Anna Berger Romeu

Mrs. Barnes
Honors Language Arts
9 September 2015
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive.
Never surrender.-Tupac Shakur. In The Book Thief and The Catcher in the Rye the main
characters struggle to deal with the deaths of family members, but in the end they overcome their
challenges. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger, a girl living in Nazi Germany,
must conceal secrets and learn to live in a world that is constantly on the brink of war. Her
mother, a communist, is gone; her brother died of illness on the way to a foster family. All she
has left to cling to are her beloved books and her loving foster dad, Hans Hubermann. She must
discover her values and learn to stay safe in an unsafe world. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.
Salinger, Holden Caulfield struggles to stay in school and to grow up. He loses everyone, his
brother to leukemia, his best friend when he gets expelled from school, and several old friends by
acting poorly; he realizes that he is lost in a world that he doesn't understand. Liesel and Holden
suffer deeply due to the challenges life presents to them. Both authors use characters, plot, and
figurative language to express their stories common theme of how characters handle loss in
different ways.
Zusak and Salinger utilize characters to present the common theme of how people handle
loss. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, there is constant death due to WWII, which was taking
place at the time. The woman looked up and made her decision. She didnt move. Liesel left.
She withdrew herself from the table and rushed from the house (Zusak 486). In this quote, Frau
Holtzapfel, the Hubermanns neighbor, hasnt moved ever since her son died because of the war.

She has been feeling miserable and not listening to anyone, not even for her own good. This
quote shows that this person, Frau Holtzapfel, reacts to her loss by withdrawing from everything
going on around her. She is so deeply hurt that she does not listen to anybody. Another example
of how the characters react to loss is, Its about time you faced the fact that your son is dead.
He got killed! He got strangled and cut up more that twenty years ago! Or did he freeze to death?
Either way hes dead! Hes dead and its pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to
suffer for it (Zusak 262). Ilsa, the mayors wife, responds to her loss by not moving on. She
doesnt really recover; she dwells on the past that she cannot change. In The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger, Holden handles loss in a completely different way. Hes dead now. He got
leukemia and died when we were up in Maine on July 18, 1949. Youd have liked him But it
wasnt just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest one too
(Salinger 55). This quote shows that sometimes Holden faces his brothers death in a neutral way
because he thinks he got over it. In this case, Holden acts as if he has no feelings over the loss of
his brother. In this example, since Holden does not feel depressed, he does not show his feelings.
Salinger also displays Holden handling loss in a different way.
Then I started doing something else. Every time Id get to the end of a block Id make
believe I was talking to my brother Allie. Id say to him, Allie, dont let me disappear.
Please, Allie. And then when Id reached the other end of the street without disappearing,
Id thank him (Salinger 256-257).
In this passage the author shows that Holden has never fully recovered from his brothers death.
He speaks to Allie as if he were still alive. The author uses Allie, to shed light on how Holden
handles loss, by unveiling his inner feelings and choices. Some of these actions displayed
throughout the book include getting drunk and Holden simply not knowing what to do. Both

authors use characters to show the common theme. Zusak presents how his characters handle
loss sometimes by exposing it on the outside, and sometimes by keeping their feelings
concealed. Salinger displays two completely opposite ways of how his main character, Holden,
handles loss of somebody close to him. One way is that he makes Holden pretend to have gotten
over it. But then Holdens constant references back to his brothers death, show that he has not
overcome it. Frau Holtzapfel, Isla Hermann and Holden all cope with pain. Alienation, regrets,
and illusions that their beloved ones are still with them are manners that the authors choose for
their characters to fight against their insufferable pain they feel. Zusak and Salinger use
characters to explain how each person handles loss differently.
Both writers also utilize plot to show the theme of how each character reacts to losing
somebody.
The girl: Tell me. What do you see when you dream like that? The Jew ...I see myself
turning around, and waving goodbye. The girl: I also have nightmares. The Jew: What
do you see? The girl: A train, and my dead brother. The Jew: Your brother? The girl:
He died when I moved here, of the way. The girl and the Jew, together: Ja-yes
(Zusak 220).
This conversation about nightmares between Max and Liesel in the Book Thief shows a
connection that they share because they are both battling losses due to Hitler and the Nazis. Both
characters support each other to overcome their grief. Many years later, I needed to hide. I tried
not to sleep because I was afraid of who might be there when I woke up. But I was lucky. It was
always my friend As time passed by, the girl and I realized we had things in common (Zusak
227-231). This shows how Max and Liesel found each other in the hardest of times and
connected, strengthening their bond. They helped each other surpass hardships through

friendship, which only made them stronger. This part of the plot is very significant and relates to
the theme because it shows that one way Liesel handles loss is through friends and hope. In The
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden handles loss in a completely different way. Certain
things they should just stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those
glass cases and just leave them alone. I know thats impossible, but its too bad anyway
(Salinger 122). This quote plays an important role in the plot because it shows the reader how
Holden handles everything that is against him. It relates to the common theme because it shows
that Holden has taught himself to let go, to give up and move on. Holden handles loss or an
obstacle by trying to imagine that it never happened and moving on. Old Jane. Every time I got
to the part about her out with Stratler in that damm Ed Banky me crazy...but it drove me crazy
anyway. I dont even like to talk about it, if you want to know the truth (Salinger 104). This
passage proves how Holden handles disappointment; he just does not talk about it, as he directly
states. He tries to forget the past and move on to the future. However, Holden does not forget
these events; he remembers them and keeps thinking of that person as his friend. Holden tries to
handle loss by forgetting what happened, whereas Liesel reacts to struggles in a much more
mature way than Holden. She leans on others to help her. On the other hand, Holden tries to
handle it alone, and it does not work very well as he constantly refers back to what happened
throughout the book. These quotes are important to the plot because they show the reader how
the character reacts to opposing forces. The plot was exposing the personalities of the characters
and what they struggle against. The plot is a great way to find out how the characters handle loss.
While some may argue that the plot has little to do with the theme of how the characters
handle loss, these readers fail to understand that the plot plays a significant role as it is shown
many times in the book.

Every night, Liesel would nightmare. Her brothers face. Staring at the floor. She would
wake up swimming in her bed, screaming, and drowning in the flood of sheets...possibly
the only good to come out of these nightmares was that it brought Hans Hubermann, her
new papa, into the room, to soothe her, to love her (Zusak 36).
This part of the story shows the theme, it introduces the concept of how Liesel handles loss. It
displays her getting comforted by the help of family. They hugged and cried and fell to the
floor (Zusak 548). This example occurs when Liesel sees Max once again after the war when
and he finds out that Rosa and Hans died. The war had torn them apart, but they were brought
back together. It shows that both characters handle loss through loved ones. In The Catcher in
the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the plot clearly shows how Holden reacts to loss. He loses several
people close to him and he does not know how to grow up, he acts like a kid, I stuck around for
a while, apologizing and trying to get her to excuse me, but she wouldnt. She kept telling me to
go away and leave her alone...If you want to know the truth, I dont even know why I started all
that stuff with her (Salinger 174). This quote happens when Holden calls a friend and gets in an
argument with her. She tells him that they are no longer friends. Holden later regrets what he
said, but he never tells her about it. Holden always feels sad when he loses somebody but he
never has the courage to go and fix his relationship with that person. After the death of Allie,
Holden essentially shuts down, forcing himself to lose all attachments to people so that he can
never be hurt again. He wants to have friends but he does not open up to anybody. Holden
handles loss by trying to prevent himself from getting hurt again. This is displayed throughout
the plot by his actions of never getting too close to anyone except for his sister Phoebe. In the
Book Thief Liesel faces loved ones deaths many times as the story progresses (her brother, her
mom, Rosa, Hans, Rudy..) and in The Catcher in the Rye Holden also suffers with loss (his

brother, Jane, Eddie, and Sally) throughout the story. Both authors use plot to show how the
characters handle loss by displaying main events that made a big impact on that character that is
seen throughout the remainder of the book.
Zusak and Salinger utilize figurative language to present how the characters handle loss
differently. In Markus Zusaks The Book Thief, the author adds figurative language that enhance
the theme of how characters handle loss differently.
Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion! But his bellows
were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out. She began to rock back and forth.
A shrill, quiet, smearing note was caught somewhere in her mouth until she was finally
able to turn. To Papa (Zusak 537).
Zusak uses vivid imagery and a metaphor to show what Liesel thought of Papa, and how she
reacted to his death by thinking of him as an object. Zusak uses a compare and contrast structure
because he is comparing Hans Hubermann to an accordion. It makes the reader think of Hans as
a person who suffered the horrors of the world but who also had happy moments through music.
But the boy did not wake. In disbelief, Liesel buried her head into Rudys chest. She held his
limp body, trying to keep him from rolling back, until she needed to return him to the butchered
ground. She did it gently (Zusak 535-536). In this imagery, one can observe all of Liesels pain
and sadness. She does not want to believe that Rudy is dead. Just like in the aforementioned
quote, she handles it like a helpless kid and cries trying not to believe that any of it has
happened. Vivid imagery helps the reader see that Liesel handles loss just like any other child of
her age. Zusak uses descriptions and strong word choice to portray Liesel's sadness. It makes the
event much more emotional giving the reader a depressing mood. In The Catcher in the Rye,
Salinger uses symbolism and imagery to show how Holden handles loss in a way very similar to

that of Liesel. You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park south? that little
lake? By any chance do you know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?
(Salinger 60). This is an example of symbolism because the ducks represent Holden. He asks
multiple people about what happens to the ducks in the book, proving to the reader that the ducks
are significant to him. Holden is lost and loses many things, including his home and friends, just
as ducks lose their own home and food. He cannot stay in one place for a long time. In this
example, Salinger uses descriptions to present to the reader that the ducks mean something to
Holden. This text structure enhances the story because it makes the reader to change their
perception about Holdens personality. At the end of the book (Salinger 200), Holden breaks
down because he finally realizes that everyone has to grow up. I slept in the garage the night he
died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it" (Salinger 39). This
is an example of imagery because the author describes it in a way that the reader can see how
mad Holden is. It relates to how characters handle loss differently because grief and madness
over Allies death have taken over Holden. This figurative language helps enhance the story
because it stands out to the reader. Salinger uses strong word choice to make this section so much
more emotional and dramatic. Liesel reacted to deaths with sadness while Holden did so by
taking out all his anger and grief. In both stories the authors use symbolism and imagery to add
more empathy towards the main characters and involve the reader deeper into the story. Zusak
and Salinger utilize figurative language to enhance their stories.
In The Book Thief and The Catcher in the Rye, both authors use characters, plot, and
figurative language to portray the theme of how each individual character handles loss. Both
Salinger and Zusak show that Holden and Liesel react to loss in very different ways. Liesel only
becomes stronger when she loses someone; she does not always react to it very well, but all of

her actions have purpose, which causes her to develop as a character. On the other hand, Holden
becomes weak as he loses person after person. First his brother dies, and from then on, each
following event causes a greater downfall. As he loses people, he realizes that the world is a
different place that it is not as forgiving as he thought. Both authors prove that different people
handle loss in different ways. As Shakur said Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest
loss is what dies inside while still alive.

Works Cited
Zusak, Markus. Book Thief. N.p.: Knopf, 2005. Print.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. N.p.: Black Bay, 1945. Print.