The Deeper Message Within The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a novel that teaches the reader many important lessons that can be applied in life. One lesson throughout the book that I have found important is that words are as powerful as weapons. This lesson is first introduced through Liesel Meminger’s first experience at a book burning in celebration of the Führer’s birthday. In the eyes of the Nazi Party, all Jewish pieces of literature, stories, and poems were found to pose a threat against the superior Aryan Race that Hitler was trying to create.
The threat posed by the Jewish culture was deemed so significant to the Nazi Empire, that it made the Führer declare them to be destroyed in fires at gatherings, otherwise known as book burnings. With that being said, the ideas, visual and style components found in my poem aid in the communication of the message that words can hold the same amount of power as legitimate weapons do. In my poem, The Deeper Message Within, ideas that support the message that words are as powerful as weapons are evident. To begin with, lines 1 through 7 in my poem literally illustrates that words, sentences, and pages from what can be imagined as Jewish literature, are being engulfed in orange flames and dissolving into ash. However, from a symbolic point of view, “The orange flames found waving at the crowd,” on line 1 represents the Hitler and his Nazi Party, proudly waving at the crowds of Nazi Loyalist.
Meanwhile, “the paper and print dissolving in fire and burning words being torn from their sentences” found on line 2 represents the Jews and their culture, being torn off from society. These lines definitely show how impactful words can be as they successfully pull off the symbolization for the destruction of a culture and its people. My second idea is found in lines 21 through 24. These lines represent that even though the heat generated from the massive fire was overwhelming, the heat was nothing for some of the pieces of Jewish literature. In terms of symbolism, the “heat” generated from the fire represents Hitler and his Nazi Party, meanwhile “it being nothing” illustrates that no matter how hard a religious, political or supremacy group tries to destroy another culture, their literature will always be worth fighting for because it will always survive. This demonstrates that words are definitely as powerful as weapons are, as weapons will always exist as well.
In my poem, some poetic style features are present that work to clearly communicate it’s own lesson. In the process of creating this poem, I decided to use line indentation and isolation in order to successfully isolate the words “dissolved” found on lines 2, “inside” on lines 3 and “them.” on line 4. In addition to isolating them, I decided to gradually increase the font of the 3 words, in an attempt to emphasize an eerie effect that would linger in the rest of the poem.
The intentions of these style features were to indicate that there was a deeper meaning within those words of the introduction. The second poetic style feature that I used is found on lines 21-24. For these lines, I decided to use line indentation and isolation yet again, but only this time there would a slight difference. The only thing different this time would be the fonts because I played around with them.
For lines 21-23, I used the font “Bradley Hand ITC”. Then on line 24, I used the font “Headline R” and spaced the letters out. I did this to create and emphasize the effect of how the heat was genuinely nothing, by making the words around heat and the word itself seem edgy and frail, meanwhile, the word nothing seem serious and re-assuring with its bolded font and spaced out lettering.The ghosted visual behind my poem clearly represents the message that my poem is trying to grasp. Upon close examination of my image, a young boy and an arm are shown. The arm isn’t any ordinary arm though, as it is made out of words to symbolize the damage and power that words can have on a person. The boy in the image is found crying as he is the victim of the words. By the looks of it, the young boy is in mental, physical, and emotional pain.
The arm made of the words in the image shows that they can have a strong grip on someone’s life, as seen with the boy. Symbolically speaking, words can have a significant, unforgetting effect on others just like a weapon does. Weapons leave scars on bodies, and words leave scars in the brain, which is why I believe that words are weapons and that they’re as powerful as weapons.In conclusion, my poem utilizes poetic style features and contains ideas that work together in order to communicate the message that words can hold the same amount of power as legitimate weapons do. The actions demonstrated by the Nazi Party clearly show that pieces of literature can pose threats so significant, that they had to carry out orders, in order for them to be destroyed in book burnings. Even then, pieces of literature still ended up surviving, as seen with Liesel stealing The Shoulder Shrug, demonstrating that words are definitely as powerful as weapons are, as weapons will always exist as well.
Through the use of poetic style features, my poem successfully emphasizes the tragedy that the power of literature can bring Ultimately, the reader is left to feel a sense of sorrow for the Jews and their culture. Words are forgiven but never forgotten which is why it is unfortunate for verbal abuse to take place and impacts one’s life. Words are weapons and they need to be carefully considered when used.
