Why is Death haunted by humans? How did Death perceive the best and worst of humans? How accurate do you think his views are? Use page numbers from the book and quotes to support your answer.
Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott
12 years ago
26 comments:
Okay i don't know about you, but I'm wondering why no one else posted a comment on this yet? Its not that hard of a topic.
Anywho, I believe death is haunted by humans because of all the horrible things that happen every day. I mean think about, all death ever sees is all the bad things happenning around the world. He never gets to see the good things in life. Only events where death occurs, like wars, or in this case the holocaust. Personally i think that would be a horrible job. He never gets any vacation what so ever. How bout that Mrs. Groom ypu know all about vacation, because you get the whole summer off just like kids. Would you like it if it all got taken away? And with that note I am leaving. ttyl!
I believe that death is haunted by humans because I think death may have a conscious. Death may feel pity for some of the lives he's taken, for example death once mentioned that Rudy Steiner did not deserve to die the way he did.
I think that my prediction may not be completely accurate because in most parts of the world death is seen as a dark, choleric figure if it were to be personified.
Having to see all the reason for dying, all day, every day, must be horrible, wouldn't you think? Death is the only true one, that sees all the horrible things that humans do to eachother, and knows what they're capable of. To a normal, every day person, we think of death as the grim reaper, going around killing people to 'pass over', but why don't we see him as someone that looks just like us, when us, the alive humans are the real reason that people are dying. On page 307 Death says that needed a vacation. Death sees war as more of a boss to him, wanting more and more, all the time, but he can never seem to get a break. Death isn't the real reason for people dying, we are the reason. He is just having to clean up after us, I guess you could say.
Yes, Joob5, I need my summer vacations! I live for them! As far as Death being haunted by us humans, I think what Mark Zusak has done with Death as a character is amazing. When I first heard about this book and that Death was the narrator, I couldn't wrap my brain around how the author was going to make me feel sympathy for him. So Joob5, not that I am comparing teaching to carrying souls away, but I do feel every job needs some time away. Like SaMar5, I feel that one of the most powerful chapters of the book is "Death's Diary: 1942", which is on pages 307-310. I connected with the following line:
"They keep triggering inside me. They harass my memory...And then. There is death. Making his way through all of it. On the surface: unflappable, unwavering. Below: unnerved, untied, and undone."
I had never thought about Death as weary and tired of our antics, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find out he feels this way! This discovery has shed light on my view of death in the real world too. Isn't it weird how a fictional book can change your thinking?
I think Death is haunted by humans, because it's not like Death every stops. He's been around for forever, and he has seen the good and bad in humans, and wouldn't you want to know why that much good and evil live in them? I would...Mrs. Groom, I have a question. I have finished the book and I am wondering. Does Lisel marry Max?!?!?!?
Death is probably haunted by humans because he sees so many people dying all of the time in wars and stupid things like during the Hollocaust. Death feels guilty that he can't help some of the people that want to die and he convinces them that "their time will come." On page 307 Death thinks that humans would understand self-obsession because he is busy 24/7 and never gets a break. Humans have all the time in the world! I do not think Death's views are very accurate because he only sees the bad part of life- people dying and he doesn't expirence the great things in it.
Mrs. Groom,
The way you explained how death feels (tired and weary) is exactly how i portray Death.
Zusak did an outstanding job on creating a visulization for us to comprehend that Death is not an evil and wicked character, but worn down and distraught by constantly carrying humans away.
Like racwa4 said, Death appears to have a conscience. He pains to have to take away lives from families.
Page 317 Death writes,
***A LATE NIGHT EXCERPT***
I realized much later that i actually visited 33 Himmel Street in that period of time. It must have been one of the few moments when the girl was not there with him, for all i saw was a man in bed. I knelt. I readied myself to insert my hand through the blankets. Then tere was a resurgence-an immense struggle against my weight. I withdrew, and with so much work ahead of me, it was nice to be fought off in that dark little room. I...managed...a pause of serenity before i made my way out. Death was relieved to not have to take Max away; he doesn't want to.
I agree with racwa4. I also think death is haunted by humans because he feels sorry for the life he's taken like when he said "Rudy Steiner did not deserve to die the way he did." I think that death doesn't like to hurt people by taking away the people that they love but it's his job. As he says on page 543 "the world is a fctory." Which means it's like a real job even though you don't like what your boss tells you to do or what you have to do you still do it because it's your job.
I think Death is haunted by humans because everyday Death sees dying people. He can't talk or interact with them. Death's views are accurate in a very artistic way.
I think Death is haunted by humans because he has feelings and cares about the people that die. Death only sees the bad side of life, death. He never sees the good of life. I think he is haunted by humans because it is them that cause him to never get a break and see horrific images time and time again. On page 308 death says "They beg me to take them with me, not realizing I'm too busy as it is". "Your time will come," I convince them, and I try not to look back.
I believe that death is haunted by humans because Death may have strong feelings for the people he takes away because he knows exactly how each human had taken their last breath and he feels sympathy for the way each person has died. Don't you think you would be sad if you watched millions of people die and you were not able to do anything about it. On top of that, you would never get a break because of all the people who die every minute, like when Death says that he can never take a real vacation because of the non-stop dieing of people around the world.
All in all I think my answer is fairly correct but I am thinking that there is a totally different side to Death that is not spelled out in writing in the book.
This is kind of off topic but I had a question about the way that Death was chosen to do his job?
I think that death is haunted by humans because he has to witness every single gruesome thing that we humans do. Unlike humans death doesn't get a break. He goes nonstop all year round all because of us. Death has been perceived as an evil figure that instantly takes your life away but in reality death has feelings and actually knows which humans diserved to live.Death isn't the one that kills us, us humans take care of that. Death just carries away the souls that our left behind in our corpses. I think deaths views are accurate because he has seen so much and is very wise and seems to know what he's talking about. But at the same time I don't think he is accurate and I agree with NicRo5 when she said "I do not think Death's views are very accurate because he only sees the bad part of life- people dying and he doesn't expirence the great things in it."
welll joob5 I'm sorry i didn't have enough time.
But, I think that death is haunted by humans because his job is to take souls. Death has to go where ever there is death, and people are always killing each other. I think that the more people kill each other the more death is afraid of us. Most people are afraid of death but I just think death is afriad of us and keeps being more afraid the more we harm each other.
I think Death is always on vacation because he is always in some different place of the world. It might not be the best vacation but he is never sitting at home watching TV or texting on his phone saying I'm bored! I think is haunted by us humans becaues we go around and start wars or go crazy and shot at random people. Death probbly has seen so many to kill someone! I also think that Death is like someone that hates their job. He nevers gets to go out with his friends. I want ot leave you with one question. If Death is haunted by us why are we scared of him?!
I think Death is haunted by humans because he sees people dying every second and carring their souls away like a ghost. Haunting like that too. But seeing people dying and can't do anything about can't stop it because you are Death. But you don't want this job either. I think his views are very accurate on the death part about how he sees the very last part of every ones life Death takes away. But i think it is very accurate because sometimes i had to remind myself that this was Death telling the story and not a out side person telling the story.
Death is haunted by humans because we are scary. If you really think about the human race and what we’ve done, or haven’t done in some cases, it makes us seem barbaric and cruel. Humans kill each other, yes some animals kill their own kind but it could be argued that they don’t know any better or it’s in their instincts but humans kill each other for reasons sometimes we don’t understand and sometimes for revenge or even because we think it’s the solution to everything. If I was a third person viewer of humans I would be haunted just as Death is in the book.
At the same time humans have great kindness in them to. For some it is just a simple act of kindness, such as opening the door for someone, every day and for others a more extreme act is performed, helping a third world country get medicine, and sometimes kindness isn’t even the right word, when a doctor saves a life for example.
Humans have great kindness and great evil in them but Death sees more of the evil in us because it is his job to collect the souls of people who have been killed by humans. “I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it” page 550 of The Book Thief.
P.S. I don't really think Death has much of a problem taking away the souls beecause he is sort of taking them to a better place. Oh and I can't figure out how to do the HTML tags, my computer hates me, so the title of the book is supposed to be italisized.
I definately agree with joob5 in the way he says that Death sees people die ech and every day. There is happiness within each day and Death doesn't get to witness it. I thought about this question for a while and actually wondered why Death would be haunted by humans because he sees them every day. I would have thought that he could overcome his fear. After reading some other people's comments I looked at the topic in an intirely new way.
I'm not exactly sure what the second part of this question is asking but I'll try to answer it anyway. I think that Death's views of the story are fairly acurate because he could alway be there and see an event when it happens. The downside of the story being told by Death is that he wasn't any of the actual characters. Because of this, he couldn't describe how any of the characters actually felt emmotionally. For example on page twenty when Leisel's brother died on the train, Death couldn't decribe how Leisel felt. He could only describe how the situation appeared.
Let me just say that the ending was very expected. I just feel bad that Rudy died.
But I think that he is haunted by humans because he has to pick up millons of people everyday. He has to see all those horrible tragedys. I think that he is haunted by them because he doesn't understand how people can do those horrible to other people. I believe that he is haunted by how people can be so horrible and not care about killing all those people. Like Hitler. Death is haunted about how Hitler does not feel any remorse towards killing thousands of innocent people.
In my opinion death is "haunted by humans" because he feels that we take advantage of our lives and also thinks that we are ungrateful. I mean think about it he has to take people away from us and watch us shed emotion,but he has no choice. On page. 5 it states, "It's the leftover humans. The survivors. They're the ones I can't stand to look at...." Death can't stand to look at us because he thinks we resent him. He states that he isn't the one who chooses who dies, but we automatically think it's his fault. I think his views are correct, to a certain degree, we do take advantage of life, we fight with the ones we love, and complain about the things we have, and death gets nothing, no one to love.
In my opinion Death is haunted by humans because he sees what horrible things humans do to eachother. He has to see how people die, how much they suffer, and why they died. I think that that would be extremely horrifying and exhausting, like Death says on page 338. "As usual, I collected humans. I was tired. And the year wasn't even half over yet." I don't think that I would be able to participate in a job where every second of every day you had to be working. I agree with SaMar5 that we are the reason people die and when we "make a mess" Death has to "clean up" after us. In my opinion Death's views are pretty acurate because humans sometimes do horrible things for horrible reasons. For example how so many Jews were killed in the holocaust just because they were Jewish.
I believe Death is haunted by humans because every day he sees us die, in some cases due to other humans. I would find this very unsettling, having to watch a race of creatures killing others of their own kind. For Death, he has to watch and obsereve this every day. Can you imagine how awful it would be to collect the innocent souls of those who died because of a bombing that was brought upone by other humans? I found a very interesting quote by Death on page 308 that made me think of this.
"You might argue that I make the rounds no matter what year it is, but sometimes the human race likes to crank things up a little. They increase the production of bodies and their escaping souls. A few bombs usually do the trick. Or some gas chambers, or the chitchat of faraway guns. If none of that finishes proceedings, it at least strips people of their living arrangements, and I witness the homeless everywhere."
I think Death precieves humans as a beautiful, yet awfule race. That in a way he sees us indifferently.
I believe his views are accurate, that there are many bad people in the world, yet there are just as many, maybe even more good people in the world.
I think the reason death is haunted by humans is because of all the horrible things we humans do to eachother. We kill, kidnap, rape, ect. eachother so much that all of those things have become a part of everyday life. You would never be able to watch the news when there wasn't a horrible crime of somekind being reported. And, being death, he is exposed to basically all of the darker side of humanity. Because of that, it is obvious why he is haunted by humans. In my opionion, we are the worst living race in the world. Think about it, we harm eachother for no reason all the time. Other animals dont do that. A...kangaroo wont just go beat up another kangaroo for absolutely no reason at all. We are the only ones who do. I'd be haunted by humans, too!
Death is haunted by humans because we surprise him all the time. He says on page 550, "I wanted to explain to her that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race- that rarely do I ever simply estimate it." Death perceives the best and worst of humans by looking at the colors on them. They show people's feelings, so Death can see the best feelings of humans, such as love, and the worst, such as hatred. One example of this is on page 5 when Death says, "I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them." I don't think his ideas are very accurate because he can't read our minds. Because he sees only dead humans most of the time, he doesn't understand why we feel the way we feel. He doesn't know why we get mad, upset, or very happy. This is because, quite simply, Death is not human. What do you think he is, if he's not human, animal, or anything else?
I'm sure there are many reasons death is haunted by humans. Death is always working, taking the lost souls. Death has seen what good has come from humans and what bad has come from them. All he sees are humans killing and being killed. How could you not be haunted by something that you're always dealing with? Death may feel that certain people don't deserve to die, but he really doesn't have a say in what happens. Death just keeps on doing what he has to without complaint. I think death's views are accurate, yet, at the same time, innaccurate. Death has to take care of all those lives that were taken, which are quite a few, and knows what has caused their deaths. What Death doesn't get to see is the lives those people lived and all the good times they had.
i think death is haunted by humans because of the way they dont like to die he said in the prolouge thatt he hates humans because of the way they hate dying. he percieves the best and worse of humans by how close they are to dying. i think his views are pretty good he carries every dead persons soul awy for a job and goes all over the world. i think his views are very accurate from all the things he seen and heard.
I think Zusak did an extraordinary job when he used Death as the narrator. It's a very different view of the story, but I feel that if Death wasn't the narrator, the story wouldn't be as powerful. I mean... so many people died during this time. Who would be better at explaining the tragedies of the Holocaust? I agree totally with b.R.a.S.t.6... Death (as shown in this book) does have a conscious. He mensions alot how guilty or sad he feels when he takes peoples lives. I think he feels haunted by humans, because he's seen most every personality. Rude people, kind people, happy people, depressed people, and, because he's Death, he sees mostly the bad things. I mean, his job IS to take peoples lives and there normally isn't joy when someone dies. He also mensions how he needs a vacation. This means that he's mostly busy taking lives so that wouldn't really leave much time to see the happy things. I'm glad Zusak chose Death to be the narrator 'cause it lets you see the Holocaust through a different set of eyes.
Post a Comment