Shahil Merchant
Mr. Fields
Honors English 1
31 August 2017
Character Development Leading to Theme
Kino’s kind-heartedness and selflessness prevailed in his life until he had found the pearl, which had developed greed and evil as his main characteristics. Before his possession of the pearl, Kino expressed his selflessness to his family . When Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion and a bandage for the wound is needed, the narrator points out,“She gathered some brown seaweed and made a flat damp poultice out of it, and this she applied to the baby’s swollen shoulder, which was as good a remedy as any and probably better than the doctor could have done.”(Steinbeck 15) Kino’s quick and practical solution shows his diligence in caring for others, …show more content…
When Liesel first came to her adoptive family, she was quite illiterate, and for this, she was made fun of at school. One day during her school break a fellow student ridiculed her, which the narrator describes,“A boy named Ludwig Schmeikl came up to her with a book.‘Hey Liesel,’ he said to her, ‘I’m having trouble with this word. Could you read it for me?’ He laughed -- a ten-year-old, smugness laughter. ‘You Dummkopf -- you idiot.’ ”(Zusak 78). Schmeikl exposes Liesel’s illiteracy in front of all of their classmates making Liesel feel powerless and so she proceeded to beat up Schmeikl out of anger. As time went on, Liesel became more literate by practicing with her father. When Liesel became much more literate, she would read to everyone in the basement during bombings to distract them. During one of the bombings, Death, the narrator, observes“For at least 20 minutes, she handed out the story. The youngest kids were soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the crime scene.”(Zusak 381) Liesel understands her power of literacy and uses it for good. Not just kids were soothed by her reading, but also adults who were anxiously anticipating the dropping of a bomb. As Death further observes during the bombing “Everyone waited for the ground to shake. That was still an immutable fact, but at least they were distracted now, by the girl with the book.” (Zusak 382). Liesel read to them to calm them in a time of chaos, which is a true representation of the power in literacy that she
Mr. Fields
Honors English 1
31 August 2017
Character Development Leading to Theme
Kino’s kind-heartedness and selflessness prevailed in his life until he had found the pearl, which had developed greed and evil as his main characteristics. Before his possession of the pearl, Kino expressed his selflessness to his family . When Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion and a bandage for the wound is needed, the narrator points out,“She gathered some brown seaweed and made a flat damp poultice out of it, and this she applied to the baby’s swollen shoulder, which was as good a remedy as any and probably better than the doctor could have done.”(Steinbeck 15) Kino’s quick and practical solution shows his diligence in caring for others, …show more content…
When Liesel first came to her adoptive family, she was quite illiterate, and for this, she was made fun of at school. One day during her school break a fellow student ridiculed her, which the narrator describes,“A boy named Ludwig Schmeikl came up to her with a book.‘Hey Liesel,’ he said to her, ‘I’m having trouble with this word. Could you read it for me?’ He laughed -- a ten-year-old, smugness laughter. ‘You Dummkopf -- you idiot.’ ”(Zusak 78). Schmeikl exposes Liesel’s illiteracy in front of all of their classmates making Liesel feel powerless and so she proceeded to beat up Schmeikl out of anger. As time went on, Liesel became more literate by practicing with her father. When Liesel became much more literate, she would read to everyone in the basement during bombings to distract them. During one of the bombings, Death, the narrator, observes“For at least 20 minutes, she handed out the story. The youngest kids were soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the crime scene.”(Zusak 381) Liesel understands her power of literacy and uses it for good. Not just kids were soothed by her reading, but also adults who were anxiously anticipating the dropping of a bomb. As Death further observes during the bombing “Everyone waited for the ground to shake. That was still an immutable fact, but at least they were distracted now, by the girl with the book.” (Zusak 382). Liesel read to them to calm them in a time of chaos, which is a true representation of the power in literacy that she