While Max
is in a coma, Liesel brings him discarded items she finds. She gave him a
ribbon, a pinecone, a button, even the image of a cloud. Her innocence and
compassion are shown through these gifts; her innocence because only a child
would think of such a thoughtful thing to do and believe that such an
assortment would bring a dying man comfort, and her caring and compassion
simply because she thought to give him anything at all. One item briefly
mentioned is a toy soldier. “It was scratched and trodden, which, to Liesel,
was the whole point. Even with the injury, it could still stand up” (Zusak
323). These two sentences reflect a significant theme in the book, that
sometimes when someone has had misfortune, injury or misery in their life, they
can still be happy because they don’t allow themselves to be beaten. The
characters in this book, especially Max, have gone through a lot of hardship
and misery, so this beat-up soldier that could still stand signified all of
them- beat-up people, physically and emotionally, that can still live. Despite being
impoverished, living in Nazi Germany, and having lost people they love, the
characters are still able to get by and do so without wallowing in their misery.
Hans Hubermann keeps painting and showing his daughter the world, Max stays in
the basement without complaint, and Liesel steals books, plays soccer in the
streets, and revels in the little victories of life. I thought it was profound
the way Marcus Zusak dropped that in there and so quickly moved on, and it was
brilliant how simply that theme was revealed using the thoughtful gift of a
child to a dying man.
This theme
reminded me of Kintsugi, a Japanese method of repair where you fill the cracks
in a broken ceramic piece with gold resin. The result is a beautiful bowl laced
with gold lines. The idea is that the bowls are now even more beautiful because
they were broken. There is such deep meaning to this idea, and it relates to
this theme in The Book Thief. Even
though misfortune befell these people and they were “cracked,” by healing the
cracks in themselves they can become better than they were before. Just because
you’ve been beaten doesn’t mean you can’t stand. To read more about Kintsugi, visit http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/06/kintsugi-as-yoga-filling-the-cracks-with-gold-zo-newell/
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