“Yes, the Führer decided that he would rule the world with words. “I will never fire a gun, I will not have to”. This quote seems straight forward, Hitler wanted the power to have his way in his country so he composed his best words to manipulate his followers into doing the work for him. Thus his quote “I will not have to”, he is implying any blood that is on his hands never actually touched his hands. The author, Zusak writes throughout the whole of the text about the power and impact words have on Leisel Memminger thus why she is attracted to them, they serve as a distraction to the painful things in her world most of which have been introduced as a result of the ‘Fuhrer’ Adolf Hitler. The author is using this to create contrast and conflict, Leisel holds a higher degree of hatred for the dictator as he takes advantage of her favorite thing being words. Words are the weapon used by an evil man and are the same weapon for a kind misguided girl, the only difference being that she improves herself with the words whereas he burns his country with the words. That is the contrast between the positive and negative potentials of words.

“The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words. Cuts had opened and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin” Markus Zusak has carefully used personification which can also be seen as a metaphor. He is giving us the impression that words have the power to cut someone as a knife could. Of course, we know this isn’t possible so there is a deeper reason as to why this choice of language feature was chosen by the Author. As a reader, after reading that quote I feel as if the words said to Leisel Memminger were more than just mean, they were enough to emotionally wound her which is intriguing. As the Author, his intentions are to tell us more than the obvious and to trigger an emotion within us. I am unfamiliar with what was said to the girl before this quote but it tells us that the words spoken to her are deeply personal. The emotion triggered in me was a sense of empathy and pain, even though Leisel is a fictional character, I feel sorrow for her and all the children who lived in her time. The emotion I felt is beneficial for Markus Zusak as I am likely to recommend this book to another reader thus increasing sales, he is profiting off the emotion he has pushed me to feel and I will be still stuck in my sympathetic bubble for the german girl who had her life ripped away from her.

Mr Waugh I hope this wasn’t too long or too off-topic but i am still happy to share with you were my brain went with your task today 😉