Imagery

            The author uses incredible imagery in The Book Thief. One example is when Liesel is going around with her dad on his painting jobs. It talks about how they would eat a little bread with whatever jam or meat they had left, and then he would play his accordion.

      “Traces of bread crumbs were in the creases of his
      overalls. Paint-speckled hands made their way across
      the buttons and raked over the keys, or held on to a
      note for a while. His arms worked the bellows, giving
      the instrument the air it needed to breathe.” (Zusak 355) 

This attention to little details, like the bread crumbs on his overalls that really didn’t have much to do with what was going on, somehow adds so much depth. It’s like he turned the moment into a photograph that has more in it the more you look. Writing down those little details captures the moment and makes it so incredibly realistic it’s as though it happened to you, which is the goal of imagery. Marcus Zusak doesn’t paint pictures in the readers’ minds, he describes a moment in so much detail that it’s more real life than painting. But it’s not that he tells every detail- only the important ones. The ones Liesel would notice. We know nothing about the temperature of the air or what color the accordion is because those details really wouldn’t add to the depth of the scene. The few choice details he included are the perfect ones to enrich the feeling of the moment. He also personifies the accordion, giving it the human quality of needing to breathe. That adds to the description in a way that “His arms worked the bellows, drawing in air and pushing it out” just wouldn’t have. The fact that an accordion can’t really breathe but is described as being able to adds a surreal edge. It enhances the golden, nostalgic feeling of the scene.  Zusak’s use of imagery is incredible, not only in this scene, but throughout the entire book.

 (Click here to see more art from this art fair)

This image really reminds me of the imagery used in that particular scene. While it has a different mood, it reveals the same idea. This image, having been taken on the ride, focuses on one perspective. It limits the amount of details the viewer has. We can’t see the center column of the ride, the ground, or the rest of the theme park because those aren’t necessary. All we see are the seats in front of us. That shows that that’s what we’re focusing on: the seats and the sky. The way it’s blurred and how the colors have been edited gives it a surreal edge; it has the same effect as the use of personification in the passage. Overall, the dreamy, reminiscent feeling is present in both this picture and the passage because of the way they are presented, with the right details and techniques to make the audience experience the feeling they’d get if they were really in that moment.