The Word Shaker

             Before Max left, he’d left a gift for Liesel for her to receive when she was ready. It was a book that he wrote himself, a collection of thoughts really. But on page 117, there was a story. It was about Hitler cultivating and spreading words, and getting people to follow him with the words he’d grown into a forest. One girl planted a dried tear for her sick friend who was hated by his country and allowed it to grow into a tree that couldn’t be cut down by anyone who tried because she stayed up in its branches. Finally, her old friend found her and they climbed down together, causing the tree to fall onto the forest. “It could never destroy all of it, but if nothing else, a different-colored path was carved through it” (Zusak 450). This story has so much symbolism in it. The way Hitler took over the country with words is likened to him growing a forest of words and symbols. Just like words, a tree, once planted, can grow and grow long after the seed was planted into something very present and immovable. It can even grow into something unintended by the planter. Words, once they’ve been said, take root in people’s minds. If the conditions are right, the words can grow by being passed from person to person and being repeated over and over again until it is nearly impossible to get rid of them. It would take a lot of effort to cut down a sequoia. But then there is the part about the girl’s tree. This too shows how words can be cultivated form the smallest idea into something that grows and grows as more people are affected by it. One person’s resistance can grow as more people are inspired to do the same. If the conditions are right (having enough people around with hearts ready to be changed), then that little bit of resistance can grow into a lot of resistance. Even if it won’t make much of a difference, it can still carve a path for other people to follow in. Maybe a few people in the crowd the day that Hans Hubermann gave a Jew that bread realized that it was possible to do something about the cruelty and were given the nerve to do a little something themselves. Maybe Liesel’s bravery would spark another person’s bravery, which would spark another few people’s bravery, and slowly it would reverberate throughout the nation. That one little seed would grow into a massive tree that would carve a different path through the poisonous forest of Nazi words. This incredible symbolism reveals the theme that sometimes in life, one small act or a few small words affect many because they grow and spur on a chain reaction, which will give people the ability to travel down a different path.