Magical realism is a genre of writing that seems realistic in many ways but holds certain unrealistic elements in others. Magical realism captures the mind of whoever chooses to read the genre. The genre magical realism will engage your mind, it will make you think about the problems and outcomes that will happen in the novel. Depending on the novel it’s self magical realism will make you rethink what is true or not, it will make the reader second guess themselves. A perfect example of this is the novel “The Book Thief” Written by Markus Zusak.  The novel The Book Thief is based in the time of world war 2 when Hitler was Germany’s leader. The novel started out quite negative with Liesel’s brother dying and in turn Liesel having to move to the town of Molching. Markus Zusak’s way of writing in The Book Thief is very influential, he is able to connect with the reader in a way that is extremely powerful.

The novel “The Book Thief” is narrated by the element of Death. Death is somewhat like a guide of the novel The Book thief. He is introduced to us in a human-like way. He is given human-like features such as feelings and a beating heart “Even death has a heart.”. In the novel The Book Thief, we are shown that Death has feelings in many different ways. Examples of this are when Death expresses sadness, happiness, and even fear. This is shown when Death states “I am haunted by humans.” This is evidence that Death holds fear and can express feelings towards other beings. The reason Death is put in a human-like context is to make it more relatable to the reader, make it easier to comprehend that “Death” is just as human as them. “It kills me sometimes, how people die.” This quote shows the reader that Death shows irony towards the humankind, “it kills me” is referring to Death as being hurt almost killed to see humans die. Markus Zusak’s idea behind this was to portray that “Death” isn’t so bad after all. The humankind has a very negative output on the idea of Death. But Markus Zuzak wants to change that, he wants the reader to show compassion for Death. The reader sees Death as being the evil one, but Markus Zusak believes that evil lays beneath the readers themselves.

Most of the novel The Book Thief was set in the town of “Molching”. Molching is located in Germany close to the nonfictional town of Munich. This is a perfect example of magical realism because the town of Molching actually does not exist. Markus Zusak had the idea of making up an entire town but adding in other nonfictional towns around it such as Munich to disguise the lie in truth. Markus Zusak idea behind this was to prove to the reader that if worded correctly the reader can be persuaded to believe in anything the author wants you to believe in. This is one of many ways Markus Zusak gets his ideas across through magical realism. By encasing a lie in truth and feeding it to the reader’s mind, making them believe what he is saying is true. Most of the novel The Book Thief is set between 1939-1942 in the fiction town of Molching. Liesel and her best friend Rudy lived on a little road named Himmel Street. Later on in the novel, the character Death states that “Himmel” means “heaven” in German. Markus Zusak’s idea behind “heaven street” was to give the town a shed of light in a very dark time. The reason Markus Zusak made it that Liesel lived on Himmel Street was because she had survived death on multiple occasions.

The power of words in the novel The Book Thief is extremely powerful. There are many different times in this novel where one’s mind or emotions could be altered at any given point just by reading the lines of Markus Zusak’s imagination. This is Markus Zusak leading way of getting his ideas across in the novel The Book Thief. Words are one of the strongest ways of communication between one another. Markus Zusak takes advantage of this by uses persuasive language to convince the reader to believe in anything. The words that Markus Zusak uses in the novel The Book Thief are very impressive. Markus Zusak expresses his ideas on to the reader by showing them that words convey meaning, that words can be more powerful than any other type of communication none too man. Markus Zusak is very Persuasive in a way of making the reader believe in things that are unrealistic. “When she came to write her story, she would wonder exactly when the books and the words started to mean not just something but everything”. This quote shows the reader that The Power Of Words are able to consume anyone. This quote summarises Markus Zusak’s idea that he is trying to get across to the reader.

The final answer to the question “How does Markus Zusak get his ideas across through the idea of magical realism”. By using the concept of the “power of words” to portray Markus Zusak’s idea that words are more powerful than any form of language we know today. That the made-up town of “Molching” is only an idea, a construct of imagination to distracted the reader from the hidden reality of Germany’s dark and saddened reality. How “death” has felt feelings and emotions much like the human-kind, how deaths biggest fear is of the human race. Magical realism is a genre of writing that seems realistic in many ways but holds many unrealistic elements in others. Magical realism captures the mind of whoever chooses to read it. By uses the element of death, surprise and the power of words. Markus Zusak was able to get his ideas across to the reader.