Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Death's Interest In Liesel
On page 7, Death "[becomes] interested. In [Liesel]." Why is he so interested in Liesel? When he first sees her, she is just a young girl standing over her dead brother. It seems as though she's just another person around him. He's seen many people standing next to dead people in the past, but what makes him so curious as to follow her onto the train just to watch her? Also, why does her recognize her in the future? He sees so many people all the time that it appears that there would be no way for him to remember just one. It appears as though he could be interested in her because of the way she looked when he saw her. "Her mouth jittered. Her cold arms were folded. Tears were frozen to the book thief's face." (pg 8) However, he's probably seen many people upset about a loved one's death. So why would Liesel be so interesting to Death?
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I think that Death is able to remember Liesel simply because he is omniscient, and therefore time wouldn't be much of a barrier to him. We can't really question death's memory as that would lead to questioning the validity of the entire book.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason that he's able to recognize Liesel later is because she has such an interesting story, or at least interesting enough to follow her onto the train. Also, if the story was interesting enough in the first place to follow her onto the train after she witnessed her brother's death, he'd probably later find it just as interesting to catch the end of her story. I think he'd follow her onto the train because, like Clay said, I think it's mostly because he's omniscient, therefore he already knows that she has a story worth noticing and retelling. Plus, about Death being omniscient, he's also probably aware of the fact that her witnessing her brother's death will bring along an interesting and unique case among the many others he's already seen and probably forgotten about.
ReplyDeleteI think that Death's interest in Liesel comes from a feeling of direct connection between them. Death is the one who takes the souls from people once they are dead, and Liesel is the one who is "an expert in being left behind." Two of the main encounters between them involve Death coming to take the soul of someone in Liesel's life, the first being her mother, and the second being the pilot. Death finds Liesel's struggle and tenacity to keep going compelling, and cannot help but follow her story as their encounters continue to be tragic and mysterious.
ReplyDeleteDeath is only omniscient up to a certain point, in my opinion. First of all, much of the TBT comes from Liesel's book Death finds. That is how he tells the story. I don't think that Death was following Liesel around all that time, watching her every move. He is able to tell the story of Liesel's encounters because he has read her story already.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Chloee's comment, Liesel is surrounded by death and consequently, Death as well. They meet more than once, which is rare. Liesel is also close to Hans, who has also escaped Death more than once before. Liesel and Hans's close connection, as well as the fact that Liesel is a survivor, intrigues Death and causes him to "follow" her.
A thorough discussion. I am bereft of comments :-).
ReplyDeleteI agree strongly with Aloh, but would also have to make the point that had Death not have picked up her story if he hadn't found something interesting in Liesel from there first encounter. He shows that interest by following her onto the train. Because of his immediate interest and many encounters with Liesel he decides to take the book. From that point he can put the pieces together to tell us the story. I think initially he followed her for distraction then he found her story interesting because she kept wanting to live after so many loses.
ReplyDeleteTo Grace:
ReplyDeleteBut where does his interest come from? It seems to me that Death is just bored and in need of a distraction. Liesel was just another girl. Maybe or maybe not he was interested in her, but what for?
*BUT, Death does say he needs distractions from the "survivors", which Liesel is. Therefore, once Death realized that Liesel was a survivor, he must have found something "interesting" to continue her story. So, basically, I think his initial interest in Liesel came from boredom, but he kept with her for another reason.
Just like you said, Death follows Liesel's story because she is proof that her "human existence...[is] worth it" (15). I think he keeps following her because she is a survivor, which is ironic, because he originally wanted distractions from the survivors.
I think that Death puts a lot of his attention into Liesel because he has a "job" to collect people's souls that he doesn't like. He's very reluctant to be Death but he knows that he has to do it. Since Death hates his job so much maybe he found Liesel's story to be a distraction so that he forget about his duty.
ReplyDeleteAdding to Grace, Alexandra, and Chloee's comments, I think Death is mainly intrigued by Liesel's will to keep living. She is just a girl who has seen her whole family leave her but is just scared; she hasn't given up on life, she is just scared. Like everyone has pointed out, Death makes his point that "each [story is] an attempt...to prove to [him] that [we] and [our] human existence...are worth [living]" (15). But as I think of these statements I have made, it seems Liesel would fit ordinarily as just another one of those stories. So why is Death so intrigued by Liesel's story? It doesn't seem different at all, and he has probably seen everything in the world ten times over. Maybe Death is wondering himself what is so intriguing about Liesel. "[Death] had already made the most elementary of mistakes. [He] can't explain...the severity of [his self-disappointment]" (7). Maybe because it is one of the few stories with which he made his occasional mistakes that "[Death] became interested. In [Liesel]. [And]Curiosity got the better of [him]" (7).
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