One of TBT’s most prominent themes appears to be “death”. I have always associated death as being negative and cruel. Yet, when reading a novel narrated by death, I noticed other, contrasting characteristics. While I agree that Death is not “nice”, I would have to disagree with my own preconception that Death is nothing but harsh. In only the first chapter, I noticed a different tone Death was using. He was sarcastic, threatening, and ominous, but he was also honest, matter-of-fact, and humorous. In a novel surrounded by Death, I expected a dark narration. But, when met with something quite the opposite, it led me to wonder, “What is Death?” Is Death not cruel or nasty? Is he actually rather agreeable and friendly? Or is he just something? Does Death actually have emotions?
Something to consider: When a pilot is close to his end, a small boy places a “smiling bear [sitting] huddled among the crowded wreckage of the man and the blood”. Death is already there, but he chooses to wait for a moment before “loosen[ing] [the pilot’s] soul” (10).
So, what does this mean? Was Death touched by the boy’s gesture? Did he mean to take the pilot’s soul earlier? Was Death affected by the boy’s gesture and did it also affect his decision to take the pilot’s soul? This should mean that Death does have feelings, but I am just not ready to believe that something so commonly associated with negative emotions has the ability to personify a human, with real emotions.
I agree that it is hard to believe Death can be like humans because of almost every other portrayal of Death being grim and evil, but I think that is just what Zusak wants us to believe. He wants us to see Death as someone who is very much like us. Needing a "vacation" by using colors because of his stressful job is a perfect example of ho Death acts like humans.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that Zusak has personified Death as a way to engage us in a story that must handle a great deal of death. By turning things on their head (and asking us to listen and be led by Death instead of people), Zusak can disconcert us and get us to use our imaginations and our capacity to re-envision some of our beliefs for a moment or two.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Ms. Wilsey and Bierman, in that Death has been personified so that we know more like how Death "feels" or acts. But I don't think that Death is straight out harsh. Although he does seem to hate people who manage to avoid him, he also says that he is not malicious or evil, he (or it) is just a result.
ReplyDeletePhilip, I do agree that Death is not harsh, I just expected him to be. That's why I think TBT is such a different book then most. It's not merely challenging the norm, rather "turning them on their head", like Ms. Wilsey said.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I just wish that Death had less human-like qualities, and more death-like or different characteristics, just so that it doesn't feel like the book is being narrated by a human. Because, while the book is being narrated by Death, it doesn't appear so when read. Maybe I just haven't caught anything yet.
Zusak's ability to shatter a stereotype through having an abstruse concept as a narrator is what I find most fascinating in TBT. Although I did hold some preconceptions on Death that could be described by adjectives prior to reading TBT, I would say the single marking thing I associated Death with was the color black. By having a spectrum of colors attributed to death in the novel, I am exposed to a narrator in a most raw and abstract form, as everything I knew about Death is now considered obsolete. My ideas of what becomes of us all is now evanescent. The unconventional thinking that ensues from reading TBT is extremely captivating, and clearly an intention of Zusak's writing.
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