different. That life was now gone. Liesel went on to have a long and good life. She died in
a suburb in Sydney. Like her papa her soul was sitting up. In her final visions, she saw her three
children, her grandchildren, her husband and the long list of lives merged with hers ( Zusak,
543-544).
As mentioned before, when people are baptized, they become new people. In a way,
Naomi was baptized in Obasan. She gained a whole new perspective on life when she found
out about what happened to her mother. After she learned what had happened, the world
suddenly became dark and quiet. The night that the truth found its way into Naomis life, there
were no stars. She began to think more about all the family she had lost. My loved ones, rest in
your world of stone. Around you flows the underground stream. How bright in the darkness the
brooding light. How gentle the colors of rain. (Kogawa, 295)
Sensei reading the letters to Naomi could be considered the baptism. When he finishes
reading, Naomi emerges a new person.

Most of the time in stories when an important character becomes sick, or even dies, the
reader becomes sad and wonders why that had to happen. However, if the reader was to think
about it, the story would be totally different if that particular character was to stay alive and
healthy. Whenever tragedy strikes, it is for a reason. Certain illnesses and deaths lead to the
next important part of the story. In the book Obasan, Naomi would never have learned the truth
about her mother if her uncle did not die. It is interesting how the author of Obasan throws a
tragedy at Naomi in the beginning of the book so that she could end up growing closer to her
aunt.
Not only did this unfortunate event allow her spending more time with her aunt, Obasan,
but it also lead to the discovery of what happened to Naomis mother.
Theyre dead now, Stephen says.
Sensei nods.
Please read, Sensei, I whisper.
Yes, Aunt Emily says. They should know. (Kogawa, 282)
 That was the beginning of a conversation that would turn Naomis life around. It was
during this moment when she and her brother would discover the fate of their mother. If Naomis
uncle never died, that particular conversation would never have taken place.
In the Book Thief, the Hubermanns take in a jewish man named Max. They hide him in
their basement until one day he becomes deathly ill. Liesel had grown very found of Max, she
worried constantly about him getting better. So what all little girls do, she brought him presents.
These presents however were just little trinkets that she found it everyday life or had meaning to
her. Max came awfully close to dying but after weeks in bed he finally came back to normal or
whatever normal was during these hard times. Max getting sick was fairly confusing especially
since he didn't die or cause to many problems but Thomas C Foster states that Their choice of
illness is quite telling: each of them elects to employ a fragile heart as a device to deceive the
respective spouse, to be able to construct an elaborate personal fiction based on heart disease
(Foster, 212). Zusak had reason for making Max ill and that comes to light later on. Max kept all
of the gifts that Leisel gave him and to repay her, he wrote her a book with a story about her life.
She loved the gift and everything about it Liesel read and viewed Max Vandenburgs gift three
times, noticing a different brush line or word with each one (Zusak, 237). Now this may seem
pretty irrelevant but that book went on to save Liesels life. When the bombs dropped everyone
died except leisel. She survived because she was sitting in a basement reading through the
story of her own life, checking for mistakes (Zusak, 498). Max getting ill never involved heart
disease but there was a deeper connection to the story within that problem. Leisel just like
everyone else would have died if it werent for one of the book that she didnt steal.
After reading many books, people often wonder what the author was trying to say in the
text. By reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor a reader can learn methods that will
aid them to dig deeper in the books, understand topics more and notice that everything is much
more than what meets the eye. Weather, sickness, and baptism are just three of the many
examples found in each The Book Thief and Obasan, that help solidify Fosters findings.

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