I found the seires of chapters called the struggler to be quite bizarre but amazingly fascinating. We were intruduced to this man in a dark room stuggling to survive and all we know about him is that his name is Max, he is jewish, and he's been starving for days. And all he has with him are a suitcase with some clothes and he is given a copy of Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf which includes his insane ideology.It's very ironic that a person who Markus Zusak decided to introduce Max simply as the struggler who is deeply opposed to Hitler's autobigraphy but that book becomes Max's salvation.
Also I am a little unclear about the line "the struggler: If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive."( 168). If they didn't kill him tonight then they would kill him when he's dead? And how can they kill someone who is already dead?
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I'm curious about this statement too. Several ideas have occurred to me. First, perhaps if one is still free, one can "die alive." Then again, perhaps if one dies and is then incinerated in an oven at a place like Auschwitz, that is a kind of "death while dead." Whatever the intention, it seems that Zusak views a death for Max now as better than others, later.
ReplyDeleteAnother possible explanation is he thinks he may starve to death, and when they find him he will almost be dead. If they then kill him, it would be like dying twice: of hunger, than murdered by "them".
ReplyDeleteZusak can begin to portray just how miserable Max's situation by stating that death now would be better then death later. Only someone in such dolorous state would want death now, as opposed to continue suffering in dire conditions. The lesser of two evils is an early death.
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