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How does Zusak's use of symbolism convey the power of words to motivate a nation to oppress its most vulnerable citizens?

Zusak takes the symbols of the time period, and with his amazing use of figures of speech, creates an authentic tone and mood that can strongly affect readers. One example is in the section entitled "The Last Stop: The road of yellow stars," when Zusak creates a scene around the symbolic yellow stars of David—the ones that Jews were forced to wear to identify them and set them apart from society. In this section, there is one street called Schiller Strasse that is dubbed "the road of yellow stars." The paragraph that describes this street resembles all of Zusak's brilliant writing in The Book Thief:



"Shaped like a long, broken arm, the road contained several houses with lacerated windows and bruised walls. The Star of David was painted on their doors. Those houses were almost like lepers. At the very least, they were infected sores on the injured German terrain" (51).



First, the "broken arm" can be related to the broken Jewish lifestyle and spirit. Once many Jews were rich and successful, but now, under Nazi rule, they have been broken and left without any way to heal. Next, their Star of David loses its religious value because it is used against Jews as a hated symbol, rather than one that is beloved. Then, a Biblical reference to lepers is used to describe the homes of these vulnerable citizens, which also clearly relates to the Nazi frame of mind towards Jews. Finally, since lepers also have infected sores, the image continues to drive home the point of how the Nazis viewed the Jews who lived among them.


Through the use of symbolism and imagery in the above passage, Zusak is able to solidify with words what the Nazis wanted German citizens to think about Jews. Also, as Liesel and Rudy look down the street, they seem to project what the Nazis want them to think onto the people walking there. These projected feelings are discovered as the children think of those people as "ghosts" and "Not humans, but shapes" (51). This is exactly what Nazis wanted Germans to think: that Jews were not people and unworthy to exist. The Nazis were able to convince a nation of these horrible things, which led to a horrifying Holocaust.

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