I'm sure many people have felt love before. It might have been towards an object that meant a lot to them, or towards a memory that's fond to them, or maybe towards another person. I'm also positive that you've felt guilt before. You might've felt guilty over something you did or what happened to someone. But to lighten up the mood, we've all felt some sort of happiness. All of these emotions are completely normal. It's basically human. Though, these emotions can impact our actions and our thoughts. It's to be expected though; sometimes we do let these emotions to blind us and our actions. Well, these same emotions are a common occurrence in the book The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
The Book Thief is about a story that takes place during World War 2 and follows a young German girl named Liesel who gets sent to live foster parents know as the Hubermans as her mother abandons her. Soon, they take in a Jewish man named Max into hiding. It's through the perspective of Death as he retells her story. The books deal with 3 main emotions: Love, Guilt/Abandonment, and Happiness. Many characters go through these emotions and these emotions impact them in many different ways.
Love is such a wonderful feeling. It brings such bliss to us all. But can love not only be the most wonderful sensation, but also the worst one? During the story, Max begins to form a strong friendship or love towards Liesel. Remember, love doesn't have to be just romantic. He begins to tell her about his life and the experiences he went through. In one part, they talk to each other about their dreams. Typically, Liesel doesn't say what her dreams are, but she does retell them to Max. He grows fond of the girl that he writes her a story called The Word Shaker for her to read. I know, it seems so cute and all, but soon Max decides to leave the Hubermans and Liesel for their sake. In my opinion, it was a pretty painful scene. But why? Well, Max grew to love the Hubermans since they were one of the only groups of people who feed him, gave him a place to sleep, and cared for him without a single thought despite that he was Jewish. So it's more harder for Max to gather the courage to leave the ones he love. Love is such a powerful emotions and when we have to love someone and leave them, it's just so painful. You've grown so attached to them, so it just hard to leave. Whether or not Max leaving them for their safety can be seen as an act of love can also be debated. But Max felt such a strong love for them that he decided to leave for their sake and go through the painful remorse of leaving them. Love is much like a double-ended sword; it can be a blessing savior, or bring pain on your end.
But with blissful emotions like love, there's guilt/abandonment to balance both out. Many of our actions that have a lot of impact can come be the result of guilt. I know I've done many things that come from guilt. They've been some of the moments that have made the most impact to me. So let's see how different characters deal with guilt.
The entire story is through the view point of Death. Despite the obvious negative connotation towards him, he's portrayed as an entity who's sympathetic towards humans and humorous. When he first tells the reader that Rudy will later be killed. Rudy is a German boy that befriends Liesel and they have many adventures that often involves stealing. He soon falls in love with her. Every time Death mentions Rudy's death, he's always saying something along the lines of 'he shouldn't have died in the way he did.' Which shows that he feels some sort of guilt. Death is also often described as 'being haunted by humans.' Which could impact his feelings towards Rudy's death. Since he has followed Liesel's story, of course he would've had to have met Rudy. So when he mentions him dying, he's often read to be felt with guilt. I've always thought Death to have felt as if he had a part of him dying at a young age. That could contribute to why he says that he's haunted by humans. Guilt could seclude us, which kinda what happened to Death. He's invincible and no one can see or feel him. He just wants to rest, but then no one would be able to take his place. Plus, when your job is collected the souls of the dead, of course you would feel some sort of guilt. Which probably morphed Death into what he is; an entity who's sympathetic towards humans. A simple change like that could impact a person a lot. Guilt is simply an emotion, but it's what he do with the result of guilt is what truly impacts who we are.
But let's lighten up the mood a bit, shall we? Happiness and kindness is a very powerful emotion. Maybe I'm just a naive girl, but I feel like everyone's felt happy at least once in their life. With this emotion, it impacts a lot of the main characters. Hans Huberman is often described to be a man who both stands out, but blends in. But one thing that truly stands out is his kindness for others. When he finds out Liesel isn't the best reader or writer, he offer to tutor her. Despite the fact that he's not the best writer or reader either. He also doesn't brag when he won a game of card when he was in the war. But the most crucial act of kindness or happiness is when he allows Max to stay with them. This the most impactful act on his emotions both plot-wise and character-wise. Hans' decision on allowing him to stay is a main backbone of the story. So of course this would be a major emotion. Happiness makes us do a lot of actions that can put us in different situations.
As humans, emotions are a huge part of us. Our actions based on these emotions often define who we are and how we deal with them also. When it come to writing, one of my favorite things to notice is how characters interact and are impacted by these emotions. So when I see all of these interesting characters feel these emotions in different ways, it makes me praise Zusak for his amazing writing. Emotions are a very hard topic to write about without sounding like a First grader by saying 'he was sad' or 'she was happy'. So when all of this is carefully crafted and weaved in, it's amazing. Emotions is such an interesting subject and to see how they impact us and characters, to me, it's an interesting chemical reaction.
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