As Death puts it, the first chapter in part six is "self-indulgent" (307), and he "complain[s] excessively" (309). Rather than continuing the story, he begins a somewhat random tangent about all the work he had to do during the war. Almost immediately, he becomes cynically mater-of-fact, with some complaining at certain points. He is critical of humans; near the bottom of the first page, he points out, "you're a human--you should understand self-obsession." Because he isn't human, he seems to look from an outsider's point of view at a very flawed species. However, I don't understand what commanding the reader to "find a mirror" means. At first it seems like Death is implying that he looks like "you", but how does Death take on the features of humans? Does he mean that he is similar to humans somehow?
Sometimes Death does seem very human. Although he often makes references to the imperfections of humans, he narrates very colloquially, other than the metaphors. Zusak sometimes writes in fragments, as if Death were really speaking in short, choppy phrases. He also complains about work as many people do, often breaking through the plot and giving away future events. He can feel stressed, worried, annoyed, and tired. He even has a conscience, which some define as markedly "human": He tries to distract himself with colors because he can't stand the survivors--or his job in general. He is discreetly horrified at the effects of Stalin and Hitler's regimes. He finds hope in stories like Liesel's, which "prove to [him] that you, and your human existence, are worth it" (15). But what is "it"?
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I think, throughout the book, Zusak has been trying to break the character death's cliched images by having him talk, like you said, in "short, choppy phrases" and more "colloquially". It appears predominantly in death's diary when he tells us that he does "not carry a sickle or a sythe"(307) and that he "only wears a hooded black robe when it's cold"(307). When he tells the reader to "pick up a mirror" to see what his face looks like, we can see that we are not that different from death at all.
ReplyDeletemy take on Death's instruction to look in the mirror was much more figurative. death seems to be more of a consciousness than an actual being in the novel, in that his work involves only the world of souls and spirits and has nothing at all to do with the physical aspect of dying. that said, death is telling us that our death is individual and involves only us, so to look in the face of death we must first look at ourselves. the concept of your death involves you, and Death as a character has nothing to do with the cause of your death; that comes from you and your physical body, which is totally separate from the character of Death.
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