The Standover Man

in section four of The Gamblers (a seven-sided die), there is a line that contains strange parallels to the previous topic of the novel. soon after we read Max's book, The Standover Man, Death's narrative describes Max's time alone in the basement with the line, "Standing above him at all moments of awakenss was the hand of time, and it didnt hesitate to wring him out (250.2).". I interpret this line to mean that Max feels controlled by the hours he is forced to spend in isolation; indirectly, the 'standover man' Max is referring to when he focuses his attention on the 'hand of time' is Adolf Hitler. were it not for Hitler, Max would be allowed to do whatever the heck he wanted despite the fact that he is a Jew.
another bit of phrasing that i found interesting occurs comparatively early in the novel; it is under the bulletin entitled "THE CONTRADICTORY POLITICS OF ALEX STEINER". the line "...propaganda informed him that it was only a matter of time before a plague of Jewish tailors showed up and stole his customers (59.8)." was somewhat of a mystery to me at first. that is, i was confused until i stepped back and saw that this bit of narrative is solely from the point of view of Death and not directly from Alex Steiner's train of thought. Mine was an easy mistake to make, because the description on Mr. Steiner's contradictory politics both before and after this line are more from his viewpoint. to me, the meatiest portion of this line is 'propaganda informed him that' because propaganda by definition cannot fool someone if that person knows that the 'fact' he is hearing is actually a line intended to manipulate him. that being said, we can decipher from this line that Mr. Steiner's political opinions are heavily influenced by Nazi propaganda, because he believes the propaganda whole-heartedly. Zusak's zany narrative and involved satire have triumphed once again.