Reflecting back on recent chapters, I found that i was extremely intrigued by a line the in the chapter, The Snowman. There seemed to be so many different ways to interpret, "Limp feet and hanging hair in the hallway. One shoe had fallen off him. (314.8)". I almost skipped over this line after reading it the first time, but something about the way it was written caught my attention at the last second. i think i noticed this line because it is one of those 'so Zusak' lines that is written as a choppy selection of descriptive phrases; this particular style of writing serves to present only the visual aspect of what Zusak wants his reader to experience so that we can focus on one thing at a time.
the overall impression that this line left me with was that Max is being described in much the same way an author might depict a dead body being carried to the morgue. thinking about this line in relation to death (the concept, not the character) led me to think more about the second phrase, which mentions that Max is only wearing one shoe. back to the morgue idea: dead bodies seldom have much use for shoes, and therefore often go barefoot; if a dead person goes barefoot, then naturally a person wearing one shoe must be half dead. this connection might be somewhat of a stretch, but for the fact that, only a couple of pages later, Death speaks of a visit he made to Max soon after the events of page 314. "...all i saw was a man in bed. i knelt. i readied myselft to insert my hands through the blankets. then there was a resurgence-an immense struggle against my weight (317.9-318.1)". Max is on the very verge of death (literally) when his life force again becomes strong enough to keep Death away.
clearly, Max was close enough to dead to call the ever-busy Death to him; knowing that, i would conclude that the line informing us of Max's missing shoe was Zusak's way of giving us a friendly heads-up.
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