The book thief quotes

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right”

Hated and loved juxtaposition, = contradictory power shows language is destructive and healing, can be weaponised for nazi propaganda (manipulate society) also words as comfort connection and hope 

“Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I  hear the notes”

Metaphor Accordion symbolises hans, music as warmth safety and comfort, his compassion provides liesel with security and enforces the idea that family is created through love and trust
connection of music to safety

“I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty and i wonder how the same can be both”

Best and worst juxtaposition + ugly and beauty contrasts zusak rejecting ideas that people are entirely good or evil, suggesting the capacity for compassion and brutality 

“I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sandcastles, house of cards…. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate”

Imagery and innocence of childhood, normalises destruction before violence, describes progression of small acts of cruelty to large scales of war 

“It kills me sometimes, how people die”

Humanising death and irony as death says “kills me” - appearing emotionally affected and changing reader expectations of him” - witness to humanity’s tragic self destruction 

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you”

Humor as the innocence of adolescents, even amidst war they experience childhood emotions preserving moments of joy in a devastating war 

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness”

Juxtaposition contrasting misery and happiness - happiness is fragile 

“I am haunted by humans”

Usually humans are haunted by death, the reversed paradox suggests humanity's cruelty and compassion. Death as a witness to moral contradictions of human behavior 

“Even death has a heart”

Personification giving death human emotion death appears more empathetic, the stereotypical thoughts of death 

“I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”

Through juxtapositions portrays humanity as contradictory, able to create beauty and destruction deaths inability to “ simply estimate’ humanity reinforces the complexity of human race 

“Max and Liesel were held together by the quiet gathering of words”

Held together= emotional unity 

Quite gathering= imagery 

Language force that unite individuals - helped them survive and live through war and persecution  

“It was Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun”

(METAPHOR) Tightrope = symbolism of uncertainty and danger 

Sun = hope and happiness risk+optimism 

Fragile balance between danger and hope 

= zsak says during war happiness is possible despite uncertainty

Hans hiding max

→ rejecting Nazi ideology and chooses moral courage over safety

Hans giving bread to the jewish prisoner

→ compassion becomes act of resistance 

‘The Führer’s words were the most powerful’

Exaggerating “most powerful’ - superlative emphasising hitler controlling germany, suggests that words posses power to influence thoughts beliefs and actions

Max’s story - The word shaker Pg 474 

symbolic story about a world shaped by language, Story is a metaphor where ‘word shakers’ symbolise people to challenge oppressive ideologies. shows words are methods of manipulation or resistance

‘Her cold toes clenched with excitement, No one had ever given her music before. She would grin herself stupid…’

imagery, exaggerating child like excitement

‘When death captures me, ‘the boy vowed, ‘ He will feel my fist on his face’

Personification of death, presenting him as a physical opponent, Defiance of death which is inevitable, showing youthful courage and desire against mortality.

“A stranger the kill the loneliness"

Metaphor suggesting human connection overcomes emotional isolation, shows how relationships develop from different backgrounds

‘You shouldn't want to be black people or jewish people or anyone who is… not us” 

inclusive vs exclusive language ‘us’ divides people
exposes how nazi ideology enourages conformity and discrimination by constructing an artificial divide between groups of people.

“A jewish rat, back  to his hole” 

Dehumanising language, comparison
portraying inferiority and unwanted
cruelty of the Nazi prejudice

‘Words are, of course, the most powerful drug use of mankind’

Metaphor, comparing words to a drug, emphasising their addictive and influential nature, Exaggerating ‘Most powerful’ (hyperbole)

“So much good, so much evil. Just add water”

Good evil = juxtaposition 

Just add water= metaphor of circumstances will reveal human nature 

Both qualities coexist in human nature,  

Adding water = drawing out certain characteristics during like times of war 

“He was the kind of man who could make you feel safe’ 

Metaphor = Hans kindness as a central to his identity 

‘There was sleep, starving sleep… just leave everything as it is, at all costs. It might be time to go soon. Light like a gun explosive to the eyes. It might be time to go.’

Fragmented descriptions show exhaustion 

Light like a gun = simile of violence 

Wartime suffering, simile shows that man transformed hope with violence and fear