I think Liesel's attitude and reaction towards the hidden sketchbook is very interesting. Also, why at this point in the book Rosa Hubermann decided to give it to her is unique as well. Rosa gave it to her after Liesel after she read a book in the Fiedler's basement to a crowd of eager Germans from Himmel Street. Even though Rosa says that she was going to give it to Liesel for Christmas instead of her birthday, I still think that there is another reason why she gave it to her step-daughter at this point in time.
"I think you've always been ready, Liesel. From the moment you arrived here, clinging to that gate, you were meant to have this." Although I partially agree with Rosa, it was a good idea that the heavy German political influence of WWII wasn't thrust upon Liesel once she arrived at the Hubermann's house. Zusack creates a very interesting narrative style where readers view a war through the eyes of a child who is partially oblivious to some of the real controversies within Nazi propaganda. Only until Liesel reached a proper age (around 12 or 13) did she actually begin to observe the struggle written on Papa's face or the desperate faces of Jews marching through Molching. After Liesel proved herself being capable of handling fear during the raid, Rosa finally could tell that Liesel could understand the content of the sketchbook.
After Liesel read the book, I feel she still might not have understood or recognised the Nazism of the book because she felt so cheerful. But, after all, there was an optomistic ending when "the girl and the ax cutter (Liesel and Max)" walked together through the propaganda forest while friendship still blossomed in their hearts. At the top of the tree, Max and Liesel were above the world ruled by Hitler and his Nazi followers. They viewed the still growing propaganda trees but it was as if they could see right through them and saw their cold black souls and the dark swatstika fruit they beared. They didn't believe the propaganda. For some reason, it felt like when the tree was cut down, the Nazi's had won. On the other hand, the fallen tree had created a new path through the propaganda forest to freedom. Even some people had joined Max and Liesel on the tree because they too hoped for freedom and the destruction of the Nazi regime. Zusack's illustration of The Word Shaker showed the hope that was unfortunately obsolete for most Germans during WWII but needed to be understood by Liesel.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the Word Shaker, my opinion of the tree falling was that Max knew the tree had to fall. In a way, it was the best thing to do, to let the tree finally rest and for Liesel to come down and resume her "normal" life. It's like the felling of the tree (is that the right term?) made a bigger impact on people than if it just kept standing untouched. It's true that this mini story of Zusak's is unusual and a little vague in its underlying meaning, so everybody probably has a different understanding of The Word Shaker.