【104-1 第二名】會計系一A 張簡〇萱：The book thief by Markus Zusak

The book thief by Markus Zusak

參賽者：張簡〇萱（會計系一A）
名次：第二名
書名：The book thief
得獎作品：

     For a person like me, who loves English so much, reading novels is an enjoying thing. Among dozens of books I had read, I would like to introduce “The Book Thief.” It was in the midst of the World War Two, a girl named Liesel Meminger and her little brother were sent to a foster family in Germany where Nazi regime was blossoming. However, her brother didn’t make it due to the freezing weather; therefore, Liesel alone lived with her beloved (foster) Papa and Mama. During the period, she met Rudy Steiner, her neighbor, and a Jewish boy called Max Vandenburg, who both turned out to be her best friends. Liesel started curious about the “word”, asking Papa to read her the first book she had stolen, The Grave Digger’s Handbook. From then on, Papa taught her daughter the basic vocabulary, and encouraged her to read more books. This is an amazing story which really impressed me. First of all, author used the view of “the Death” to tell the readers this ordinary but touching narrative that penetrated deeply into people’s heart, which was an astonishing writing skill that I never seen before.

     Secondly, although the novel was set in the background of the war, we could still see the love between people, especially during the domination of the Nazi. Love could be an urgent thing for civilians to embrace; for example, when the residents hided in the shelter because of the air raid, Liesel told a story to everyone to comfort their anxious mood. We knew that her sound not only soften the tension flowed in the air, but spread the love to each corner of the listeners’ hearts. I think this was the best part of the book, author used simple words to covey this sarcastic scene: the little girl’s calm voice was surrounding the shelter while the air raid hit, which made a strong contrast.

     There was another important reason why I love this book so much, it was the technique writer used. Author, Markus Zusak, tried to interact with us, the reader, through his story. He seemed to know what we were thinking while reading the book, therefore, reading this novel would have a feeling that author was telling the story in front of us, in person. On the other hand, author used colors to describe the environment in which a scene started to begin. The lifeless sight became vivid thanks to the ornamentation of these colors, and invisibly brought more emotions to the readers at the same time.

     Also, I think the author was trying to tell us how cruel the war was by the speaking of the death. Through the job of the death, it was more clearly that the world without any conflicts would be the human beings’ hopes, and the death’s too.