The Book Thief

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is one of the most fascinating novel I have ever read. It is a novel that I have recommended to numerous people already. The most interesting aspect of the novel is the fact that Death is the narrator. Having a narrator that everyone can recognize is powerful but to also have a narrator that represents darkness and destruction is even more powerful. Death is so likable in The Book Thief, which is not something we are used to as readers and one of the most powerful lines in my opinion is" Five hundred souls. I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the children I carried in my arms"(Zusak, pg 336), which shows how sympathetic Death is. The main point of this novel is the German point of view of Hitler and the Nazi's. Zusak uses history along with jaw dropping sentences like "The day had been a great one, and Nazi Germany was a wondrous place" (Zusak, pg.156) to make his point and to keep his readers absorbed in the novel.

Zusak begins his novel by introducing his narrator as Death and the first thing Death does was tell the reader that he is not responsible for, ironically, death but rather collecting the souls. He makes this point again by saying "It probably had more to do with the hurled bombs, thrown down by humans hiding in the clouds" (Zusak, 13) saying who ultimately is responsible for death. Another point that is repeated throughout the novel is the effects of physical features at the time of "Nazi Germany". We are introduced to Liesel Meminger and her "German blond" hair and "dangerous eyes. Dark brown"; Later we are introduced to Rudy, Liesel's best friend, who has beautiful blond hair and "safe" blue eyes, which tells us how important it was to look like what Hitler thought was ideal..


The most important message that comes from The Book Thief is that Germans were not necessarily with the Nazi party. Even those who showed their respect and support did not fully support the cause and called it beautiful "Submission"(Zusak, pg. 63). It is interesting to see how many characters were noticeably against the Nazi party; characters like Hans Huberman and Mr.Steiner to name a few. The message behind this novel is dark and it keeps the memory of the devastation that occurred before and during World War II alive. It is important that readers understand the purpose behind Zusak's bone-chilling novel.

Feed

After hearing from a few classmates that Feed by M.T. Anderson was a bit of a drag, I began dreading the idea of going through another novel that I wouldn't enjoy (Kim), but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  Feed has proved to be interesting and really enjoyable. We have a narrator, in the first person, which made it really  easy to connect with the story. 

Feed is about a few bored teenagers, both girls and guys, who take a trip to the moon for the weekend only to find that "The goddamn moon" has "rockiness, and the suckiness, and the craters all full of broken shit'" (Feed, pg.4). They visit a few places like Ricochet Lounge (Ricochet, defined as a hit that rebounds once or more times off a surface) where there is "no-grav". The interesting thing about this novel is we are not introduced to the narrator for a little while but I got the sense that he's a guy from his obsession with hooking up with girls. The novel does a good job of showing the reader that these are hormonally charged teenagers who have yet to get sense of what life is really about like when the narrator says "maybe Loga and I could hook up again, if we didn't find anyone else, like on the moon or whatev"(Feed, pg.12); it's in line with a true teenage boy's train of thought. 

Written in 2002, Feed seems to be ahead of its time. It is a world where internet feeds are directly imported into one's brain, and the internet controls your life.  It is almost as though M.T. Anderson is warning us about the effects of not only the internet but the advertisements that control what we drink, eat, drive...etc. It is incredible to see what M.T. Anderson predicts in a time where the internet was not as prominent as it is today and Facebook and Instagram seized to exist. The flying cars and the weird food choices like " some fancy IV's from room service but they gave us all headaches" (Feed, pg.9) confirms how ahead of OUR time this novel is. 

The two things I noticed about this novel is the language and gender stereotypes. Although the novel is ahead of it's time, it is still aligned with the gender stereotypes we have today; guys with raging hormones watching football and girls being chatty and catty. The second thing I noticed was the language used; it feels like this novel was written for an audience much older than a 14 year old. I can't seem to imagine my (non-existing) 14-year old son or daughter reading such a sexually driven book with terms like the F-bomb.  Feed to me feels like a diary of some sort; the super short chapters make it seem as though the narrator jotted things down as his days went on with titles that helped him remember what happened that day. Do you think this could be read like a diary?

This novel has proven to have many great points with a very interesting story line. I look forward to completing my reading and hopefully begin to understand the message Anderson was trying to relay to his reader.