NARRATIVE SPACE OF DEATH IN MARKUS ZUSAK’S THE BOOK THIEF

Markus Zusak needed a narrator who could provide a clear insight of World War II outside of

Himmel Street. Zusak felt Death was the only character that could give a real impact of the

War to the reader. Death is inevitable and that is the most feared aspect of his character. In

Zusak's The Book Thief, death has been portrayed as a human feature. Analysing the

character of Death, he was travelling with the character of Liesel throughout the novel. Death

also introduces a unique description and definition of colours which makes the readers

engage into the events that occur in the book. ‘Death’ is a word that fills people’s hearts with

fear, terrible figure, sorrow and most hated words in their minds. But Zusak made it into

another character that gives the reader a positive thought. The narration of death makes the

reader imagine World War II and its horrific incidents. Death’s narration takes the readers to

the time of Hitler. This thesis deals with ‘The image of Death as a narrator and character in

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. Being a single character Death plays a vital role of various

features and makes a fruitful and spicy essence to the reader.

The unusual composition of The Book Thief combines the multiple types of narrators with

different literary techniques, which combine to produce a consistent text. The aim of this

chapter is to analyse the narrator, the narrative structure and literary techniques used in the

novel with special attention paid to the character of Death. As Death, throughout the novel

functions not only as a narrator but also as a character, so it is necessary to define both the

terms. In Chris Baldick’s The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, the term

‘narrator’ is defined as “one who tells or is assumed to be telling, the story…the narrator is

the imagined ‘voice’ transmitting the story,” (Baldick 166). The term ‘character’ in the same

book is defined by a simple phrase “a personage in a NARRATIVE or dramatic work” (...37).

These definitions suggest that a narrator can be both an imagined voice outside the story,

simply describing the plot, or also a character describing the plot and influencing it.

Death along with other narrators falls into the category of being a narrator as well as a

character in the novel. Traditionally, narratives are classified into three types according to the

person speaking: a first-person, second-person, and third-person narrative. The first-person

narrator narrates the story from the ‘I’ or ‘we’ point of view and speaks from his/her subject

position. It is usually the first-person narrator who represents both a narrator and character.

Third-person narrator on the other hand, is usually not a character in the story, he/she is

marked as an ‘observer’, describing the actions he sees from the position of a witness without

disturbing the story. There is also an omniscient type of narrator found in cases of third-

person narratives. An omniscient narrator has special privileges to access to unspoken

thoughts of characters and the knowledge of events happening simultaneously in different

places.

In the prologue, Death represents himself as first-person narrator, but the remaining major

part of the book is written in third-person narrative. The prologue, together with certain

chapters, and epilogue are stated by Death in the first-person narration, reflecting his views

and thoughts into the story. The change in the narrative voice itself is not artificial, a smooth

transition between the narrative perspectives is indicated in the last last sentences of the

prologue, “Here it is. One of a handful. The Book Thief. If you feel like it, come with me. I

will tell you a story. I’ll show you something.” ( Zusak 16). By making such a request, the

narrator prepares for the possibility of changing the nature of narration and also engages the

reader by directly addressing him/her – as he mentions that he is about to introduce Liesel’s

book, where Death will not stand as a narrator – signifying his interest in the reader. Such

interest indicates that Death, contrary to being distant, cares about the reader - the human,

regardless of the fact that he has no idea who exactly the reader would be, showing his
affection to humans in general. In contrary to the prologue of Death as the undisputable first-

person narrator, in the following story it remains unclear whether Death retells or even just

reads Liesel’s book – which he confessed to take from the garbage truck, where Liesel had

lost it – or whether he himself tells the story he already knows by heart, after reading Liesel’s

book several times. Yet in the end of the book, the reader can witness the only parts where

Liesel actually stands directly aa a narrator and that is represented only in a few paragraphs.

… PAGE 1 …

I try to ignore it, but i know this all

started with the train and the snow and my

coughing brother. I stole my first book that

day. It was a manual for digging graves and

I stole it on my way to Himmel Street… (... 559)

The passages in her book are written in the first-person and tells the same story that Death

presents to readers – as he knows most of the story only through the book – the passages

differ a lot from the actual The Book Thief. Liesel's narrative form is more brief, does not

contain as much figurative language as Death's narrative form, but mainly her first-person

narrative never directly addresses the reader. The deep interest in the reader, asking him/her

questions, confessing, asking him to trust the narrator is what makes Death's narrative form

special, highlighted by the different form of Liesel's narration. Liesel as the narrator wrote the

story for herself, while Death as the narrator wrote the story with special regard to the reader,

providing his interest in him/her. This insight into Liesel's The Book Thief denotes that Death

is in the position of the narrator even in the parts where he does not speak in the first-person

narrative, with an exception of the four paragraphs. Yet these four paragraphs are not the only

parts of the book where he loses the position. Another narrator is included in two separate

books inserted in the story.

When Death is established as a narrator of not only the direct parts with his first-person

narration, but also of the parts describing the book thief's story, there remains a question of

Death's narrative type in those sections, as it clearly differs from the first-person narration.

The narrative voices of Liesel's and Death's cannot be truly separated, as Death's narrative

voice is linked to Liesel's one so tight that their voices in many parts overlap. According to

the range of information provided by the narrator, which includes not only Liesel's thoughts

but also a large amount of information from the same time period, yet from geographically

very distant places, and also a large number of prolepses, the narrator could be easily

estimated, as it corresponds to the three main points describing an omniscient narrator in the

novel. The first sign of Death's possible omniscience are his testimonies from geographically

very distant places yet happening almost at the same time. In the book it is represented for

example by Death witnessing Liesel and Rudy's discovery of the dropped plane, as he comes

there to carry the pilot's soul away from the place of the fall, from Molching, Germany. Just

before that Death carries away another soul, Reinhold Zucker from Essen, where Zucker

served in the army together with Hans, almost seven hundred kilometres away from

Molching. However, all the testimonies have one common denominator which is at least one

dying person. Death never describes himself as present in a scene where there is no soul to be

carried away. Together with Death's statement "I'm in most places at least once, and in 1943 I

was just about everywhere." (... 574). Death appears rather omnipresent during the war, when

so many people die, than omniscient. Also, in all the scenes described he never seems to have

any knowledge in addition to the one he gains by being a witness of the events while waiting

for a soul or by reading Liesel's book. In the scene where Liesel's brother dies and Death

meets her for the first time, Death describes it by: "I wavered. I buckled -- I became

interested. In the girl. Curiosity got the better of me, and I resigned myself to stay as long as

my schedule allowed, and I watched." (... 8).

Death doesn't assign names to those who were nameless for both Liesel and him in the

position of a witness, referring to them only by using descriptive adjectives. On the other

hand, during the story, the names of characters such as Pfiffikus, who never actually

intervenes in a story. Liesel meets him in the street where Rudy tells her Pfiffikus' name as he

mocks his walking style and whistling, which signifies that Death as the narrator doesn't omit

any information. Concealing the names of the guards and telling the names of other marginal

characters would be counterproductive, as both names are of equal little importance, without

any interference in the story. Mentioning Pfiffikus' name and omitting the names of the

guards signifies that Death as the narrator simply does not know them. "And a man known

primarily as Pfiffikus, whose vulgarity made Rosa Hubermann look like a wordsmith and a

saint." (... 47).

The second sign of Death's possible omniscience would be his ability to note the thoughts of

a character, which he undoubtedly can as in "No, thought Liesel as she walked. It's my heart

that is tired. A thirteen-year-old heart shouldn't feel like this." (... 455). As Meir Steinberg's

study of omniscience suggests: "omniscience, being a superhuman privilege, is logically not a

quantitative and indivisible attribute; if a narrator authoritatively shows himself to be able to

penetrate the mind of one of his characters and report all his secret activities," ( Steinberg

282). However, throughout the entire book, the only thought the reader can read directly

belongs either to Death himself or to Liesel which signifies that Death is not able to look into

the human mind in general, he plainly knows Liesel's thoughts through her book.

Liesel's feelings and thoughts are well described in the original book narrated by Liesel in the

first-person narration, there are still passages in the actual The Book Thief where Death as the

narrator inclines to speculate about Liesel's state of mind as in "He never did explain it to

Liesel, but I think she knew very well that the reasons were twofold." (Zusak 326). The usage

of 'think' in this case indicates that Death should not be classified as an omniscient narrator,
as he is not able to follow thoughts of the characters unless they are spoken or -- in Liesel's

case -- unless they are included in her book. Contrary to that lack of knowledge, Death as the

narrator offers the reader stories from Max's youth, he mentions experiences Hans gained

during World War I, long time before Liesel's coming to Himmel Street. Such extensive

knowledge would fit the description of an omniscient narrator, yet even in this case an

explanation can be found in the book. It takes place in part of the story when Max comes to

the Hubermanns, seeking a shelter. Rosa and Hans realise how important it is for Liesel to

understand, to be able to keep the secret, so they "explained the First World War and Erik

Vandenburg, and then the visitor, the fallen soldier's wife… The book thief sat and listened to

Hans Hubermann's story. It lasted a good hour." (... 218).

It could be assumed that writing the story of her life Liesel would not omit the beginning of

it, which brought this knowledge to Death. Such assumption suggests that although Death

appears to be omniscient, all the knowledge he gains except for the events he witnessed

himself is indirect and has learned through Liesel's experience which she recorded in her

book. The human-like limitations of Death's knowledge can be most markedly seen in the

description of the story from Max's young years. In a chapter called 'A Short History of the

Jewish Fist-fighter', the narrator offers the reader a life story of Max Vandenburg, beginning

with his birth in 1916. The story of Max growing up is described in the third-person narrative,

in a descriptive and non-emotional way. Yet in one paragraph the narrative style changes. It

is when Max's uncle's death is narrated: "The light in the windows was grey and orange, the

colour of summer's skin and his uncle appeared relieved when his breathing disappeared

completely. 'When death captures me', the boy vowed , 'he will find my fist on his face.'

Personally, I quite liked that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes I like that a lot." (... 204).

It is the only part of the whole chapter where the narrator speaks in the first-person narrative

and also the only part where direct speech appears. These two points present that Death is not
an omniscient narrator, as he is able to record the exact words spoken only in the same place

where he was actually present, hearing the words himself, as he was there to carry Max's

uncle's soul away. The descriptive third-person narration stands for the information he knows

from Liesel's book. Although the direct speech is common in other parts of the book, where

Liesel appears as a protagonist, Liesel could include the exact words in her book, or they

could be estimated on the basis of her detailed description of the events she lived. The

absence of direct speech in the part of the story which Liesel knows only from Max's retelling

is yet another indication that Death knows the information which he did not witness directly.

The third sign of Death as an omniscient narrator would be the number of prolepses included

in his narration. The narrator's ability to know things from the future would be proof of his

omniscience, yet the fact that he retells an already closed story, commenced with a sentence

"I will tell you a story." (... 16). And closed with a sentence in the Prologue: "I should tell you

that the book thief died only yesterday. Liesel Meminger lived to a very old age, far away

from Molching and the demise of Himmel Street." (... 577). Death then represents both the

first-person and limited third-person narration, changing and intermingling during the story.

Death's narration in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief offers a new term 'performative

omniscience' for Death as for a nonhuman character who pretends to be omniscient as to

mask his humanlike narrative illusion. "Death teaches readers to interpret any attempt to

demonstrate authoritative knowledge as a performance, whether in the context of a novel or a

political power; and in exposing the performance, he calls attention to the constructedness of

perfect knowledge." (Erin 29). Death narrative knowledge is similar to human narrative

knowledge, limited to what he actually witnesses himself or what he learns from different

sources.

In addition to those two books embedded into Death's narration and occasional insertion form

of Death's comments and passages from other books, there is another phenomenon disturbing
the chronological order of events. In the prologue, before the actual story based on Liesel's

book begins, Death tells the reader about how he met Liesel three times, revealing the key

moments of his impending narrative in advance, including its ending.

Such literary device of shifting in time to the future is called a 'prolepses' or also flash-

forward. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Devices describes the term prolepses as a

Greek word for 'anticipation', having three different meanings. Describing prolepses as a

narrative device: "a 'flash-forward' by which a future event is related as an interruption to the

'present' time of the narration." ( Baldick 205).

As a part of the prologue, after introducing himself, Death describes the three times he saw

the book thief, mentioning three important points of her life, all linked to someone's death.

He does so through the colours of the sky, which he confessed to love and seek distraction in

when he is not able to stand to look at the wretched human destinies. The first colour is white,

just as the snow covering the railway line, where Liesel's brother dies. The second colour is

black, as the smoke was still floating from the fallen plane with a dying pilot inside. The last

colour is red, the narrator describes the sky as boiling and stirring soup, still coloured by the

horrors it has witnessed. The red-coloured prolepses stands for the end of Liesel's story, as it

represents the day when bombs fall on Himmel Street, killing everyone except Liesel, who

wrote her book in a cellar. She lost the book that day and Death found a story and he offered

to retell it.

Those prolepses highlight the saddest parts of Liesel's story -- the parts where Death comes to

carry away a dying soul -- not only from the backbone of the story, but also reveal a lot about

the narrator himself. Despite his statement that he keeps himself distant, usually without any

feelings for the living ones, stating those three key moments in advance, Death reveals that he

actually cares even for the unknown reader, trying to prepare him for such an ending.
Also, Death's interest in the reader, humans in general, is reflected by his choice to

incorporate the prologue to his narration. In The Book Thief, Death as the narrator retells

Liesel's story based on what he found. The actual story ends with bombs falling on Himmel

Street, yet the narrator assumes reader's desire for absolution. In the prologue Death states

that 'Liesel died only yesterday', such note would be natural end of the story from such

narrator's point of view, yet the prologue contains also chapters about Max and Rudy's father,

both important characters in the story, who weren't on Himmel Street during the bombing.

The chapters follow their reunion with Liesel, providing hope even in the darkest time,

soothing the reader. The whole narrative structure of the book is based on the prolepses. Not

only the three prolepses in the prologue form the backbone of the story, but prolepses can be

found as the articles of narrative construction also at the beginning of every one of the twelve

parts of the book, as the first page of every such part contains not only it's title but also a list

of names of every chapter included in the part. The names are highly descriptive, representing

short prolepses themselves.

PART NINE

THE LAST HUMAN STRANGER

featuring:

the next temptation -- a card player --

the snows of stalingrad -- an ageless

brother -- an accident -- the bitter taste

of questions -- a toolkit, a bleeder, a

bear -- a broken plane -- and a homecoming (Zusak 488).

The titles of individual chapters themselves do not bear much information value, however in

the context with which the reader is familiar after reading previous chapters they provide a

clear idea of what events the reader can expect. These prolepses differ from the previously
mentioned ones, represented by whole chapters. They also frame the story, creating a logical

pattern for narration. Yet this time their meaning seems more to hold the reader's attention, to

make him think about the story - what is there to come and how could it happen - than to

protect the reader from emotional harm. Still such prolepses reflect Death's relationship to

humanity as the narrator admits that he is aware of what he is doing by a short utterance:

Of course, I'm being rude. I'm spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of

this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don't

have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what

happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there aggravate, perplex,

interest and astound me. There are many things to think of. There is much story.

(Zusak 263).

In the passage, the narrator gives the reader one more possibility to become aware of him, for

those words, reaffirm that he no longer lies due to the fact he has no interest in constructing

the mystery. He then compares his knowledge -- even though being a partly omnipresent

being -- to the reader's one, which evokes the feeling that he does not perceive himself as

someone superior to humankind. Death's relationship towards humanity most permeates his

relationship with other characters and the reader himself/herself.

The relationship between Death and other characters, although usually very unidirectional

ones, are one of the key elements of analysing Death as a narrator, character and his

relationship to humanity in general. They represent the indirect characterization of Death as

his compassion, a sense of sadness from the fate of people during the war and desire to help

them contrast with his statements of being distant. Apart from those relationships, firmly

inscribed in the book, the unique form of narration also creates an environment for the

development of a relationship outside the book, between the narrator and reader.
The narrator often addresses the reader himself, speaking directly to him, asking him

questions. He cares about his opinions, he apologises, confesses, explains, shows that he

somehow needs the reader to understand his motives. Death's relationship to every individual

character as well as to the reader is unique, a bit different from the others and in everyone of

them.

At the beginning of the book Zusak's Death is portrayed as an eternal being, witnessing all

the human cruelty, all wars the mankind has ever held, with no possibility to have any

influence over them. Being only a witness with no chance to intervene forces him to seek

distraction from all the misery, to avoid looking at the sadness of the leftover humans. Yet

these are just these people who, from time to time, break through his barrier.

As part of Death's most extensive monologue at the beginning of the book it is dedicated to

those of his 'failures', which affected him the most, naming Liesel as one of them. Death

openly admits his desire to have hope for humankind and to be attached to some people, who

provide such hope. As well as the fact that he carries the small legion of such items in his

pockets, to have them always near, signifies endeavour never to lose such hope. He then

introduces Liesel, the nine-year-old girl who is about to meet her new foster family, as one of

"those perpetual survivors -- an expert at being left behind." (... 6) whom he happened to

meet 'three times.' In his own words Death describes the first meeting with Liesel and his

failure to stay distant as 'the most elementary of mistakes'. Starting with this meeting, his

attachment to Liesel intensified. For the description of the very first meeting, the narrator

uses rather neutral words such as "became interested" (... 8), he describes himself as passive,

just standing there watching.

As a sign of increasing affection, he contradicts his habits, allowing himself to become

active. He followed her away from his intended destination and even took her book out of a

garbage truck. Yet the most prominent evidence of his strong affection towards her can be
found in the last chapter of the book, presented by their short dialogue. The dialogue is

crucial for providing the importance and extraordinariness of the relationship, because even

though Death carries a soul away multiple times in the book, he never speaks to any of them.

Yet when he finally meets Liesel, he hands her the book she wrote and lost many years ago.

Liesel then asks him whether he could understand her book which he answered by:

I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could

I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? … I wanted to ask her how

the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words so damning and

brilliant. None of those things, however, came out of my mouth. All I was able to do

was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I truly know… I am haunted

by humans. (... 584).

The large number of contrasts, pointing to his perception of people from different angles of

view, his ability to see the beauty as well as the brutality, together with the usage of the

emotional word 'haunted' signifies that Death is not indifferent to people. That he can be

delighted by the beauty as well as harmed by the brutality. Also when Death describes the

meeting after Molching has been bombed, causing Liesel to lose her family and friends, he

finds her kneeling there, over the body of her best friend. The narrator begs the reader to

believe him of how hard it was, to witness such a scene.

Regardless of the fact that the extent of Death's desire to intervene, to help, is increased by

his emotional attachment to Liesel, his compassion for human suffering is noticeable and

undeniable. This scene indicates that the origin of Death's constant attempts to avoid

humanity do not lie in the lack of interest or narrator's unconcern, but signifies that Death is,

after all the horrors he has seen during all these years, simply afraid of caring too deeply, as it

is not in his powers to intervene, to help. Such a conclusion is also supported by the usage of

the strongly emotional word 'haunted', which Death uses in the last sentence of the book. That
direction together with the fact that despite all his efforts to avoid humanity, to watch the

colours of the sky instead of the survivors, Death is still failing to do so.

In this context it appears that the starvation after hope in humanity lies deeper. The nature of

his eternal mission is to carry away souls of the dying ones, putting him in the position of an

unintentional witness to the suffering of dying ones as well as survivors. However in case he

allowed himself to lose hope in humanity, in their life and Death being meaningful, he would

lose the sense of his own existence along with it, as his purpose is firmly tied to human

existence.

In The Book Thief, Death takes up a lot of space—not only as a narrator but as a powerful

being. In addition, he often places himself as being part of the story. Death claims to have a

heart, which sounds contradictory as it suggests he is alive. Blanchot writes "man knows

death only because he is man, and he is man only because he is death in the process of

becoming." ( Blanchot 337). In fiction, this notion of death being within us as a human

quality can be a reason for why Death in The Book Thief acts as though he has a heart.

Although Death is an external narrator and claims to know everything about every character,

he still wants to belong to humans. Death explains his special interest in Liesel; he also

proposes that her story will help him prove that our human existence is worth it. This can be

recognized as ironic in that Death is the one who proves the worth of living. The space Death

uses to connect himself to humans and the story portrays an amiability in him. He has a heart,

even though it is different from a human heart, it still produces empathy for him. It becomes

easier to understand him and the burdens he carries. In fact, just because Death must

collect dead souls, does not mean he enjoys it.

In The Book Thief, the representation of Death is a misinterpretation in that he is a fantastic

being, he does not obey the rules of reality. However, he is not absent from the story since he

is telling it. When he is telling the story, he delivers messages to the reader as well as putting
himself into the story. Zusak acknowledges Death’s views on Hitler a few times throughout

the story. For instance, "no person was able to serve the Führer as loyally as me. A human

doesn't have a heart like mine." ( Zusak 522). Here, Death explains his loyalty to Hitler.

Death claims that his heart provides him with the ability to serve Hitler in a way a human

cannot. If Death as the worst possible being serves Hitler best, it suggests that Hitler too is

the worst. This portrayal of Hitler enables the reader to comprehend the amount of tragedy he

caused. Death makes the story less frightening when making ironic comments on its historical

context.

Death uses ironic comments on the historical context to alleviate its tragedy. In this way, the

reader's understanding of the Hitler era and the tragedy it caused does not become as agitated.

While Death conveys the tragedy of the historical context, he manages to remove some of its

seriousness. He tells the historical event contrary to what might be predicted by the reader.

Accordingly, he loosens the grip of the tragic plot to alter the way the historical context is

perceived. Death still manages to present the horror of the situation, but he does it by

changing the way he tells it. In this way, his unexpected comments on the historical context

alleviate the story.

Additionally, Death as a powerful being does not have to apply to the rules of reality and uses

his abilities to control the course of the story. It can be discussed if he has ultimate power—

superior to all else—or not. In relation to The Book Thief, the use of thoughts and words

concerning Death surmount rules and limits. Death contains the power to decide the course of

events. Zusak writes, "The juggling comes to an end now, but the struggling does not. I have

Liesel Meminger in one hand, Max Vandenburg in the other. Soon, I will clap them together.

Just give me a few pages." (... 182). Here, Death describes himself holding Liesel and Max in

his hands, letting the reader know they will meet in a few pages. Death holds more power

than humans in this case. Accordingly, Death is connected to a being with force whereas
humans, as mortals, are linked to not having power. He can control Liesel and Max because

he is Death while they do not have any power at all. According to this, Death has ultimate

power where he does not have to apply to the rules of reality.

In contrast, in the middle of the novel, Death admits to having a boss. He still exceeds the

rules of reality, but concerning his own choices, they are determined by his boss. Death does

not talk about God a lot in the novel, he only mentions him a few times. A reason for Death’s

lack of mentioning God could be a comment on the horrors of World War II. Consequently, it

could be difficult to discuss God’s role in such a tragic story. Death wants God to guide him

but does not get a response. Death seems to have free will in the human world but not in his

'God' world. He humanises himself and holds ultimate power in Liesel’s story, but he does

not contain that same power in his job. Again, this creates empathy as it is not his choice to

collect dead souls; it is his responsibility.

Additionally, Death uses his power to convey truth. The moment when Liesel and Rudy find

a dying pilot in the aftermath of a crashing aircraft. Death is there to collect the dead body

and notices Liesel’s presence. Here, by making Liesel sense Death, he lets her know the pilot

is dead. He uses his power to connect with Liesel to convey truth. Death as a helpful being

can be viewed to guide Liesel in the novel. Already at the beginning of the novel, Death

expresses his interest in Liesel and how his obsession made him follow her through her story.

Consequently, he also has a hard time staying away from her. Even though he is a fantastic

being and cannot be seen by her in the same way as other characters, she can sense him. This

notion of Death moving with truth can make him appear less intimidating; he appears helpful

which alleviates his presence.

Furthermore, Death is the most helpful when he frees people from their suffering. Death

portrays the moment he comes for the souls of French Jews in a German prison. He details

how he deliberately collected them and released them from their despair. He was being
helpful as he ended their pain and suffering. This is something Death does throughout the

book; often when he comes to collect the dead, he describes it as he is freeing them from their

agony. Consequently, this helpfulness makes him seem warmhearted as it looks like he aims

to be kind. Even though it is his job to pick up the dead, at least he acknowledges how these

people live in horror and need to be saved.

Throughout the novel, Death talks about how he comes for souls that are dying. He never

implies that he comes for someone out of evil—he does it because it helps them out of their

suffering. The space Death takes in the novel is immense. As an entity, he uses the space to

place himself in the story, make comments on the historical context, and move with truth. All

the things he does, in the space he takes, make him appear amiable. It is apparent that Death

is powerful, kind, and helpful. This adds a light-hearted perspective to the sadness of the

story.

Death's style makes a novel to achieve the heart of the reader and leads to a successful path.

"Where are my manners?" (... 4). It clears Zusak has introduced Death as a narrator, and also

has given it the characteristic of human because usually 'Manners' is a term which is used to

describe human beings. Zusak designed the novel—using Death as the narrator as well as the

stylistic choices of lists and definitions—to affect the reader in a specific way. These

authorial designs affect how the story is perceived. They are choices made by the author to

provide this tragic novel with a lightened feeling. Along with the colours, it's the food

imagery he uses to describe what he sees. Death describes the sky as a soup and it makes a

curious expectation on the reader towards the novel. Death symbolically exposes the lack of

colourful events and food during the time of World War II. "One of six Steiner children, he

was permanently hungry." (... 49). Here, Death describes Rudy Steiner and his poverty. Later,

Rudy and Liesel steal apples with other kids to fulfil their starvation. This is the most crucial

impact of World War II.

Most of the readers are associated with the author and not with the narrator. In this novel as a

narrator, Death stands out on his own without any dependency upon the content, the

protagonist and the plot. Normally World War II is not the most cheerful topic so reader used

to expect it to be a sad, holocaust, descriptive, and history oriented story. Themes and roles

like death, hunger, torture and hurt has been expected but unexpected twist is about narrator

to be humorous. Death has been attractively describing the events in colours, food imagery

and humorous ways to arouse curiosity, interest and make the reader to have a smile.

Death has a sense of humour throughout the novel. It was usually known as black comedy.

When sorrow overflows in the mind of people, the humour of the death makes the reader feel

relieved for a bit. "Mama loudly slept. She gave the snorer on the train a good run for her

money." (... 239). This line proves Death’s sense of humour, sleeping and snoring is a simple

thing but Death’s unique way of narrating makes the novel to be humorous. Sometimes Death

sounds quite philosophical too. His work is to collect colourful souls of the human. Though

he cannot help humans he helps them with his philosophical ideas.

Though Death's work is to collect the soul of the human, he has deep feelings for them.

Especially he does not want to see the suffering of the people in the war time. When he took

the soul, he felt miserable for their loved one who used to cry bitterly aside them. "Even

death has a heart." (... 262). Zusak presented the character Death to be unique and give his

reader a different perspective of thinking. Due to his job description requires him to stay

aloof and simply just to do his job which entails collecting human's colourful souls and only

that. Death also makes a clear insight of human characteristics and their lack of humanity.

Having the appearance of a human does not make them a human but humanity does. When it

comes to death, he may not have the appearance of a human but he has humanity. Each time

he catches the colourful soul of a human he feels pity for them. Due to the job description, he
does not help them but tries to console them with his philosophical words and sense of

humour.

The novel contains many interesting investigation possibilities and to fit them all in one essay

would be impossible. The research of Death’s role in the novel could be continued in

different directions. It would be specifically interesting to analyse how Death perceives

God’s role in the historical context of World War II. Looking further into this, the research

would gain a whole new dimension of analysis to the space of Death in the novel. This is

something Zusak uses in a lot of ways and it has an impact on the perception of the novel.

Considering Banfield’s theories in Unspeakable Sentences: Narration and Representation in

the Language of Fiction, about the notion of point of view and the difference between

showing and telling — relating it to represented speech and grammar — is something the

research could benefit from. The novel also contains many visual art elements that could be

analysed in relation to stylistic choices made by the author. For instance, Zusak uses a part of

the novel to illustrate a sketchbook Max makes for Liesel—containing drawings and

handwritten text.

Death is an unusual type of narrator in that he is fantastic and takes up a lot of space in the

novel; this results in that he uses his narrative space to provide a light-heartedness to the

tragic story. Accordingly, through this research, it is evident that this kind of narrator can be

beneficial in telling a sensitive story because it can ease the tragic plot. Death’s narrative

space alleviates the intensity of how this plot is perceived. By loosening the grip of the

tragedy of the novel, it can tell a story containing heavy topics to a larger audience. Death

portrays a broad perspective of World War II and its effect on the world; he adjusts how he

tells the story to become palatable for a wider audience.

However, through this research, it is proven that a narrator like Death can tell a story about

death from another perspective in many ways. To read about dying from Death himself is
special and can be very grim. In The Book Thief, reading about death, as a concept, is the

opposite. It can make dying seem less scary. The Book Thief would be very different and have

a narrower audience if Death had told this story in a harsh and burdensome way. The way

Zusak portrayed Death—in his narrative space—proves that it can be important to tell a tragic

story differently. To be able to change this kind of novel, for it to be perceived in another

way, using a narrator like Death can be very effective.

In the cognitive aspect of viewing, Death’s purpose could be seen as the author’s purpose in

that Zusak’s novel focuses on the possibility of hope, despite the unfavorable historical

circumstances. The precarious balance between the possibility of hope and goodness and the

evidence of its opposite is made clear by the narrator when he analyses the human race: “I’m

always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder

how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 522). Engaging with human and ethical issues,

Zusak approaches the Holocaust in a way that steers away from sheer desperation.