When I was reading pages 300-350, there were a couple of things which I didn't understand.
First, on page 300, Death tells us that "victory finally came to Rudy Steiner." He attains this victory from going into the Amper River and retrieving Liesel's book that Viktor has just chucked there. However, I do not understand how this is a victory since he once again asks for a kiss and is turned down. Rudy doesn't receive anything from this incident other than possibly a little thankfulness from Liesel. How does Death consider this a victory?
Second, on page 319, Liesel thinks to herself, "this from a man [Hans] who'd stolen a Jew." I'm curious about why the word "stolen" is used. I can't understand how this word fits into the quote. Perhaps, "hidden" or something of the sort, but "stolen" doesn't make much sense to me.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
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When Viktor threw the book into the river, he didn't expect anyone to go in and retrieve the book because of the "painful cold" (302) of the water. Viktor didn't expect Liesel to get the book back, but Rudy waded to the middle of the freezing water and retrieved the book, and that was his victory.
ReplyDeleteIt states on page 303 in bold that "After months of failure, this moment was his only chance to revel in some victory." I think this situation of retrieving the book is victorious to Rudy because it's as if Viktor expected to get rid of the book for good and Rudy defied this enemy and got the book back for Liesel. You could see the book as a reward of the "victory" of Rudy from "fighting" with Viktor. Also, the past few months have been a "failure" for Rudy thanks to Franz Deutscher and their interactions. This is Rudy's first opportunity to have a positive, "victorious" event occur for him in a while.
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