When I first read that Max was really alive, I was shocked. I thought to myself how could that be when that man was undernourished and his body temperture was way below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, you could say that it was the gifts that Liesel presented to Max that kept him from dieing and in some ways I think that's what Zusak wants us as the readers to believe. You could take this in a scientific direction by saying that his body went into "survival" mode and found ways to conserve energy. But personally I believe that it was for the sake of the plot that Max stayed alive.
If Max didn't wake up there would be of course the first issue of a Jewish corspe in a German household. If he had died, the direction of the plot would have shifted significantly. The focus of the story would suddenly be taken off of Liesel and her adventures and quickly be focused on how the Hubermanns would survive with a dead Jewish body in their basement, especially since a few days later the NSDAP came to inspect their basement. And if the focus was taken off of Liesel, then the book didn't need to be named The Book Thief and instead it could have been named Nazi Germany and the Jew or something around those lines.
Also if Max didn't wake up, something pretty significant to the plot would be lost, Liesel and Max's relationship. Liesel, by this point in the novel, has created such a trustworthy relationship with Max that if that was lost a part of the novel would be lost. There is something about a German-Jew relationship in Germany at this time that is so special and important. Its specialness and importance come from the fact that a relationship like that and this time is PROHIBITED. But that's why the relationship is so vital to the plot, it shows that even though segregation between Jews and Germans were large at that time, that a realtionship like theirs wasn't completely out of the question. It was just out of the question by Hitler.
And lastly Max's miraculous recovery demostrated the small percentage of jews out there in Nazi Germany that were alive and "safe".
Max just couldn't die, there was too much at risk.
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First of all, I'm going to agree with you that max's experience could be easily related to the rest of the Jews in Nazi Germany at that time and how they made a "miraculous recovery" (as you said) after the Holocaust. Secondly I'm going to respectively disagree with you when you said that "it was for the sake of the plot that Max stayed alive". I really don't think Zusak and/or the plot really would've cared if Max had died or not. Personally I much rather would've read about what the family would've done with a Jewish corpse and how Liesel would've coped with it than read that everyone lived happily ever after, especially as death has already told us that he meets Liesel two more times. I know this doesn't sound very nice but I would've preferred it if max had died because I knew the Hubermanns would find a way out of being arrested for hiding a Jew, I just didn't know how they would've pulled it off.
ReplyDeleteI would like to expand off of what Wooz wrote in his comment. First I would like to respectfully disagree that Max could not die just because there was too much risk. I do not think that because there is never one place in the book where Death or any other character hints that Max will not die because of the risk. Although Most of the character's were thinking about what would happen if Max died they never once said that he would not die, so with that lack of evidence, I think that it would be very hard to argue your point. Also even if Max did die, the family could have easily put him into their car and just dumped his body somewhere where nobody would find it, so I do not think that Zusak had Max live just because of the fact that someone would have found the body. In addition I would like to respectfully disagree with your statement that the plot would be lacking if Max died. I think that the plot would have actually developed a lot more if Max had died, but the plot would have also gone in a different direction. I think the plot would have developed more because of the fact that Liesel would have to deal with Max's death and learn how to cope with it. With all of that said I think that your last statement that Max represents the small percentage of Jews that survived it spot on and might be worth looking into more.
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