Death and all his friends

Death is a topic of religion. Death himself seems almost skeptical of the whole religion thing: “God never says anything. You think you’re the only one he never answers?” (350). How fitting. Faith usually makes death a lyrical thing- heaven etc. Death calls it a conveyor belt. Mechanical. And yet he feels so terrible when people die too young. Go figure. But all this talk about death, and god, has got me thinking. How much does religion influence The Book Thief? Looking at the subject matter, there could be a lot. After all, the main thing going on in Germany during the book (besides WWII) is the extermination of Jews: a religious group. Yet, we don’t see a lot of that. Perhaps it is because there are so few Jews about, or because Hitler’s issues with and propaganda about Jews isn’t based on their religion, but on their supposed character. Converting to Christianity didn’t save you- if you had Jewish grandparents the sickness was supposedly flowing through your veins. The only time Max mentions religion (as far as I can tell) is when he says “Goddamn it”. Not very helpful. And he’s being persecuted because of his religion. But a bizarre German form of religion seems to be hanging around; the constant “blasphemy” and using the Lord’s (and others’) names in vain: “Joseph, Mary...” There are mentions of religion though: the “grim reaper nun” at school (75), and Liesel being Lutheran while the state-run school has a Catholic influence (39).

Maybe the constant lack of real religion fits the circumstances: nothing shakes human belief in the divine more than war, or the holocaust.

But how about death? What could he tell us about, well, death, if he wanted to?

An aside: what we know about death (according to death- he could be lying to us, but... well...)

your body becomes an empty shell (original)

death hears your last thoughts

he picks you up

and carries you

it pains him to do this- so he tries to look away

the colors don’t completely distract him from you, or the ones that you leave behind

every time someone dies, there is an eclipse

I wonder about him, still. If death knew that there was a god, and a future after death, than wouldn’t it make his job a lot less hard on him. If death was only a transition, and if people go on after. One could argue that this is what death knows; he does say that one young girl has her entire death in front of her. Also, death mentions how much the survivors sadden him, the experts at getting left behind.

On the other hand, he tells us that god never answers him either. He never tells us what is lurking on the other side of him (and a good thing too- I doubt that even Zusak could answer that satisfactorily in less that a whole book, but if you wonder if anyone could, read elsewhere). Maybe death is just a void. Or maybe death doesn’t know what happens after him- he is the middleman.

After all, death wants to die. Why?

You could use the answer he seems to hand us: he is tired, he needs a vacation. But what if he was curious too. About what comes after death. About if there is a god?

Maybe Zusak is just trying to point out the same thing: death is just human.

There is one more question we have to ask, before we go to sleep. What is Zusak's opinion on death, on god. Does god answer him? Is he religious? Because the answer to that question could be all we need.

~Jaion