Similes In The Book Thief

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“In the quiet, I heard my dad waiting. He wanted it to be alright with me. He wanted my approval. Nothing this grown-up had happened to me before. This was something Grandma Tilly couldn't understand—how war promises a boy it can make a man out of him.” (Peck, 152) The River Between Us by Richard Peck is the story of Howard Leland Hutchings who is on his way to visit family in Grand Tower, Illinois. There, his grandmother Tilly takes the story, retelling the family's experiences in the first year of the Civil War. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a novel about Liesel Meminger, a young German girl growing up during WWII. She lives with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, outside of Munich and copes with the loss of a brother and the …show more content…
One example of this occurs in The River Between Us, when Tilly goes up to visit Noah with families of other soldiers: “No one had witnessed the fruits of war till now. Men in the crowd wept like children. Women shrieked and keened and fell on their knees. But we didn't. We might miss Noah.” (113) Here, Peck uses a simile to compare the crowds sobs to that of small children, showing that the men are feeling weak and helpless, and are in dire need of help. Peck also uses imagery in this instance to describe the blood and pain that came from warfare. Another example of this theme occurs in The Book Thief, when Death describes its most recent encounter with Leisel: “The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places it was burned. There were black crumbs and pepper, streaked across the redness.” (53) In this early encounter, Death uses a color, red, often associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, and determination, to describe its last encounter with Leisel. Death also describes the bombings at the time by comparing the sky to soup. The air was rippled and charred, and the sky was red with blood. It also describe the bombs and shards as black crumbs and pepper. These similes are used to engage the reader and to depict the theme that warfare is

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