Death's Humor

[Caitlin]

    Throughout the story Death, our narrator, adds his own voice and interactions (if you would consider it interaction). But in his voice he adds a sense of sarcastic, ironic, and sometimes cynical humor. To me having humor, even if very little, is not the best for atmosphere. It contributes to Death as a personification, proving he doesn't have much sympathy, but it can also waver the mood. As a reader it makes the experience more interesting - everyone loves humor - but is it really necessary? It isn't the least common to find comedy in war novels; take Catch 22 for example. There were instances that if worded differently would be sorrowful. Instead the dry, random humor gives the book it's own personality, while The Book Thief's narrator is defying the story. Then again, Catch 22 is a different novel with different themes and such.

    I could never describe "The Book Thief" as a feel-good novel, and not in a million years would it be designated to that genre. I find humor from Death's voice unnecessary. Although a few plot scenes had a lighter mood, the actions speak for themselves, when having Death use comedy in dire moments is not the same. What do you think about the use of humor from Death? What purpose do you think it served?

[elizabeth miller]

I don't mind the fact that Death added humor in certain parts of the book. Most storytellers will add random facts or humor when telling a story to liven it up, I took it as if Death were doing the same thing. I think that because death is such a sad and dreadfully realistic reality that the author gave him moments of lightness so he would come off not as sadistic to the reader. In some parts of the book it seemed a little forced but it gave the story personality.

[Luke W]

I think Deaths humor adds more character to Death and more depth to the book. Like Elizabeth said, we see Death as such a sad and bleak character, that the humor adds a side to Death that you probably wont see anywhere else.

[ellahardiee]

I enjoyed the humor Death narrated the story with. When I first started reading the book, the realization of death as the narrator was daunting. I expected a one dimensional voice and a tone of depression and pessimism throughout the novel. I was pleasantly surprised by-as Elizabeth stated-the "lightness" of death. The media personifies Death as something we should fear, as an enemy, so I appreciated the author's approach of making Death and his actions more relatable and humorous. The reader begins to care about characters, and when the characters die, it is more comforting to see the perspective of Death itself.

[faithadler]

I found that throughout the course of the novel, death's humor just further portrayed his desesitization to what he's saying. There was multiple instances in the novel where he added that he would travel from places such as Germany, to Africa, and perhaps America and back all in the same day. He travelled the world in order to collect souls, through wars, epidemics, and other instances with outbreaks of mass deaths, not to mention the time in between with horrible deaths of their own account. I believe that his occasional humorous add-ins are actually perhaps as close to human as death could get. As a generalization, when there is nothing to be happy about, we will find things to be happy about, or to convince ourselves we are happy. During a time such as the holocaust, laughs and happiness were scarce, stretched as thin as the supply of food and water. When Max was sick, and was not waking for days at a time, everything seemed to be going wrong for Liesel. However during this time, she found small joy in bringing something home to Max every day, no matter how useless the item seemed at face value. She was turning to even the smallest of things to bring her joy in a time where she could not find much in anything else. To connect this to real life, I find that sometimes when people are going through a rough path, such as losing a close family member, even some things potentially not so significant, such as moving to another state, which may have more significance to some, they poke fun at the situation to try to make light of it in a time when they cannot find any. Our narrator works day aftwr day collecting the souls of men, women, and children everywhere around the world. He was constantly in the face of darkness, and sadness. He had seen things that none of us would even be able to comprehend. I believe that Death's small pockets of humor simply show us his desensitization to war, illness, and the absence of life, and show us a large part of his personality. Perhaps he is humorous about what could be considered to be depressing because he doesn't know any other way to bring himself relief. All of that being said, I believe that the notes were a good addition to the book. I believe they brought something to the table that we don't see in other novels, a remind of our narrorator, and who he is, what the book is and what it's about - death. The notes kept me on my toes as I was reading, and I believe on the surface they may seem morbid, but I believe that death is just trying to fill a void, just as a human would.