THE WEEK IN RAP

Poems for Any Occasion

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Book Thief Book Club


Domino pieces are called bones and when you play dominoes you draw from the boneyard. Rudy and his sisters play dominoes and watch them fall. On page 410, Kurt, Rudy's brother, says, "They look like dead bodies." How are the dominoes on the book's cover symbolic of the Holocaust and World War II?
After nineteen wonderfully insightful comments on the dominoes, I am more interested to hear from the others about the rest of the symbolism in this novel. What other symbols are used in the story? Can you explain them as fantastically as the other folks explained the symbolism of the dominoes and the Holocaust and WWII? I can't wait to read your entries!

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

To me the dominies on the book cover are symbolic to the holocaust because it shows how all the millions of people were wiped in a sort of falling motion. By this I mean that at first when the jewish were being killed no one actually realized it. When they finally did the good people didn't do anything to stop it. That is a little similar too dominoes because once you knock the first domino down no one will try to stop it usually. As for the other symbols in this story, one obvious one is the star of David which symbolized who was jewish and who wasn't. I also know that "death" uses colors to symbolize what the sky was looking like. For example at one point in the book he points out that the sky was filled with jews, and in another section of the book he talks about the sky being a chocolate color.

Anonymous said...

I think the domonios on the cover of "The Book Thief" are symbolic of the Holocaust and World War II because I think that the domonios are the Jews and the Russians that are in the concentration camps. I think this because the Jews and Russians would dig big holes then they would be lined up. And one by one the Nazi's would shot them. This compares to the domonios because the domonios can be lined up and with one touch. They all fall. Also, this is symbolic to the Holocaust and World War II because when the domonios fall. They fall from one thing and that thing was whatever touch that one domonio to make all the rest fall. So that one thing that touch that domonio that start everything would be Hitler. Hitler made the whole Jewish race to decline rapidly. Last, I think that they put domonios on the cover because when you play domonios you call them the bones and you draw from the graveyard. I think this would represent the Holocaust and World War II because at the concentration camps there would be BIG piles of bones of the Jews that died! So what do you think they put domonios on the cover of "The Book Thief"??

Anonymous said...

I see the dominoes as people.
The dominoes stand tall together as one. Then one person (Hitler) knocks one of the first domino into the next. Slowly, as one, they start to shake and fall; together.
** The dominoes can symbolize the falling of a people.

Another example, if I am not mistaken, is in the begging of the story with the mother, daughter and dead son.
The boy died, and the mother still picked him up and slung him over her shoulder; even when she was tired of carrying him. Showing that she was still holding onto the memory or burden of the boy. The girl would then grasp hold of the mothers leg, showing that the small girl was scared and vulnerable.

Anonymous said...

This quote is a great simile. I see the standing up dominoes as living people and the dominoes fallen down as dead people. If one domino is out of place then the rest of the dominoes won't fall down. This is the same for the people; if one person stands up and tries to do something about the killings then the rest of the people behind that one person might not be killed. Some other symbols in this book are the Star of David which symbolizes the Jewish people and the road of yellow stars symbolizes the Jewish community.
Has anybody else played dominoes much in the past to have any more ideas about what they symbolize on the books front cover?

Anonymous said...

The dominos on the book's cover are like dead bodies because during the Holocaust, when people were lined up to be shot to be killed, they were like donminos falling into a ditch. Other symbols that are used in the story are the sky being a dark red from all of the blood from the jews being bombed.

Anonymous said...

I think in The Book Thief(Couldnt bold it) , with Death, that WW2 and the Holocaust are like one big game of dominoes. The players being death, picking up the dominoes, or souls from the boneyard, or from the graveyard. Other symbols, that i think are; The colors of everything, being what has happened, the mood or feeling of what just happened.

Anonymous said...

The dominos on the front cover do symbolize the Holocaust. They are symbolic because there are domino after domino lined waiting to be knocked down wich is like when the jews would stand in line and wait to be killed. Other symbols in the book are the star of david that symbolizes jews and when death menions "colors" he could possibly be referring to emotions and calling them "colors" instead was probablly just an abstract way to describe emotions.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominos on the cover of the book symbolize how all of the jewish people in germany were hunted down and killed. So many died that it was almost like a domino effect because the deaths never stopped and just went on and on until we declared war on them and realised that it was wrong to kill innocent people-even jewish people. I don't think we noticed what was going on until thousands of deaths had already occured, just like how lots of dominoes had been knocked over (killed). Some other symbols in this book are the books Liesel steals. They represent what she is taking back from Hitler and how she is standing for what she thinks isn't right. Even though she steals, which is bad, she's in a way, giving back what she stole by reading to the people in the bomb shelter when there are bomb attacks on her city. She also reads to Frau Holtzapfel after the second bomb warning.

Anonymous said...

The dominoes on the book's cover symbloize the millions of people who died during the Holocaust. When you draw a dominoe from the boneyard I believe that it symbolizes the bodies that were thrown ontop of eachother in pits after an inmate died at the camps. Death draws from the bone yard by taking the the souls of those who are dead in the pits. Also I agree with brownie25 when they said,"To me the dominies on the book cover are symbolic to the holocaust because it shows how all the millions of people were wiped in a sort of falling motion." To me when I read this I thought of the people dying in the concentration camps one after another and once one gets sick and dies another one does too and it goes on like a domino effect.

Some other symbols used in the story that have an abstract idea are The Word Shaker, and the colors in the book mentioned by death.

Anonymous said...

The dominos on the book's cover is symbolic of the Holocaust because during that time period millions of people were killed. After one domino falls, the rest are wiped out and during the Holocaust, the deaths just kept increasing. There are various symbols that are also mentioned in the book. For example, death describes seeing all sorts of colors. These colors could be emotions that death feels when something happens or maybe they're really the colors of what he is seeing. Another symbol is the Star of David that represents the jews.

Anonymous said...

Kurt had an excellent point when he said, "They look like dead bodies." The dominoes on the cover of The Book Thief are symbolic of all the people killed during the Holocaust and World War II. A pile of dominoes is called a graveyard, and if you think of every domino as a person that's laying on the ground dead, the graveyard is a perfect name for the pile. Also, on the cover, a finger is about to push one domino that will cause all of the others to fall down. This is symbolic of how one Jew was killed, it caused another to be killed, which caused another, and so on. Eventually you're left with a lot of dead people laying on the ground, similar to how the dominoes look once they've been knocked down. Some other symbols used in the story are the colors Death sees on people. The different colors represent the different ways people feel. What do you think your color that would represent how you feel right now is?

Anonymous said...

The dominoes on the cover of the book represent to me the way that the jews were treated. Once one Jew was affected, all of the Jews started to be affected. Of course, the acts started small, and typically unnoticed, but as more were tipped over the problem seemed more noticable. But of course, when you tip over dominoes, no one stops it. They just watch from the crowd. The same goes with the people. They just watched from the outside. Until it was too late.

Anonymous said...

I believe that dominoes are symbolic to the Holocaust and World WarII because when one dominoe falls all of the others behind it will sooner or later come crashing down. This is very similar to the Holocaust because once the killing started it all got out of hand. Once one group of people were being killed many others followed the same results of being killed. Some others symbols that are used in the story are colors. The color represents the mood that is being felt in the story. If the sky was a shade of grey the mood could be sarrowful.

Anonymous said...

i agree with JC!6
i see things the way he does.
Although i don't understand the second example with Leisel, her mother, and her brother.

Anonymous said...

I see the dominoes on the front as being Jews. The finger symbolizes Hitler. The finger is knocking down the dominoes. Just as Hitler knocks Jews to ground. An example of symbolism is the colors. In the symbol of colors death decribes the fellings of the dead soul.

Anonymous said...

In The Book Theif, There are lots of dead anddying Jews. I agree with JC!6 totaly. A nation will fall when they are not together. If a nation begins falling it will only be a matter of time untill you fall, your friends fall, and soon the entire nation.

Anonymous said...

I see the dominoes on the book of "The Book Thief" as a group of people who are all together forever until Hitler comes and takes one person under his rule and it spreads if you don't believe in him he's going to make your life miserable. Then when one person decides to try to get away from him and not do what he says people see what happens to that person so they decide to stay under Hitlers control so most of the dominoes stay standing

Anonymous said...

I believe that the dominoes on the book cover represent the holocaust, because once the dominoes start falling, there's no real way to make it stop. Like the holocaust once people started dieing it didn't stop until almost everyone had fallen; just like the dominoes. Also like the holocaust, after the dominoes had all fallen you put them back up and make them fall down again and you're happy about it. You like how the dominoes fell in a cool design. That's what happened in the holocaust, people didn't care that the people died; some actually enjoyed it.

Another symbol in the story like the dominoes are the colors that death uses to make sense of things and such as when he says that he prefers a chocolate sky. A more easy and recognizable symbol in the book is the star of David; this symbol represents the Jewish people.

Anonymous said...

The dominoes on the book cover represent dead bodies, as Kurt said in the book. When you play the game dominoes, you draw dominoes or "bones" from the "boneyard" which is just a pile of face down dominoes. The bones could represent all of the Jews that the Nazis had lined up on the clif edge and were shot. the bodies then fell down into the clif which is where you can get "the boneyard". also it could be where the Jews were parading around town. the Jews in the parade were treated so badly that some would just fall over dead. in the book "Death" says when he picks up souls the sky is many different colors, these colors could represent the number of deaths at that time. since "Death" says he likes the sky when its "Dark Chocolate" then perhaps that means there is very few deaths at the time so he has a bit of a rest from his job.

Ms.Jacques said...

Ah, but let's first talk about the title of the book. Don't you think the title, "Book Thief", represents more than the simple fact that Liesel steals book? Is she trying to "settle the score", since she has been robbed of a brother (who dies) and a mother (who disappears) by stealing books? What do you think is the real reason why she steals books?

Anonymous said...

I think the dominoes represent events of World War II and that the hand on the front represents Hitler. Hitler started blaming the Jews for everything (the first domino) and once people started to believe what he told them- the first domino is knocked over- and it sends a chain reaction of events that keep comming one after the other after the other getting worse and worse until it finally ends (the last domino). Some of the other symbols in the book are obvious, like the Star of David and how it represents Jews, but others are not common at all, like how Death uses colors to symbolize people and events.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominoes on the book's cover represents the Jews in the Holocaust because so many Jews died over the Holocaust. Like falling down. And dominoes fall over so it is a symbolic because every domino that falls over is like a Jew dying. Another symbol in the story I found that I hope is one is the toy solider that Liesel brought Max when he was unconscious. I think that is like Max in a way. I think it is like Max because Max has been hiding for a while and he is worn out and beat and sick. Like the toy soldier is scrached and trodden. But injured like Max to but is still standing. Like it said in the book.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominos on the front cover represent all of the Jews who were killed by the Nazi durning the Holocaust. They are lined up because, that's how it was for them. They were pratically waiting in line to be killed. Also the finger-I think-represents Hitler because all he had to do was speak his words to those who would listen and soon, like a chain reaction, all of the people he disliked were being wiped out.
One example of symbolism I found very interesting was the Word Shaker. I interputed the story being about Liesel and Max's friendship, and how no matter what the outside world is saying, they are still friends. Also how words have a great effect on people and are like a tree, with the ability to grow.

Anonymous said...

On the cover I think the dominoes represent Jews. Them being pushed down is like the mass killings that took place. Once they start its hard to control. I think the person pushing them down represents Hitler. Other symbols used in the story are the colors Death sees. He sees a red sky after the bombing which represents blood.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominoes on the cover of "The Book Thief" symbolize people, mainly Jewish people during WWII. When you make the pattern for the dominoes to fall in you can put large clumps together so many dominoes fall at once and they knock over other dominoes making more than one line of falling dominoes. This is like WWII because more than one Jew died at once. Especially in the concentration camps. Also in dominoes sometimes a domino is placed too far away or at an odd angle and it manages to stay up like how some people didn't die in the concentration camps but they are still left shaken by the dominoes (or people) that are falling around them. If you stop the dominoes from falling towards the beginning before those big clumps of dominoes that saves several dominoes from falling. I think the same would have been true in WWII If people would have stopped people from hurting or killing Jews towards the beginning, for example during Kristallnacht, then a lot of lives could have been saved.

Anonymous said...

I beleive the dominies on the cover of the book are symbolic to the Holocaust because it is like a game of dominoes were people play against each other until one is defeated like the U.S. did against Hitler. Another symbol that was used in the story was when Death said "I took them all away, and if ever there was a time I needed distraction, this was it. In complete desolation, I looked at the world above. I watched the sky as it turned from silver to gray to the color of rain. Even the clouds were trying to get away." What I think he was trying to say was that everyone was trying to escape the wrath of Hitler and flee to a more safe and happier place to live.

Anonymous said...

The other symbolism used in the book are colors, that death talks about. Death mentions in a part of the book that the sky looks like the color of Jews. To me, that means that when the Jews got cremated in the concentration camps and the fumes and smoke rose up to the sky. Colors are known to symbolize things, like white with innocence, or purity, and pink with love. I can't always catch these symbols, though. Such as when death says that his favorite color of sky is chocolate brown. What does the chocolate brown symbolize?

Anonymous said...

I think that the dominoes mean that, as one person died, the rest followed in a domino effect. The destruction only ends when the last "dominoe' falls. Also, I think that The Whistler, is a symbol. Although the book is about a murderer, it brings hope to the people in the bomb shelter/basement. Hope, and calm.

Anonymous said...

I believe that the dominos on the cover page of The Book Theif do look like dead bodies like Kurt said if you look at it abstractly. The finger could be Death or Hitler and the war starting the chain reaction or many deaths. Another example of symbolism would be the narrator, Death. Death isn't an actual person or being but it can symbolize what humans think about death and how it happens. I'm loosley quoting here but Death says that he doesnt have a sythe or sickle or boney features, but he tells the reader to look in a mirror and that is what death is.

Anonymous said...

The dominoes on the cover represent the Holocaust and WW 2, because there were alot of people who "fell", or died, during that time. Resembling dominoes, because they fell so quickly. One of the symbols 'Death' uses throughout the book is colors. They show the mood or tone of the story. Red being passion, white being purity, and so forth...

Anonymous said...

QueCo6... I liked your thought on the dominoes. I never thought of it that way. It kinda reminds me of Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he stood up for his race. In turn, many people didn't have to deal with those same hardships.

Anonymous said...

To me the dominoes on the book cover symbolize how the Jews were knocked down. How they were killed and destroyed. Another way that the dominoes symbolize the war and holocaust is that the dominoes are like Jews when they were lined up, shot, and fell into the ditches. Another example of symbolism is the colors that death sees. I think he sees all of those colors for all of the emotions people are feeling.

Anonymous said...

I believe each dominoe represents a minority killed in the holocaust. I also think that one action can lead to another action and soon you have a big mess or a mess of dominoes in this case. Another thing that is symbolic but may not be completely true is how I believe the book burning represents wanting to get rid of past knowledge of Jews, maybe the author put that exert in there to tie to the cremating of Jews and other ways of destroying Jews, and
eventually getting rid of past knowlege and then following it up by attempting to anilate their race.

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, the dominoes on the book's cover is symbolic to the Holocaust and World War II because it represents that the Germans didn't kill all the Jews at once. Instead, they gradually killed a little bit at a time to where people didn't realize that millions of Jews were dying, and even then it was a while before someone tried to stop it. This is like when the dominoes gradually fall down and not all fall down at the same time.

Another example of symbolism in the story is on page 279, in Max's book when Liesel sneaks a look at it. It says, "Not the Furer- the conductor!". This symbolizes that when Hitler is is looked upon by other people, he has a way of getting them to do what he instructs, like when conductors instruct people to play the way they want.

Anonymous said...

The dominos on the book cover of The Book Theif symbolize the killing of the jews. I think this beacuse the the jews had to line up and they were shot and one by one they would fall into the ditch ontop of one another. Other symbols in this book are When death says that for him the sky was the color of jews. it meant that he thought the sky was seemingly filled with jews from all the bombings. Also the Star Of David is another example,it symbolizes the Jews and the Jewish religion.

Anonymous said...

I think that, like brownie25 said, when you first start to knock down dominoes, no one will try to stop you, but it is almost impossible to stop a trail of dominoes once it gains momentum. I think that the the dominoes represent the proccesion of the holocaust. Hitler started to convince people that the Jews were to blame for Germany's problems, and that was when he knocked down the first domino. That caused the night of broken glass, the second domino. By the time Hitler started the concentration camps he had too many people behind him, or too much momentum, for people to think they could stop him.

Anonymous said...

Symbolism is very common in "The Book Thief." One of the most symbolic and important would be the books. I believe the books symbolise Liesel and her character. Books are often misjudged and underappriciated, so is Liesel. People dont realize the power that Liesel has. She has so many words and when strung together properly she can change some one's mood or even their life. Books are the same way. If the author does a good job at writing the book it could change the reader's out look on life. Words can either make or break a person and Liesel knows that and uses it to her advantage. I also think the reason why liesel is so drawn to books is becuase she sees the similiarty between herself and the stories. The two of them go hand in hand in a symbolic way.

Anonymous said...

The dominoes on the cover are symbolic because they are representing all the people who were killed in the holocaust in a continuous sort of pattern. The killing never seemed to stop and when it finally did, it was just completely done. Like the last domino in the set. Some other symbols in the book are the Star of David and the colors that death uses to describe things. The Star of David was painted to all the doors of Jewish owned buisnesses and death uses colors all throughout the book, more so at the beginning.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominoes resemble how the German concentration camps would line Jews up on the edge of a huge ditch and they would shoot them, one by one, and they would all fall like dominoes in to the pit.

Anonymous said...

I think that the dominoes are symbolic to the holucaust because it shows how the killing of one person leads to the killing of many people. It's a dominoe affect that you can't hardley stop. Another symbolic thing in this story is in the Stand Over Man Max draws him self as a bird. This symbolizes when he over heres Liesel and she says thathis hair looks like feathers.

Anonymous said...

I think the domonios on the cover of "The Book Thief" are symbolic to people dieing. Like say you lined up 1,000,000 dominoes all in one straight line and pushed the very first one, the first one would hit and knock over the second one and it would do so to the third and so on. Like dominoes once someone dies there will always be another person after them.

Anonymous said...

The domino pieces represent the Jewish people because when there is so many of the Jewish being killed, its hard to stop it. Just like dominos, when you push down a line of dominos, its hard to stop it. But when you so stop it, you can easily stand the domino back up. That being true for Jewish people too, even if you totally get knocked down, its just as easy to stand back up for what you believe in.

Another form of symbolism in this book is when Death describes things with the colors. Death says that his favorite color of the sky is brown like chocolate. I think that the colors represent the way Death feels toward the situation. Like if he feels remorse, then the sky is a darker color.

Anonymous said...

The domonoios are a very good representation of this book. The domonoios are like jews during that time. A whole bunch die every day. The colors are another symbol. You can tell the mood by them.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with QueCo6. if one person were to stand up for what is right than it would not lead to more falling. Dominos are one baig chian reactoin all it needs is one push and that push could be HIttler. After one falls the others start to fall and tis could be like the jews that loose hope. Also dominos keep falling till there is no more to fall. Witch is just like what Hittler was trying so hard to do. He wanted them all to fall so there would be none left standing. But why did no one stand up for what is right? That is what i'll always wonder.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominos are symbolic of the halocaust because the dominos are like the jews, they both fall and die. The boneyard is like the many concentration camps, the boneyard is filed with dead dominos and the camps are filled with dead or dying jews. Another symbol used in the book has to do with the narorator, Death. The color of the sky changes every day, and when many jews were killed the sky would be red.

Anonymous said...

I think the dominoes is symbolic of the holocaust because the dominoes represent dead bodies. An example is when the Germans shot the Jews and they fell into a pit. There many bones of Jews left behind there. On that note, the dominoes on the cover could represent the Jews. The finger getting ready to knock them down is Adolf Hitler. Hitler only with his Nazi crew take the lifes of many Jews in the holocaust and I think the cover is symbolic of that. Other symbol that was in the book is when Liesel found a toy soldier and gave it to Max as one of his wake-up presents. The toy was beaten up but it could still stand. That was symbolic of many surviving Jews, and Max's life/story. All the time during the holocaust, Jews had been persecuted because of race. And though many died, many also made it through.

Anonymous said...

The dominoes on the book cover are very symbolic to the holocaust. When one falls and nobody cares to notice it, they all begin to fall. This is similar to all the jews dying and how nobody did anything. Some dominoes may even take different paths, like how the Germans had many different ghettos and concentration camps. Soon there are so many different paths it seems there's no point in trying to stop it.

After a while there might not be any dominoes left, then what? Soon it won't be dominoes there going after, maybe marbles, or your friends? Eventually someone will have to stop this, perhaps a hand blocking the dominoes from falling, the hand representing the countries who saved the jews from the concentration camps,ghettos, etc. Soon the leader will have no dominoes to push over and will have to deal with all the unhappy souls who stopped the falling dominoes. This representing Hitler's suicide after not being, not wanting to handle the situation.

Anonymous said...

the dominoes on the book are symbolic to the war because Hitler is wiping out Jews, the Jews give up and let him conquer them.so Hitler is the finger and once you knock all the dominoes or (Jews) down someone has to pick them up. That is death.

Another symbolic part in the book is when the bombs have hit cologne and the sky is a burning yellow.He tries to touch the sky but it burns him.

Anonymous said...

The dominos are a very good representation of this book. The dominos are like jews during that time. A whole bunch die every day. The colors are another symbol. You can tell the mood by them. What I'm wondering is, during war does death see a bunch of colors at once? Back to the dominos, I like what JF06 seid. Hitler could be the person to push these dominos over and start the chain reaction. He will just keep doing this until all the dominos are gone for good.

Anonymous said...

shekap5, sorry it has been so long.

well, the example is from the first part of the story. the older brother died, and the mother still held on to the boy that used to be... the thoughts of him and what not.