The Book Thief 2

Mark Zusack, the author of The Book Thief, uses flashbacks and flash forwards through the story. This manipulation of time helps develop characters and the reader's interest. This is a big part of the story so far and it is really good to read because it does make things much more interesting and it is a nice change up to throw the flashbacks in there. The manipulation of time helps because it makes me appreciate events unfolding the story in a more enlightened way. By using the flash-forward the author is preparing me what is ahead so I will not be so shocked. The first flash forward that takes place is when there is a predication that someone will die on the train. This event leads to a question upon myself as to who this person who would be dying was. I then later found out who it was and I was shocked. It was shocking because it was Liesel's brother. The use of flashbacks in this story is used to inform the reader on what has happened that we are unaware of. An example of the author’s use of flashbacks is the Jesse Owens incident. Rudy painted himself black and came in first in running a race and Hitler was against everyone besides Germans. When Rudy was telling Liesel this story, Liesel had felt that she had actually been there. This flashback helped give me a better understanding of how Liesel felt and I would not have known how she felt if the author did not use the flashback. There are other techniques that are used, as in every story. But the flashbacks and flash forwards are very important to this story. Like I said before they enhance your knowledge of what is going on. They are able to tell you what has happened in the past and inform you on the future. Being informed on the future braces the impact of there being a crazy surprise that comes out of nowhere and then having the readers completely be lost and not like the book anymore. I believe this is a pretty good book so far and I am looking forward to continue reading on.

The Book Thief

I am currently reading The Book Thief and all though I have not finished the book; I think it is very good. So far I have gotten to the fourth part of the book. My favorite part so far is the fourth part. It is my favorite part because there is a plot twist. The Jew named Max had arrived at the Hubermann's door and the behavior of Rosa Hubermann was surprising. It was surprising because Rosa was really guarded and protected over Liesel, who is her adopted daughter, and I did not think she would risk bringing a Jew into the house. The Hubermann's are not Jewish so this could be very dangerous. This story takes place in the time of Adolf Hitler and that is why it is seemed to be risky. Another part that made this chapter interesting is the fact that Hans Hubermann told Max's dad, Erik, right before he died that he would do anything for him and years later Max showed up at the Hubermann's door. This was a complete shock to me when I found out that he was at the door. I felt that Hans was more motivated to help Max because he felt that he needed to keep his promise to Erik when he died. So Hans stepped up and is playing the role to keep him safe and protected. He is almost playing the new role of his father. Just based off of what has happened so far I believe that he is doing a good job. Max never really had a father that was there for him and it is comforting to Max that he now has one. I think Max is really going to enjoy the rest of his life now that he has a fatherly figure around all the time. Another thing that was shocking to me was when Max created The Standover Man for Leisel. This is significant because Max wanted to show Liesel his appreciation of him looking over him. It also was his way of saying thank you for being there. I think this part was my favorite so far because it was so touching and there was many events that took place and caught me off guard.

 

a walk

The poem A Walk by Rainer Maria Rilke is very good. The poet of the story is not from America, but from Bohemia/ Austria. That does not matter though because she uses the same techniques and literary devices that most poets use. She uses lots of imagery in her poem. All of the imagery in her poem has a purpose. The use of this imagery is to try to tie the reader in and make he or she feel as if she is experiencing the same thing she is. It also seems to use a little bit of third person in this poem. Her poem is talking about a situation in which most people know. This is not just familiar to her but to many others. There is always a meaning of every poem. I believe that the meaning of this poem is about life. She says," going far ahead of the road I have begun". I think that means that she is already on that road to what she is going to accomplish and be led to. She begins to describe the thing that has us grasped. When she says that, "so we are grasped by what we cannot grasp". I actually think that she is by an outside force like god. She gives hints like being grasped that we cannot grasp and it charges us, even if we do not reach it. This poem is saying that God is there to help us on our journey in life to get where we are meant to be. God does this unknowingly and even if we do not ask for god’s help, he is still there to "charge" at us and help us on our way. The author uses the personification of God being this wind. The literary text of this poem makes it really seem that it is really just wind that is blowing in the persons face as she is walking. But like every poem, it has more meaning than that. It is like a metaphor that God is the wind to our life. Rainer uses good use of literary devices like the personification and the imagery to show you that it is not just wind but really is God or an outside force. The line that gave this away to me was the very last line. "but what we feel is the wind in our faces". This is telling us that what we feel is the wind blowing at us, but what it really is is God. Rainer did an excellent job with this poem. At first I really had no idea what the author was talking about. I read it over a few times, because you can never just read a poem one time and know what it means, and I realized that this was not a literate poem. She made it seem very literal by the structure of the poem. The meaning behind the lines is what I looked for and I believe this is about how God is there to lead us on and carry us through life. He is there when we do not expect it and helps us when we do not need it.

crouching tiger, hidden dragon

I recently watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in class the other day... i must say that it was not the typically movie you watch. It was a martial arts movie, with tons of action and lots of meaning behind the actions of the people. With all of the action in this movie there was a lot of fight scenes. I feel as if there is a purpose behind so many fight scenes. The purpose of these fight scenes is to focus into on how much martial arts and their fighting techniques mean to them. It is as if the fighting and learning the ways to fight are extremely important to them. I also believe part of the purpose is to intensify and to describe the meaning of their emotions. The way they fought with all the passion like jen and Li Mu Bai shows how much respect they have for each other. Also the fighting scenes shows how good their training and how good of fighters they are. For example when they can define gravity and fly, then they have reached a certain level where they are above others. Thats what i believe is the purpose of the fighting scenes.