The Book Thief post 7

This is like a marathon that will never end...!!!!
I really do apologize to people who actually read my posts and have to deal with the never-ending whining first...Sorry.
Anyhow, I was reading through the posts and realized that I really wanted to add something to the wonderful memory...


I want to talk about the colors in The Book Thief.

The setting for The Book Thief was in the Germany under Hitler's control during World War II. It was a time when the prosecution and persecution towards the Jews sprang and plagued in the areas under the control of Germany.
Zusak used his unique style of writing effectively, using everyday things such as "color", "sky", "cloud", "literature", "words" etc, to accentuate the brutishness of the war at that time and the shining moments of humanity.
The way that Zusak told the story from Death, who narrated in a second-person perspective, was very attractive. He sometimes describes the surroundings very descriptively in order to engage the reader to the upcoming changes or blows; sometimes he pointed out how things are going to end, letting readers fully aware of the result and, slowly and painfully, flipped through the pages, eventually reach the part that is difficult to accept. By doing so, Zusak, from my perspective, let readers' complicated feelings and story both freeze on the forcefully stopped time.
I especially like how he used "color" to connect the whole book. From the beginning, the plot was as pure, clean and white as the book page. However, when the main characters get to their rises and falls, the readers began to see different colors: the color of the books possessed by Liesel, the colors of the constantly changing sky, the grey shine of Hans, the black and white of the accordion, the rises and falls of the wars and the bombing that caused the air the turn nasty grey, the pasty white and dull grey of the victims' bodies, the bright red of blood, the crystal clear blue on the afternoon when Liesel died...Readers saw millions of colors in the book, and every single one of them represented a distinctive meaning.

Ahhh, colors...
Colours.