The Most Important Parts

 This was such an important book in its entirety that it is hard to narrow it down to two “most important” paragraphs. The first one that I thought was worth mentioning was on pages 259-260. “She was suddenly aware of how empty her feet felt inside her shows. Something ridiculed her throat. She trembled. When finally she reached out and took possession of the letter, she noticed the sound of the clock in the library. Grimly, she realized that clocks don’t make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave. If only mine was ready now, she thought--because Liesel Meminger, at that moment, wanted to die. When the others had canceled, it hadn’t hurt so much. There was always the mayor, his library, and her connection with his wife. Also, this was the last one, the last hope, gone. This time it felt like the greatest betrayal.”

I chose this passage as one of the most important because I kind of saw it to be a turning point in the book. It was here I realized that things were going to get a lot worse in terms of the well-being of the characters in this book. As stated above, there was always the mayor. After this point in the book, things slowly began to shift from not so bad to characters dying. Along with the technicalities that make up the importance of this passage, I was really drawn to this because of the emotions and image that came to mind when reading it. I found myself feeling really horribly for Rosa and for Liesel for having to tell her that she had lost her job. I pictured Liesel shrinking into the largeness of her shoes and I could hear the clock. 

The next passage from the book that I think is probably my vote for most important comes near the end of the book and includes pages 536-538 in their entirety. For the purpose of this prompt, I will include the part where I initially started crying. “She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching and finding” (536).

I think this passage is so important because it depicts death being amazed at humans for their strength to move on from lives that are taken. Death seems to recognize that they are hurting and in turn, death seems to feel remorse for those who have been left behind. This paragraph made me stop and I had to put the book down for a minute to think about this. I don’t think that death has a place in the real world where death feels sorry for taking a life, but if it did, that would be really cool. I really loved this novel from death’s perspective. It added a lot of emotion and darkness to the already deep story.