The Book Thief: Personification 3 key examples

It is not the accordion that comes alive in this passage, but rather the story of how Hans acquired it. The accordion is one tangible manifestation of the story. The story also takes the form of a man "wearing ruffled shoulders and a shivering jacket" who will show up one day on the doorstep with "a suitcase, a book, and two questions." This man will turn out to be Max, the son of the man from whom Hans inherited the accordion. The suitcase will turn out to be everything he owns. The book is the copy of Mein Kampf he uses to stay safe on the way to Himmel Street, and the two questions are the agreed-upon questions to assess whether he has arrived among friends.

At first, this passage looks messy. How can the accordion be the story if the story is also Max? However, the mixed metaphors seem to be deliberate. Death follows up Max's description by writing, "A story. Story after story. Story within story." The accordion represents the story of Hans's friendship with Erik Vandenburg and the lifelong debt Hans owes to the family of the man who ultimately died for him. Max, who was two years old when his father died, is part of this story. When Max comes back into Hans's life, it is both a continuation of the accordion story and the start of a new story about Liesel and Max. These stories blend into one another, so that it is difficult to tell where one ends and another begins or if they are truly separate stories at all. Death uses foreshadowing and messy personification to emphasize how deeply intertwined every moment in the book is with every other.

By comparing the roof tiles to perfectly combed toupees, Death begins to personify the houses. With their "polished" doors, "manicured" walls and windows, and chimneys "almost breath[ing] out smoke rings," the houses sound as though they look less like buildings and more like the rich people who own them. The houses represent everything the residents of Grande Strasse have that the residents of Himmel Street do not. Rudy's family goes hungry when they need money to buy a single essential clothing item for one of the children. It is difficult to imagine them dressing up in coiffed toupees. Basic cleanliness becomes a luxury for many Himmel Street residents, as they give up Rosa Hubermann's laundry service and begin rationing their resources more aggressively. They have neither the time nor the money to look "polished" or "manicured." Hans Hubermann enjoys smoking, and yet he must ration his cigarettes to afford things like gifts for Liesel and Rosa. On Grande Strasse, even the chimneys can sit around breathing smoke rings.

Rudy and Liesel have been stealing food when they are hungry, but breaking into the houses on Grande Strasse represents a more brazen rejection of the status quo. They are not there to steal an essential like food, but rather a book. A book, like a clean appearance, is commonplace on Grande Strasse and a nearly unheard-of luxury on Himmel Street. By visiting Grande Strasse and scoping out the houses they might break into, Liesel and Rudy imagine what it would be like to take these "luxuries" for themselves.

For centuries, art and literature have depicted Death as a skeletal, hooded figure holding a sickle or scythe. This "grim reaper" version of Death harvests souls for the afterlife. He is supposed to look frightening and otherworldly; he is said to appear to everyone eventually, and no one knows when he will appear for them. His appearance to any individual signals the end of their time on earth whether they like it or not.

In this passage, Zusak's Death contrasts himself with the grim reaper. He does not have the sickle, the scythe, the hood, or the scary face that looks as though it has been dead for a long time. He suggests that humans who want to know what he looks like should look in the mirror. At first, imposing a more human face on the personification of Death might make the entire concept less terrifying. Death is no longer a monster and is instead just a person. However, if anyone can see Death when they look in the mirror, it follows that Death is always very close at hand. In fact, everyone carries him around in their own body. This version of Death can be more sneaky than the grim reaper. The grim reaper is at least obvious when he arrives to take someone's soul away. Zusak's version of Death can take someone's soul away before they even realize he is there. Humans might even bring Death into one another's lives without realizing it.

The version of Death that hides inside everyone might seem predatory and parasitic, but that is not necessarily the case as long as Death doesn't abuse his power. After all, dying is a natural part of life; even if it is unsettling, it makes sense for Death to be an intimate part of each person. The natural relationship between Death and humanity is warped when Hitler rises to power. Death comments that he is often maligned as War's best friend. It is more accurate, he argues, to think of him as War's overworked employee. Death does not relish in prematurely taking the souls en masse. Nonetheless, he carries them away because his exploitative boss forces him to. In this sense, Death has a lot in common with the human characters caught in Hitler's war. Even resistant people like the Hubermanns are eventually forced to abuse the little power they have to support the Nazi regime. Zusak's personification of Death helps him convey how people like the Hubermanns get drawn into horrific abuses of power.