4. Analyse how language features revealed the writer’s purpose in the written text(s).

3 Points

Purpose was to show setting, emotion, and the feeling and description of the perspective the book is told from which is death

Pathetic fallacy relates to deaths feeling which furthermore relates to the colours, chain reaction of emotion

when plane crashes red symbolises what war does to the soldiers

Writers purpose – Teach the reader an idea, reveal something about a character, foreshadow events to later occur, Reveal information about a setting, Reveal an import symbol.

1. red,

reflects the anger and rage of civilians involved in Nazi Germany and the setting of what it was like during this times in Germany. the red describes Adolf hitlers morals,

a symbol – communism the sharing of blood for your country,

“thick soupy red” red being referred as soup multiple times shows the impact and how much of a symbol red throughout Germany, red relates with blood.

when she snatched a book from beneath a steaming pile of ashes,

2. black,

reveals the character death,

and reveals an idea of what most people stereotypically would relate death and black together,

it reveals the setting and how much black and seat is occurring.

Black cross reference: grim reaper, black refers to bad events in general, foreshadows maybe how Liesel feels and what she sees when the bombs hit Molching “There were black crumbs and peppers streaked across the redness.”

Shows that death was there, the use of crumbs symbolises a lot of things, relating to a lot of deaths.

“He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world.”

Physcopomp

3. white – reveals about Liesels innocence,

Foreshadows the event when Liesels brother died, and how soft it felt.

Foreshadows a symbol of how she finds it hard to trust and she has this whiteness or innocence to trust. Some people refer white not to be a colour but a shade. death says “white is without question a colour.”  this reveals an idea of Deaths views and reveals details about death as the narrator. 

innocence

“First up is something white. Of the blinding kind.”

Essay:

“The book thief,” by Markus Zusak shows through the use of pathetic fallacy on how colours can symbolise peoples emotions, events occurring and their morals or drive they have. Death by saying “First the colours. Then the humans. Thats usually how I see things. Or at least I try,” shows and gives an idea that by assessing colours before humans gives it a better idea of the situation. I believe Colours not only symbolise the presence but also the future and the impact it has on people maturation socially, mentally and physically. Red, black and white have significance throughout the text representing the Nazi Germany flag and Nazi germanys ethics that are negatively rubbed off into the innocent Germany society, causing families and neighbourhoods to go through significant changes and events like the Hubermanns in the small town of Molching.

White is used and portrayed throughout the text and gives a sense of pathetic fallacy at the beginning of the book. Pathetic fallacy is the relation between the weather and how it impacts characters thoughts and feelings during that specific time. “Something white, of the blinding kind,” shows how strong and sharp this white is. I personally feel there is a hyraces of colours, this hyraces showing the strength of innocence, white is sitting at the bottom almost like the jester in a welsh castle during the 16th-18th century. Death is describing the situation when Liesel’s younger brother is slowly dying due to the malnourishment and hyperthermic conditions. White I believe describes everyone mentally during this time and physically what is happening, showing how overpowering yet innocent this colour can be. Snow and white light clouds is what I believe would be during the setting making “white is without question a colour,” as it highly shows pathetic fallacy and reflects Liesel for a long period of time during the beginning of the book. Innocence is white, innocence is young children, not knowing what the world has in store for them, this event Liesel is in consumes her for a prolonged period. The protagonist is innocent not only to the world but also to everyday privileges most other kids would get nowadays like food, loving parents and an education. Being exposed to this high level of innocence or this feeling of white I believe caused Liesel for a long period of time to not be able to mature and have this trust or feeling of safety hence why Markus Zusak highly signified white throughout the text reflecting through peoples mental. World War 2 I believe will have impacted many kids maturation mentally from being exposed to white, compared to the well natured world we have today, almost growing up in a baby blue world, which is soft and caring.

Throughout the text we are commonly reminded about the colour black as death is the narrator and I would interpret death to relate with black. The swastika is coloured black and ironically Germany who was supposed to all great and mighty while being bombed the sky was “black crumbs and peppers streaked across the redness.” Streaked blackness reflects the Nazi German country and how divided and dark some places and people feel. The hyraces of colours as previously mentioned, I believe black sits right on the top, it feels to me empowering, a movement, and death. This empowerment is almost the opposite of white, it feels to me to be creepy chilling thing that is almost constantly hanging over you in your life. Black highly symbolises and what most people would commonly think death to be, Markus Zusak has a complete different interpretation of death who is almost a physical person sees all colours, even seeing races like the jews as a colour. Usually death would be previewed as the grim reaper or physcopomp who thrive on what their job is. Being of a dark colour decent during world war 2 in Germany was very bold and unsafe, Rudy who “was the crazy one who painted himself black and defeated the world,” was reenacting a controversial moment during the 1936 Berlin Olympics when an African-American Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 100 metre, the 200 metre, the 4 x 100 metre and the long jump. Jesse Owens had a huge impact on Rudy Steiner’s life as when he reenacts the event he is isolated from the fact of how empowering this colour is and the sin he is occurring to Nazi Germany. Black symbolises events throughout Nazi Germany and is purposely placed in the text by Markus Zusak to reflect the German society emotions and events they are being put through, these events the Nazi party as a whole and reflect their philosophy. Black throughout the world today and in the past is everyone tries to hide this black away and not show or present it to anyone, the darkness in an individual in society is highly criticised chichis hence why Markus zusak symbolises black throughout the text. People commonly throughout society try to physically show a different colour on the outside to be portrayed as a better person. I believe this is exactly what the Nazi party philosophy was which was they thrived from blackness but tried to present themselves victorious to the people of Germany hence why the author used black as a language feature.

Once Adolf hitler became leader of Germany, he had a moral that he wanted to wipe away the history of Germany and make this great and superior race. He did this via the use of red, the book burning “when she (Liesel) snatched a book from beneath a steaming pile of ashes.” Ash has red scattered throughout it reflecting the division of the German society, very much showing what the nazi party was trying to create a communism, shedding blood for one another. Ash only has small amounts of embers that will eventually fade away, hence reflecting the leaders of the nazi party that have these strong beliefs. Red dominates Germany for a period of time and becomes a normal for communities to show a fake red to protect themselves from authorities, exactly like the Hubermann’s situation. Families not only had to be put through the this two sidedness but also events throughout towns like the bombings of towns commonly seeing the sky like “soup, boiling and stirring. In some places it was burned.” Red is used a symbol by Zusak to describe the terrible situations that are occurring from deaths perspective to convey how common these horrible events are but make them further intimidating. This colour is used to implement something bad is about to occur and the overall impact depends on the strength of the red. Calling this red soup indicates how thick and hearty this catastrophic situation is. I strongly believe the author has symbolised red in a way that it all ways sticks around like a sore thumb. The author shows through various ways like the book burnings and bombings that once Germany leaders have planted a seed of red to be communist and share blood for your country and race in a descepting way that it bounces back as karma impacting innocent German civilians lives.

Markus Zusak uses red, black and white as symbols to bring across complex ideas within the German society during the extent of World War 2 and ideas that still reflect humanity in todays world. Through the use of pathetic fallacy the author purposely uses this to show firstly the long duration it takes for Liesel to mature from the exposure to white. Secondly the pureness and strength of black and how socially it wasn’t excepted but mentally was.  Furthermore to represent the entirety and finish of the powerful frowned upon Nazi flag is red which screamed the country Adolf hitler desired the most which was a country full of communists sharing your blood for ones country and deception innocent or ‘white’ civilians into a “thick and soupy red,” of anger and victimising.