“How did Markus Zusak employ features of the genre magical realism to convey his ideas about human existence in his novel “The Book Thief?”

Magical realism is a genre of writing that is used to trick people into believing the lies and tales told by the author. It is used to express ideas in a way that challenges the readers previous preconceptions based on everyday aspects of life. The objective of adding a magical element is to engage the audience and force them to think outside of the normal. In “The Book Thief,” author Markus Zusak gets us to trust and believe all that he tells us hoping to get his point across in a believable way, he applies features of magical realism by using the point of view of Death to help narrate his ideas about human existence.

P1: We live our lives in fear of death. When experiencing the death of a loved one, our grief forbids us to blame ourselves or each other for the tragedy. Therefore we take our guilt, responsibility and shame, and place it onto Death’s shoulders. However, when Zusak gives Death human-like characteristics, previous negative judgements based on the idea of death are challenged and we begin to realise that our actions are in-fact the cause of all of our end result. In “The Book Thief” the character Death is personified to allow the reader to think of Death as much like themselves, ‘Even death has a heart’. Personifying Death like this makes the reader begin to believe that he has thoughts and feelings like themselves. Therefore making us feel sorry for Death. By giving the reader a reason to understand Death and a reason to relate to him, we begin to trust the character. ‘I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result.‘ Compels us to believe that he is a kind, reliable character. As most deaths in “The Book Thief” that occurred in the time of WWII were by acts of violence, Death highlighting the point that he is not violent gives us a reason to believe that is not the cause of all the fatalities, and we are.

P2: In “The Book Thief” we are made to believe the story is set in the fictional town of Molching, Germany. Zusak believed that if he could get the reader to believe his town was real with a magical element, he could persuade them to believe anything he says is real making the novel more capturing. ‘Whoever named Himmel Street has a healthy sense of irony. Not that it was a living hell. It wasn’t. But it sure wasn’t heaven, either.‘ This quote uses irony to trick the reader into believing Himmel Street is a real place. It distracts us from the truth, being that Zusak is the one who named Himmel street, and instead forces us to think about Himmel street as though it’s in the real world. He makes us think about who could’ve named it to distract from the fact it was actually him, which would lead us to believe it’s a made up town. Enforcing this type of trickery on the reader captures our minds in his made up world where Liesel Meminger lives.

P3: Throughout the text Markus Zusak creates a fictional yet believable story in our mind. Having the ability to relate his story to the real world gives us a familiarity that helps us make sense of everything he is trying to get across. His use of words and language techniques are what prompt us to rely on the information we are being given. ‘It kills me sometimes, how people die.‘ Death speaks about his anguish towards people dying, which is ironic because as humans we believe he is the one to blame for people dying. Irony is used several times throughout this novel to employ features of magical realism, as a way to trick us or distract us from reality. He hides the truth from us, forcing us to to believe his lies. The irony in this quote confuses us, making us question things like does Death die? Is he killing himself? If people dying makes Death sad, maybe he isn’t the one to blame for killing them. Markus Zusak wants to enforces these types of questions on the reader, in order for us to understand the points he is trying get across to us, he does this by using language techniques, such as irony.

Conclusion: Life is very mysterious and there are many things we don’t know. And there are elements of magical realism in every culture, everywhere. It’s just accepting that we don’t know everything, and everything is possible- Isabel Allende. Markus Zusak, Author of “The Book Thief” tells us his story about Liesel Meminger during the time of WWII in Molching Germany. He tricks us into believing Death is kind and a reliable source of information, and he tricks us into believing that Molching is the true town of residence for all the people living on Himmel street. For him to feel as though he is getting his point across to his audience, his use of words must be persuasive enough to convince us that what he is telling us is accurate, honest information. By using elements of magical realism in his writing, he feels confident that he has our attention and trust, therefore he can begin to convey his ideas to us about human existence.