In the book, The Book Thief, Death talks about this scene twice. The first time is when Death describes ‘The black signature’ on page 10. He describes the darkness as; it was the darkest moment before dawn (9). In this section, a German plane crashed outside Molching, but just before the crowd gathered to see the accident and the dying man, two young adults showed up just before Death came for his soul. It was Liesel and Rudy who came carrying around a toolbox. In that toolbox was a number of items such as; A rusty pocketknife, a small flashlight, two hammers (one medium, one small), one hand towel, three screwdrivers of various sizes, a ski mask, a pair of clean socks, and a single teddy bear. They were on their way to steal when they realized that they couldn’t bring themselves to take anything. A few weeks later they finally found use of the toolbox when the next air raid happened and Rudy put the Steiners’ valuables in it to keep them safe.
“It was Bettina Steiner who noticed the small fire and the sliver of smoke farther down, close to the Amper River. It trailed into the sky and the girl held up her finger. ‘Look’ she said” (Zusak 488).
Rudy took off to see. Liesel followed and had asked him to wait, but he was to in the moment to pause for anything.
“Carefully, Rudy climbed to the dying man. He placed the smiling teddy bear cautiously onto the pilots shoulder. The tip of its ear touched his throat. The dying man breathed it in. He spoke. In English, he said, ‘Thank you.’ (Zusak 490-491)
The man died just as Rudy was asking what he meant. In the next paragraph Death tries to describe the human heart as a line, compared to what he says about his own as it is a circle. As Death he has seen the ups and downs of being human. I believe Death envies Humans because it is in our nature to be both beautiful and hideous at the same time.
Compassion is the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of emotional maturity. It is through compassion that a person achieves the highest peak and deepest reach in his or her search for self-fulfillment. --Arthur Jersild.
This seemed like the best quote to me that fits my belief for compassion. I believe compassion is when you attempt to take someone’s suffering and bring it upon them to want to make the world a better place, to end someone’s suffering. To me it’s a part of being Human. I once heard and fully stand by it, that it doesn’t take a lot to change the world, that the best you can do is one random act of kindness, that alone will make this life worth living.
Works Cited
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.
