What key ideas did Marcus Zusak want to portray?:
- ordinary people can do extremely bad things, there is collective power in evil?
- show us that words are very powerful. You can rule the world with words. Hitler did.
- he is showing us different perspectives on Nazi Germany and getting us to think about our opinions and where they come from.
- humans have a lot of power in the world, even “death” in the novel was wary of us.
- doing bad things doesn’t always mean you want to be malicious towards something/someone malicious actions can come from fear.
- humans are also incredibly able to be compassionate and there for each other during tough times.
Starting to gather quotes: *need to put where from in the book and relations after gathering them
“Once, words had rendered Liesel useless, but now… she felt an innate sense of power. It happened every time she deciphered a new word or pieced together a sentence. She was a girl. In Nazi Germany. How fitting that she was discovering the power of words.”
“…More spiteful and evil than she thought herself capable. The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words.” – Liesel reacts to the mayor’s wife telling her that they no longer needed Rosas services.
“The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing.”
“Yes the Führer decided that he would rule the world with words. “I will never fire a gun… I will not have to’”
“You could argue that Liesel Meminger had it easy. She did have it easy compared to Max Vandenburg. Certainly, her brother had practically died in her arms. Her mother abandoned her. But anything was better than being a Jew.” – could maybe use this quote to show that words rescued her. she had had a hard life but she was okay because of words.
“…but there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.”
“*** THE BOOK THEIR – LAST LINE *** I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”