What I Learnt from Reading The Book Thief

I just finished the book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak today and I have to say that it left me teary eyed after the roller coaster story.

The book is such an amazing journey on how you can find happiness in tragedy and endure through the difficulties with your loved ones.

It makes me realize that the world is an ugly place but there are those bright spots which cannot be diminished whatsoever. Those tiny spots give us hope to keep moving forward and improving our lives as well as the next generation. It keeps me grounded and humble by acknowledging the pain and sorrow of people who are in desperate situations. I may not meet them ever but I need to understand that the problems I’m facing are a tiny itch on their gargantuan crisis.

I also realized something very important. How words can affect us! A well written play or movie, a well spoken speech, a beautiful book. Words have a way of influencing us. The more exposure we have to the words the more we become them. It makes me wonder now what if I had read only book related to religion and God. What if I had stopped asking relevant questions just to confirm my seat in heaven. Would I have been offended by a counter argument to my beliefs? Would I have hoped the opposite person go to hell? It’s a conundrum going on in my mind. It makes me wonder how incredible the power of words are to us. It can start and end wars. It can make or break relationships. The more complex, the more influential the words become.

I look back at history and towards the deadly wars of the 20th Century,the slavery of the earlier centuries. Skepticism in the name of God even before that. We have punished other human beings for being and thinking differently. We have obliterated families by ridiculing their existence in the world. And for what? Pride? Heaven? Happiness?

What do we get from seeing another human being suffer the wrath of prejudice. Somehow it all makes sense though. We are in the end animals. Animals who have large brains but want to protect their territories. Animals who have opposing thumbs but you want to have control over people’s thoughts. Animals who stand up straight but still stoop low while respecting nature.

The Book Thief makes me think that we’re not born this way. We have a lot of goodness in us. A lot of passion and togetherness too. But we are bound by the laws of society who influence us with their words. Words which turn on our primitive instincts of territory protection, of superiority, of invincibility.

I will be soon revisiting this marvellous story which made me smile and left no eye dry.