1. The Book Thief Analysis – The Opening
What does Zusak introduce us to in the opening section?
How effective do we find this?
How can we use this knowledge in the Exam?

2. We are learning how the author creates a successful opening section
I can comment on:
Style
Structure
Setting
Main characters
Symbols
Theme

3. Key Facts
narrator ·  The Book Thief is narrated by Death (yes, that Death) the day after the death of the main character, Liesel.
point of view · Death is an omniscient narrator who switches between first person and a closed third person point of view, describing all the main characters’ thoughts and emotions as well as his own. He mostly sticks to the events during the years of World War Two, though occasionally he flashes forward to relay different characters’ fates.
tone · The tone is intimate and conversational, with the narrator at times interrupting himself or interjecting reactions to the narrative. Though his voice employs humor, the overall sense is of sadness.
tense · Past tense with flashbacks and occasional flash forwards.
setting (time) · Primarily World War Two, January 1939 – October 1943
setting (place) · Primarily the fictional German town of Molching, a suburb of Munich
protagonist · Liesel Meminger
major conflict · After losing her family in the lead-up to World War II, Liesel must establish her identity as she helps her foster family hide a Jew from the Nazis and deals with the hardships of war-time Germany.
rising action · Given to foster parents after the death of her brother, Liesel adjusts to life with a new family and friends and begins learning the value of words as Germany moves gradually toward war and her family hides Max, a Jewish man, from Nazi authorities.
climax · Liesel encounters Max being marched to a concentration camp, precipitating a crisis in her in which she questions the value of words.
falling action · Liesel begins writing her own story and then must learn to move on after all her family and friends are killed in a bomb raid.
foreshadowing · Death describes the three times he saw Liesel; Death announces at the beginning of Part Five that Rudy will die in two years; Death saying that Rudy goes from a stealer of bread to a giver of bread; Death suggesting that Zucker’s dislike of Hans will cost him his life; Death hinting that Liesel will be a great writer some day.

4. The Prologue Death introduces himself as the narrator of the book.
He describes his work and his preference for a chocolate brown sky when he collects people’s souls.
He lists the main elements of the story to come, and reveals that he has seen the main character, the book thief, three times.
The first time he saw her was on a train where he had come to collect the soul of a small boy. The book thief watched him take the boy with tears frozen to her face.
The next time Death saw the book thief was years later, when a pilot had crashed his plane. Death arrived for the pilot’s soul and watched as a boy took a teddy bear from a toolbox and gave it to the pilot.
The third time he saw the book thief, a German town had been bombed. The book thief was sitting on a pile of rubble, holding a book. Death followed the book thief for a while, and when she dropped her book, he picked it up.

5. Death
Death provides glimpses of the story's future but doesn't narrate in detail, something he will do as the novel progresses.
He comments frequently on his inability to understand humans, how they can be so kind and yet still cause so much destruction and suffering; like colours, humans are ever-changing and can also be murky in their behaviour. Along with the mood of the humans, the colours often complement the weather, as well as the tone of the events happening during particular chapters.

6. Structure
The novel is not a linear story. It is a quite episodic and it jumps back and forward in time. It is divided up into sections which are marked off by important books in Liesel Meminger’s life.
Past tense with flashbacks and occasional flash forwards.
By foreshadowing the times he saw Liesel, Death sets up the structure of the narrative, organized around three major events in Liesel’s life, and also creates a sense of inevitability, or predestination, for what follows.
The reader also has a greater understanding of a situation than the characters often do, in large part because the reader has the benefit of seeing events from Death’s nearly omniscient point of view.
Death is an omniscient (all-knowing and all-seeing) narrator who switches between first person and a closed third person point of view, describing all the main characters’ thoughts and emotions as well as his own. He mostly sticks to the events during the years of World War Two, though occasionally he flashes forward to relay different characters’ fates.

7. Style
With Death as the unconventional, omniscient narrator of The Book Thief, the novel immediately establishes that the story will mix elements of fantasy with historical fact.
Yet Death is not the stereotypical idea we have of him….how does he describe himself? Remember what he says (in bold type) and the tone he uses….
How does the reader react to this? Are we prepared to suspend our disbelief and listen to this narrator?
Does this bring us into the novel? Why?
The use of Death as the Narrator has a great impact on us, the readers and ADDS TO THE SUCCESS OF THE NOVEL.

8. Style The Book Thief features innovative stylistic techniques.
The most obvious innovation (which some readers love and others can't stand) is narrator Death's use of boldface text to relay certain information, as here: *** A SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT*** ABOUT RUDY STEINER
He didn't deserve to die the way he did. (37.9).
Zusak also includes illustrations. He gives us books within his books.

9. Tone
The tone is intimate and conversational, with the narrator at times interrupting himself or interjecting reactions to the narrative. Though his voice employs humour, the overall sense is of sadness.

10. Setting
The novel starts in January 1939 – Germany is on the brink of war and most of the novel is set during WW2
These early sections also introduce Germany as a country on the brink of a world war. Again, there is a dramatic irony in that the reader knows the gravity of the political situation that’s developing, whereas the characters in the novel have little sense of the destruction that awaits them
The Book Thief is set in Munich, which is in the south of Germany.
Near Munich is the Dachau Concentration Camp
Himmel Street, where the Hubermanns and Steiners live, is where much of the action takes place. "Himmel," Death informs us, translates to "heaven“.
The majority of the early chapters are devoted to introducing and developing the main characters in the book and creating a portrait of a typical German suburb.

11. “First the colours. Then the humans. That’s how I usually see things
“First the colours. Then the humans. That’s how I usually see things.” (Death, p 3)
Death observes colours as a distraction from the anguished survivors of the dead: "I do, however, try to enjoy every colour I see--the whole spectrum... It takes the edge off the stress. It helps me relax.“
“People observe the colours of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colours. Waxy yellows, cold-spat blues. Murky darknesses.” (p5)
Death's willingness to observe different shades in the colour spectrum indicates Death's fundamental indecision about whether the human race is totally good or totally evil, suggesting that in Death's analysis, human beings are at various times capable of being either good or bad. (INTRODUCTION OF THEME)

12. Colours
Death repeats frequently the state and colour of the sky during important events.
What are the colours death mentions for each of the times he saw Liesel?
What are the ideas and significance psychologically attached to colours (both conscious and subconscious)?
How are these colours significant? (Think of the setting)

13. Prologue Questions
1. From what point of view is the novel told? Who is the narrator of the story? How do you know? 2. What theory does the narrator suggest about colours? 3.What purpose do colours serve for the narrator? Why does the narrator need distractions? 4.What elements does the narrator specifically name as critical components of the story? 5.Who might you infer is the book thief? Has he or she already been named? Explain your answer. 6. What might the reader infer about the book thief?