When i did the reading i was intrigued by a certain quote death said " [Liesel] didn't know why it was important, but she enjoyed the fact that roomful of books belonged to the woman." (461) This quote shows that Liesel felt empowered about a woman having a roomful of books that enhances her intelligence and shows woman can be as smart or smarter than men.
Then 8 pages later i found this quote that death said "for some reason dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. perhaps it's so they can die being right." (469). When i read this quote i felt that death was sort of critizicing men by saying that they're egomaniacs and they always want to be right even on the verge of death. So with these examples i theorized that TBT is in fact a femminist book.
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I agree with your statement that Leisel is invigorated by the thought that a woman could have such an expansive library, but I question the points you raise in the second part of your post. I believe that the quote you have extracted refers to men as in humans as a whole, not males specifically. However, even if Zusak was trying to refer to the male gender alone, Death's forceful utterance is not spoken in a condemnable manner towards men, but rather delivered as a piece of sage-like advice. From Death's omniscient perspective, he has observed much about the ways of human death. Clearly, Death is sharing an observation of his with the readers that I find not to be negative.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up very interesting ideas, Tony. I briefly thought about feminism in relation to TBT, but I overlooked that thought in my mind. At one point, Death refers to itself as a male (Death says something like: "Death will come to you. He will be there to pick up your soul."), so it could be the same fascination with children as it is with females. Since Death is as old as time, "he" is interested in children. Since "he" classifies "himself" as male, he might be interested in females.
ReplyDeleteWhen Death looks at children, it often looks at females, i.e. Liesel, the girls in Cologne, Arthur Berg's dying sister, etc. In regard to Liesel's fascination with Ilsa's library, I agree with Simone in the fact that Liesel was amazed that a woman, even a rich woman, could own all of these mountains of books.
Gabe, I am unclear with your point is about Death being interested in females. Are you saying that anything slightly foreign to Death, as in gender or age, is as captivating as children to Death? Or, are you trying to point out that females just have the tendency to be more prominent in Death's story as opposed to men?
ReplyDeleteBoth. I think that things foreign to Death interest it. Also, females do have the tendency to be more prominent, and with Death narrating the story, the implication is that it isn't just a coincidence that females are more prominent.
ReplyDeleteI think you need to be more explicit Gabe. Attracted as in romantically? If that is your point, I strongly disagree. Death has such an important and profound job that I think he would exercise restraint when it comes to love interests. Also, I find Death to be such a powerful, divine-like figure with no specific human characteristics, therefore making his manly needs irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteI think that Liesel enjoyed that the library belonged to the woman because she felt a little sorry for Ilsa and she wanted for her to have something to herself. It is also possible that Liesel didn't want to steal from the Mayor, but from Ilsa because Liesel was angry at her, not her husband.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Death refers to himself as "he" for the same reason human beings call themselves "men". I also agree with the point Simone made about how Death could never possibly be intrigued in a romantic way by the opposite sex.
ReplyDeleteMork, wonderful point. I definitely agree. Alex and Simone, I did not in any way mean that Death was romantically attracted to females. Just because Death is interested in children does not mean it is a pediphile. I am just suggesting that maybe children and females, like colors, keep Death distracted; he is interested in them and enjoys studying them.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I understand better where you are coming from Gabe. However, I still disagree with the idea that Death takes particular interest in females, or the argument that he finds distraction in them. Colors, children, females... I find that if Death were to be highly interested in those three extremely broad things, Death seems to find everything interesting. We know that Death takes interest in colors and children, but I am not so sure about females. Also, I question what direct evidence you have that proves he is finds females to be superior in challenging his mind; for every girl character he creates, I believe there is an equally interesting character in male form.
ReplyDeleteI never suggested that Death found femailes superior, I only suggested that perhaps Death finds interest in females, as he does with children and colors. Maybe I'm wrong, it was just a theme that I noticed.
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