The first facet to examine when comparing the similarities in the portrayal of Death In the Book Thief and Meet Joe Black is that Death was never the bad guy. Death in both The Book Thief and in Meet Joe Black death is very human like. Death has real feelings. In The Book Thief we see him experience both sadness and joy like many humans, Death tries to find ways to give meaning to his work. One of the main things he does is collect stories of courageous humans. Liesel is particularly interesting to him because of her courage and her personality. Stories like hers help keep him going. He retells his stories. In the book he says "to prove to myself that you, and your human existence, are worth it" by this he means that he looks for hope in
