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Narrative Tension In The Book Thief By Markon Zusak

432 Words2 Pages

In Markon Zusak’s The Book Thief investment stands out as the element of Narrative Tension used the most. There are many examples of this throughout The Book Thief like when Liesel wakes up to discover her brother was dead. One of these examples is on page 20 when it says “With one eye open, one still in a dream, the book thief-also known as Liesel Meminger-could see without question that her younger brother, Werner, was now sideways and dead.” (Zusak 20) This shows investment, because it makes the reader want to know what had happened to Liesel’s brother, as a sort of mystery. If the reader wants to know what happened then it helps to get them invested and make them want to turn the page. This is an emotional investment type, as we want to know how the young boy died. This is not the only type of investment used. …show more content…

Another example of investment is when Liesel is being told the consequences of telling anyone else about the man upstairs. “‘Liesel, if you tell anyone about the man up there, we will all be in big trouble’” He walked the line of scaring her into oblivion and soothing her enough to keep her calm. He fed her the sentences and watched with his metallic eyes. Desperation and placidity. “At the very least, Mama and I will be taken away.” Here it shows a situation where many bad things can happen to the Book Thief and her family. As a reader, we most likely want to see good things to her and her family. This is called positive investment, this is a very effective way of using this, as we want to see the family have good things and also not have bad guys catch them. Investment is used in another place in the book as

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