How Does Liesel's Life Represent Beauty in the Wake of Brutality?

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Brutality is the painful, sad, ruthless and inhumane things in life, although in light of this, there is also beauty. Beauty is the happiness, love and enlightenment in the experience of people’s lives as a result of the brutality. Through the employment of numerous techniques, Markus Zusak successfully represents beauty in the wake of brutality in the novel, ‘The Book Thief’. This is illustrated by the main character Liesel. The power of words, relationships and abandonment all assist in representing the beauty in the wake of brutality in Liesel’s life. Beauty in the wake of brutality is successfully portrayed by Liesel through the power of words. The power of words is brutal towards Liesel in many instances, one being when she was embarrassed in front of her classmates for being inadequate in the basic skills of reading and writing. However, beauty in this event surfaces later on when Liesel strives to learn how to read and write. This links up with the beauty of creating relationships with the power of words. Liesel is able to create strong bonds with Hans Hubermann as he taught Liesel how to read and write. She is also able to develop a beautiful relationship with Max Vandenburg as they exchanged gifts between each other, more specifically the book Max wrote for Liesel. Another example of brutality is when Liesel has an outburst of anger towards Ilsa Hermann, using cruel and hurtful language. “’…You and your husband. Sitting up here’. Now she became spiteful. More spiteful and evil than she thought herself capable. The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words.” From this, it is evident that there is brutality demonstrated by the negative emotive language Death uses to describe Liesel’s words. However, with brutality, there is also beauty. In wake of her outburst against Ilsa Hermann, Liesel apologises to her by writing a letter. Through this letter,

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