It has been said that the best thing about humanity is humans, and the worst thing about humanity is humans.1 When mankind can be so beautiful yet so horrendous simultaneously, the best way to describe this contradiction is to conclude that humanity is a paradox; a paradox that plays out during the most horrific and the most alluring of times in history.2 During World War II, Hitler and the Holocaust demonstrated the ugly things a human can do, but the thousands of people that aided and supported the Jews, including Germans living under Hitler’s rule, showed how amazing and selfless a human can be as well. World War II left a permanent scar on mankind, but for many, it also changed the future for the better.3 The literature produced about
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Death is recalling his experience with the death camps and describing how “There were broken bodies and dead, sweethearts...Please believe me when I [Death] tell you that I picked up each soul as if it were a newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to to their [the Jews] last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words… I took them all away, and if there was ever a time I needed a distraction, this was it” (Zusak, 350).8 In this quote, Death is describing the suffering and misery the Jews went through when they were taking their last breaths in the poisonous gas chambers, and how this was such a horrific thing Death witnessed that even Death needed a distraction from the gruesome scene. This quote is extremely important because not only does it use intense description to make the reader visualize and connect with the book more, but it also provides historically accurate information that allows the reader to gain more knowledge on the horrid things Hitler had done.9 Because of these barbarous and unfortunate events, Death realizes that he is constantly “overestimating and underestimating the human race...how [could] the same thing be so ugly and so glorious...so damning and brilliant” (Zusak, 550), which perfectly shows the paradox of humanity, and how a human can be two completely contradictory things at once. Adolf Hitler is an accurate example of the brutality a human is capable of, which is seen through the history of WWII and The Book
Death is recalling his experience with the death camps and describing how “There were broken bodies and dead, sweethearts...Please believe me when I [Death] tell you that I picked up each soul as if it were a newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to to their [the Jews] last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words… I took them all away, and if there was ever a time I needed a distraction, this was it” (Zusak, 350).8 In this quote, Death is describing the suffering and misery the Jews went through when they were taking their last breaths in the poisonous gas chambers, and how this was such a horrific thing Death witnessed that even Death needed a distraction from the gruesome scene. This quote is extremely important because not only does it use intense description to make the reader visualize and connect with the book more, but it also provides historically accurate information that allows the reader to gain more knowledge on the horrid things Hitler had done.9 Because of these barbarous and unfortunate events, Death realizes that he is constantly “overestimating and underestimating the human race...how [could] the same thing be so ugly and so glorious...so damning and brilliant” (Zusak, 550), which perfectly shows the paradox of humanity, and how a human can be two completely contradictory things at once. Adolf Hitler is an accurate example of the brutality a human is capable of, which is seen through the history of WWII and The Book