Sahityasetu

Abstract:

Stories are always at the very backbone of history. Whenever a particular event happens, there are different ways by which it is recorded. Most often these events that make history are not pleasant ones. Whether it is the crowning of a new monarch or an era changing revolution, there is always a tinge of bitterness associated with it. The impact these events have on the society is unpleasant and most often, it generates trauma within the minds of the individuals who are exposed to it. The process of recording of these events is not always objective. True, there are newspaper reports and such that immediately come out that supposedly provide “accurate” rendition of events, but these are not free from being ridden with a universalizing tendency. Hence, stories exist, that capture events from different dimensions. These stories though containing exaggerations and fictional aspects, are not completely removed from the actuality of things. In this contemporary era where the existence of fragments of truth are celebrated alongside a complete denial of the existence of a single reality, it is through these numerous fictional stories through which we can make glimpse the truth of things. Trauma seeps through most of these stories and indeed it becomes the very glue that keeps the truth locked in within the layers of fiction. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one such novel that captures the Second World War from a perspective that is quite unusual. The story is told from the German side, making a young girl the mouthpiece to depict the tragedy and the helplessness of it all. Zusak, being a second generation trauma survivor is making the story of his parents known through this work. The work thus becomes a perfect example of how certain narratives get lost over time yet the trauma associated with it is retained even across generations and finally surfaces in the form of fictional stories.

Keywords: History, Reality, Trauma, Second World War, Fictional Narratives.

Introduction

Artistic creations are always endowed with the fragrance of human experiences. Of everything a man has to endure in his entire lifetime, there are certain experiences that are particularly painful. Such experiences which are described as traumatic are also subjected to artistic expression, though they are treated in a fragile manner. Voicing of these generate a cathartic effect and also produces a sense of having control over the otherwise unpredictable life situations.

The most popular artistic medium that captures life in all its tempestuous as well as exhilarating moments is indeed, literature. While the moments of happiness have their significance and are among the most aesthetically expressed of the lot, the catastrophic events in life are the ones that create the most impact in a life. They have the capacity to transform life in its entirety as they have the power to dismantle our understanding of the world and affect our identity too.

Such a profound event and the emotions associated with it are too complex to capture. Indeed traumatic events like death, divorce, depression, abandonment, abuse etc were considered to be taboo and denied representation for quite a prolonged time. It was not until the onset of the World Wars in the twentieth century that the significance of trauma was realized. The war and its associated horrors demanded an articulation not only because the experiences had widespread reverberations, but because it was too immense a part of human history to evade representation.

Literature thus opened itself up to accommodate trauma into its realm. There was vehement experimentation with narrative modes, and many works that treated the subject in strikingly different manner emerged in large numbers. The newfound interest in trauma also gave rise to branches of scholarly study devoted exclusively for this. Soon, trauma permeated all fortresses of literature that had previously barred entry for traumatic representation. Even the genre of Children’s literature which always tried to shield its infant readers against the horrors of life fearing that it would harm them for life, began representing pain and sorrow in their works though in a toned down manner.

Inspired by this opening up about trauma in literary works intended for children, the seemingly novice genre of Young Adult Fiction too began addressing these issues voraciously. The intended audiences for the Young Adult novels are teenagers who were set on the journey from childhood to adulthood. This transition period was considered perfect to exert any form of ideological control and thus the novels of this genre were didactic in function.

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief illustrates the general tendencies in the treatment of trauma in Young Adult Fiction works. Commonly categorized as Historical Fiction; the work makes use of Death as a narrator who recounts the traumatic experience during the Second World War. Death in the guise of a storyteller speaks of the tale of Liesel Meminger, an eleven year old girl living in Nazi Germany.

There are several didactic intentions hidden in the narration of trauma in The Book Thief , which urges the reader to acquire a critical view of the world, and believe history to be a mere construct and not the absolute truth. It also encourages the reader to place humanity over everything else, recognizing the institutionalizing tendencies of the world. The traumatic narration and its ability to imbibe political insights into the younger generation thus becomes the main focus here.

Trauma and its Narrative Manifestation

Life as we know it does not merely contain experiences that are filled with contentment. There are moments of extreme anguish that an individual must go through at some point in life. It is these unfortunate moments of pain that define and mould an individual into a wholesome being. Generally referred to as ‘trauma’, these experiences have a profound impact in the life of a human being. Often the traumatic experiences in life are also voiced by individuals to find a sense of meaning. In the articulation of trauma, the individual experiences a cathartic effect. Hence, many fictional and non-fictional works tend to do just that. Of the multitude of works that attempt at narrating trauma, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak has a special standing. The work has been attributed various labels and genres including historical fiction, holocaust literature and young adult fiction but its status as a trauma narrative is beyond dispute.

The act of making sense of trauma is problematic as unlike remembering normal events of the past, the traumatic events are hidden deep in the fragmented ego and manifests only in dreams. To voice these would be complex as Sigmund Freud in Beyond the Pleasure Principle explicitly states: traumatic memory does not possess normal modes for narration. Nonetheless, trauma victims were encouraged to articulate their experience in some form as to initiate recovery. Narration thus gained significance as a means to recover from trauma.

Markus Zusak in his work The Book Thief also experiments with narrative modes. His work recounts the experiences of living in Nazi Germany during the World War. Unlike other trauma narratives that came before him, Zusak makes use of an uncanny narrator - Death. It is this unconventional narrator who fragments and disrupts the flow of the tale whenever traumatic situations are to be described.

Zusak in a 2007 interview he gave to writer and director Heidi Stillman explains his choice of the narrator Death: “People often say that war and death are best friends, so who better to be hanging around Nazi Germany to tell this story?”.So, Death appears in the novel, narrating the story of Liesel Meminger and other Germans who are going through a particularly traumatic time in history. He appears like a storyteller who is conversing with an invisible audience. There are constant interjections while the narration is carried out, as if answering a silent question that an audience asks. In these declarations, he comments on the actions of the characters, explains the political condition of the area or even goes on to make general statements regarding the weather. Sometimes he comments on the popular representations of Death and attempts at breaking these misconceptions. These comments and interjections of Death appear throughout the story as depicted below:
A Small Piece of Truth
I do not carry a sickle or scythe.
I only wear a hooded black robe when it’s cold.
And I don’t have those skull-like
facial features you seem to enjoy
pinning on me from a distance. You
want to know what I truly look like?
I’ll help you out. Find yourself
a mirror while I continue. (317)

In doing so, the narrative flow is constantly interrupted and effectively fragments the story. Zusak himself fragments the story into sections and subsections that are way too numerous, but adding death’s distractions into the midst increases the fragmentary nature of the text further.

The inclusions of aesthetically pleasing images are another peculiarity of this novel. Apart from adding an aesthetic dimension to the work, these images serve another purpose – distraction. The survivors of trauma have a tendency to refrain from articulating the experiences, deeming it too painful. So, they constantly distract themselves away from ever acknowledging the pain. One is reminded of this tendency when poetic phrases adorn the narrative whenever some extremely traumatic situations are to be described. For instance, while describing the death of Liesel’s brother, Zusak’s uses of words are almost poetic “It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you might expect, someone had died”(16).

These words do not lay bare the anguish, but hide them within layers of beauty. It almost mirrors the way trauma victims repress their emotions often to escape the pain of reality. Thus romanticization of language becomes synonymous to that escape from actuality that trauma survivors yearn for.

Unconventionality in the narrative is also characteristic of most trauma narratives. The Book Thief brings an innovation in narration by foreshadowing events that are to happen in the work right from the beginning. Zusak begins this story by presenting three separate deaths: that of Liesel’s brother Werner, of a fallen soldier and of the inhabitants of Liesel’s street. He puts it out there that these events are significant in the novel and is bound to happen at some point in the story. By disclosing future events initially, the conventional narrative mode where a story builds up to the point of conflict and resolution of it in the climax is abandoned here. The climax is depicted in the beginning and the story is told in detail without building up any tension.

The entire book is divided into several sections, which is further divided into small chapters. In the first few lines of each section, foreshadowing of the events to come is done rather explicitly. For instance, the chapter begins like this: “The juggling comes to an end now, but the struggling does not. I have Liesel Meminger in one hand, Max Vandenburg in the other. Soon, I will clap them together. Just give me a few pages”(175).So, when the reader goes through with the chapter, he anticipates what is to come. Thus unconventionality in narrative is brought on here, where the reader is struck with an impending trauma entirely out of the blue.

A SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT RUDY STEINER
He didn’t deserve to die the way he did. (251)

Notice how while describing a perfectly good incident of Rudy saves Liesel’s book, the imminent trauma is introduced. The author is unapologetic about ruining the ending. His mindset is clear as he uses death as a mouthpiece to voice this:
Of course, I’m being rude. I’m spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don’t have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It’s the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me. There are many things to think of. There is much story.(253)

By bringing in such unexpected exposition of future events, one is reminded of the very unpredictable nature of trauma. Zusak makes it about how trauma is not about sudden hitting of catastrophe, but the process by which it is endured.

Death often appears as a strong image of a victim of trauma. Zusak deliberately attributes some symptoms common in traumatic victims to Death to make the novel more remarkable. The recurring images of suffering humans, “the survivors” are much like the flashbacks of trauma. He is struck with trauma when survivors appear. Like victims of trauma, he looks for distractions to take his mind off the pain. This is described as follows:
The survivors. They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.(15)

Like Liesel’s book, he carries with him this baggage of humans who remind him of the cruelty of taking away life. Death ends the tale by making the statement that he is “haunted by humans” (554) which is similar to the way humans are haunted by traumatic memories.

In the novel The Book Thief, we can observe its characters exalting symptoms shown by a victim of trauma like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and nightmares, which provides evidence to the fact that all these characters are enduring trauma in their lifetime. Liesel experiences nightmares repeatedly when she first comes to the Hubermann household as she was affected by the death of her brother and her mother’s abandonment. She constantly wakes up, experiencing nightmares and often there are bed-wetting incidents too, a common symptom seen in anxious children. Max too experiences similar nightmares and even speaks in his sleep. His nightmares were caused due to the instability he felt in his life because of his identity as a Jew. Cathy Caruth in her work Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, History asserts the significance of dreams as an act that aids in gaining control over the trauma. She states that “The return of the traumatic experience in the dream is not the signal of the direct experience but, rather, of the attempt to overcome the fact that it was not direct, to attempt to master what was never fully grasped in the first place”(62). Sharing these nightmares, they sought to find some release. Death recounts this act of sharing in signature interruptive voice as:
THE SWAPPING OF NIGHTMARES
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, on the way.”
The girl and the Jew, together: “Ja—yes.” (228)

Ilsa Hermann, Michael Holtzapfel and Frau Holtzapfel seem to be afflicted by PTSD. This accounts to their tendencies to inflict self-harm. Of this dangerous affliction, Caruth writes: “post-traumatic stress disorder reflects the direct imposition on the mind of the unavoidable reality of horrific events, the taking over of the mind, psychically and neurobiologically, by an event that it cannot control” (258).The trauma felt by the death of a dear one thus takes over their mind, affecting even their will to live.

Ilsa Hermann confronts her trauma by letting it engulf her. She constantly pictures her son’s last moment and connects with him by making herself endure pain. She took part in the war and died of hypothermia in the frontlines. Even in the midst of harsh winter, she keeps the windows open and dresses herself in a light robe to remind herself of her son’s gradual death from the cold weather. Here, endurance of trauma takes on a self-mutilating phase.

Another character who let trauma consume him was Michael Holtzapfel. He was constantly tormented by his mother. Taking part in the war, Michael’s brother was severely wounded and died in his arms. Hearing this news, his mother Frau Holtzapfel responds by letting herself go numb with the pain, losing every care in the world. Despite the bomb warnings, she refuses to retreat into the basement that acts as bomb shelter and instead remains at her home, vulnerable to the disaster. Michael persuades her to retreat to the shelter, but she remains adamant. In the end, in an act of desperation, Michael goes to the shelter alone. Here he gets tormented by the thought that. Michael commits suicide burdened down by this crisis of life and death. He is both affected by the near death experience in the war and the guilt of yearning to live even amidst the trauma of his brother’s death. “Michael Holtzapfel knew what he was doing. He killed himself for wanting to live”(507).

These characters are strong portraits of the endurance present in mankind and add to the stature of The Book Thief as a trauma narrative. Though handling such a seemingly simple story of a young girl, the brilliance of the work shines out at moments where it indulges in its tryst with trauma. The various dimensions of traumatic narration are hence adopted by Zusak in a grand scale throughout the rendition of this tale.

Trauma, Young Adult Fiction and The Book Thief

Though the trauma felt by the teenagers was addressed in the Young Adult (YA) fiction, the representation of it was not an easy task as the teenage audience were a difficult crowd to please. Not entirely a child or an adult, the YA had sensibilities that were something in between. So, the narrative modes adopted were a mixture of the romanticized representation of trauma common in children’s literature and the graphic imagery adopted in literature intended for the adults. There was vehement experimentation in narrative modes and each YA author came up with his own unique style.

Markus Zusak in The Book Thief also makes use of a peculiar narrative mode. Zusak narrates one of the darkest times in history making use of a vibrant language, with which sharp images of pain and anguish are constructed. For this purpose, he makes use of the strangest of narrators, death. Death is not your typical narrator and he does not stick to the stereotypical description of the grim reaper. Instead he appears almost a misunderstood teenager who tries his hardest to ease the reader into understanding the truth about him. He is sympathetic, rational, vulnerable and in possession of human sensibilities. Right from the beginning he assures us that he can be “cheerful” and “amiable” (13).These assurances often remind one of the insecure teenage protagonists who attempts to make his audience love him. He mourns the death of certain humans and marvels at the “ugliness” and “beauty” in man and wonders “how the same thing can be both”(496).

The actual innovation however lies in the narrative form of the work. It is possible to witness the phenomenon of genre-blending in The Book Thief. Genre blending corresponds to the inclusion of multiple genres in a single work. The Book Thief not just contains elements of a normal fiction, but it includes several pages that appear like a graphic novel. A graphic novel is a piece of literature which makes extensive use of illustrations to convey a story. There are entire sections in The Book Thief that make use of illustrations, causing it to resemble a graphic novel to some extent.

Max, the Jewish fist-fighter whom Liesel’s family is hiding in the basement, gifts Liesel two books namely, The Standover Man and The Word Shaker. As there was a scarcity of writing materials in the basement where Max hid, he makes use of the materials that are readily available to him in order to make a gift for Liesel. These include Hans’ paints and his own copy of Mein Kampf. He creates two books for Liesel at different points in the story, by painting over the pages of Mein Kampf and drawing on them. For example, on page 233, one of the pages of The Handover Man appears like below illustration:



Here, the words that were painted over appear to peek from underneath the layers of paint. In the book, it is described as “There were the erased pages of Mein Kampf, gagging, suffocating under the paint as they turned”(246).These words signify how Max’s creation of this particular work of literature is an act of defiance – a revolt against the poisonous words Hitler inflicted on the German society. The need to paint over Hitler’s words and replace it with words brimming with artistry and hope is stressed via these illustrated pages. The graphic pages thus stand out as symbols of resistance against the Nazi regime, conveying this message even more deeply.

So, through the clever use of illustrations, he was able to convert a novel about trauma, about the World War into something that could capture the attention of an adolescent. The appeal for the book was increased by inclusion of another genre into the framework of an ordinary novel. However, Zusak wanted sketches to be included in his book not merely to attract the young people. In the bonus material provided as part of the anniversary edition of The Book Thief, he explains that he was attracted to “the idea of having books within the book, because it paralleled the theme of personal history within world history” (549).

A common narrative trope in most YA works is the use of a teenage protagonist. The pre-adult audience is made to relate to the protagonists of the novel who may be going through the same struggles as they are, and embark on a journey to recovery following in on their footsteps. In The Book Thief too, the protagonist Liesel is an eleven year old girl who is made to face issues that a teenager may relate to though set in an ancient time frame. She has to go through torments of peer pressure, parental neglect and problems of conflicting identity. These are common themes found in most YA work.

Being the daughter of a Communist father at a time when Hitler was persecuting them, Liesel’s mother was forced to give her daughter up for adoption. Liesel as an eleven-year-old girl was unaware of the actual reason her mother left her. So, when her newfound life at the heart of Nazi Germany demanded indulgence in practices that were in support of Hitler, she took part in it without knowing the actual implication of her actions. These include enrolment in Hitler Youth organization, calling out ‘Heil Hitler’ and participating in book burning ceremonies. She was kept from knowing the real reason for her mother’s abandonment. “Liesel revisited those dark rooms of her past and her mother answering questions made up of one word. She saw it all so clearly. Her starving mother, her missing father. Kommunisten. Her dead brother ”(117). In the book burning ceremony where she was made to take part, Liesel heard the word ‘Communist’ in a speech. There was a sense of contempt that the speaker associates with the word and it was only then that Liesel was able to make a connection with her mother’s decision to give her up for adoption. The reality of her situation troubled her and she was filled with an identity crisis. Hitler was the reason for the loss of her family and the fact that she was following in on the hateful man’s decisions disgusted her. “Liesel Meminger pivoted with nausea to exit the crowd...” (117).

In this work, the protagonist Liesel’s confrontation with the issue of loss and parental neglect is central. She appears traumatized from losing her family members. She is forever haunted by her deceased brother Werner who makes his appearance in her dreams. Her mother who was forced to give her up for fostering too recurs in her thoughts. Liesel struggles to come to terms with her mother’s abandonment and she questions: “If her mother loved her, why leave her on someone else’s doorstep? Why? Why? Why?” (38).Liesel is like every other teenager here, who yearns for the assurance that they are loved by their parents. Added to the trauma of brother’s loss was this absence of a parent and the displacement to a strange new home. Furthermore her struggles with the abandonment appear in the accusative outpourings: No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment. Nothing changed the fact that she was a lost, skinny child in another foreign place, with more foreign people. Alone” (39). Indeed at these moments, the horror that is associated with loneliness becomes clear.

Furthermore, like every other teenager, she is taunted by her peers for not fitting in. Her illiteracy is the cause for them ridiculing her and she struggles with words in the beginning to gain acceptance. Literacy is quickly equated to respect and power. Liesel wishes to learn both to fit in and to stand up to her bullies.

The setting in Nazi Germany is reminded to the reader again and again in the diction of The Book Thief via using German words very often in the novel. However, the vocabulary of German words are not among the loftiest, but swear words like “Saumensch” and “Saukerl” .The adult characters as well as the children use them informally to refer to each other without an ounce of hatred. For instance, the ease with which Liesel and Rudy use these words could be seen in this excerpt: “He was waving. “Saukerl,” she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think that’s as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get”(151).This disarming use of swear words to refer to one’s close friends is a common practice among the youth. The feeling of exhilaration felt while using words that are forbidden for children creates a sense of being a grown-up among children. Instead of shying away from this practice and choosing to depict the reality of conversations among kids, Zusak reduces the narrative distance between the reader and the tale.

Liesel also comes off as a highly imaginative child. Her descriptions of the weather outside to Max are truly brimming with artistry. For instance, Liesel describes a particular sunny day:“The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it’s stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun is like a yellow hole ...” (259).Furthermore, the childhood tendency to collect things that seem significant to them but worthless to others is seen when Liesel gathers everyday objects as gifts to Max, to aid his recovery. A teen reader may feel comradeship towards Liesel when they read this incident. Rudy’s obsession over Jesse Owens and wanting to be like him is also something truly relatable. Almost every adolescent may have gone through that phase of adoring a celebrity and could not have gone through Rudy’s “Jesse Owen incident” without passing a smile. By including such tiny incidents in the narrative, Zusak induces a bit of beauty in this tale about trauma.

Instances of Narrative Didacticism

In most works of literature, especially those intended for the young adults, the literary works always attempted to instruct the reader either covertly or overtly. This is because of the idea that since the teenage readers are yet to develop their own identity and perception of the world, it is easier to influence them. So the majority of works intended for the YA population appears to possess a tendency to teach the reader something. This act of writing literature with a definite purpose in mind is referred to as didacticism.

An analysis of The Book Thief reveals some hidden didactic intentions. We can observe Zusak attempting to redefine history of the World War and urging his readers to view how history has not always been rounded. He shows that there are several voices in history whose trauma went underrepresented. These include the working class Germans who despite threats to their own livelihood were brave enough to hide Jews during the holocaust. Furthermore, in pointing out the brave actions of these underrepresented voices, he asks the reader not to be blind to people around us and that even in the midst of the most violent atrocities, one must retain humanity.

Whenever the holocaust and the Second World War is spoken of, the images that always props up are those of the suffering Jews. The people of Germany appear as the perpetrators of cruelty, epitomes of evil. Zusak breaks this black and white view of the aforementioned historical events and in The Book Thief, represents all types of German citizens: the ones who were devout followers of toxic German nationality, the ones who stood by the Jews in solidarity, the ones who subjugated to the regime in fear and the ones who remained motionless, all make their appearance in this work.

The online archive Jewish Virtual Library names three different kinds of German citizens namely the perpetrators, the bystanders and the rescuers. The perpetrators were staunch followers of Hitler’s nationalism and shared his hatred for Jews. The character of Frau Diller whose only golden rule was that “If you walked into her shop and didn’t say Heil Hitler, you wouldn’t be served”(56) was an example of a perpetuator. Another character who is sharp on his Nazi mentality was Hans Hubermann’s son, Hans Jr. He had constant arguments with his father about his nationalism and lashes out as a perfect Nazi. He says “You’re either for the Fuhrer or against him...It’s pathetic how a man can stand by and do nothing as a whole nation cleans out the garbage and makes itself great” (111). He emerges as a typical follower of Hitler and is ruthless enough to reprimand his own father for his nation.

The bystanders, like the name suggests, stood by the atrocities as passive observers and never did anything for fear of being punished. Alex Steiner, Rudy’s father is one among them, whose stance is illustrated by Zusak as follows:
THE CONTRADICTORY POLITICS OF ALEX STEINER
Point One: He was a member of the Nazi Party, but he did not hate the Jews, or anyone else for that matter.
Point Two: Secretly, though, he couldn’t help feeling a percentage of relief (or worse—gladness!) when Jewish shop owners were put out of business—propaganda informed him that it was only a matter of time before a plague of Jewish tailors showed up and stole his customers.
Point Three: But did that mean they should be driven out completely?
Point Four: His family. Surely, he had to do whatever he could to support them. If that meant being in the party, it meant being in the party.
Point Five: Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.(65)

These conflicts of Alex Steiner were present in the minds of every German, but a few chose to resist the pressures. Zusak does not condemn this group of people and places the rhetorical question:“ …is there cowardice in the acknowledgment of fear? Is there cowardice in being glad that you lived?”( 112)

The ones who resisted were people like Hans and Rosa who were adoringly called the rescuers. Hans was “a man who’d stolen a Jew” (327). They were the people who took great pains to save their Jewish brothers at great personal cost. They were the people who could not turn a blind eye to the “misery” of the Jews, “which grew on them like vine.” They shared their sparse food and even took the beatings for helping them. Recognizing their bravery recently, YadVashem (the national Authority for the Remembrance of the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust) honoured them, listing them as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’. There were power relations forcing people to act a certain way or be punished for non-conformity and yet amidst strong forces demanding total submission, the resistance emerged by carrying out those set of activities which were explicitly banned like thievery and protection of an undesirable Jew. Despite the trauma induced by the state’s imposition of strict norms for conformity, there were certain choices available to people where they could save a life. Even though one’s own survival was at stake, there were many who added the additional trauma that may result out of this act of giving refuge to their already burdened life struggles.

Zusak points to the reader how the actions of a few who retained their humanity in those troublesome times changed the lives of many. Thus the trouble the commoners undertook was not meagre. They emerged as true missionaries of human virtues. However, the act of saving the Jews was not easy. The courage and endurance of the working class demands to be heard as their stories are ridden with those pangs of trauma that demands expression. Yet their stories do not surface often.

Despite the perks offered by the ruling power, underside of war is always trauma. War is never discriminatory towards humans – it affects everyone adversely some way or the other. Yet when it comes to the trauma narratives of non- Jewish Germans, the numbers were sparse. The Book Thief is essentially a trauma narrative. However, it is among the handful of works that chose to represent this kind of trauma. The trauma felt by the Jewish population, who were the worst affected by the war, was recorded in large numbers and testimonies, documentaries, books and other media emerged. The story of the other side was never fully recognized. These disparities in the emergence of trauma narratives are pointed out by Geoffrey C Alexander in his work Trauma: A Social Theory as:
Some stories are repressed by ruthless states, while others are materially sustained. Some stories are enriched by long-standing background representations; others seem so counterintuitive vis-à-vis established traditions as scarcely to be believed. Some trauma narratives address homogeneous audiences, others face fragmented and divided audiences; for others, there is nobody listening at all.(3)

The personal trauma of an individual attaches itself to the trauma felt by someone else and soon all of these accumulate to become collective trauma. The collective trauma of a community usually gains prominence over time and becomes transformed into history. However, not all sides of trauma are incorporated into history. As remarked by Alexander, there are powerful forces in the society who decide which stories gain attention and which do not. Zusak exposes this tendency out to the readers and asks the reader to be critical of every narrative they encounter. Zusak’s intention of representing the trauma felt by the Germans is evident as seen in this excerpt from an interview when he says:
I... hope that readers of any age will see another side of Nazi Germany, where certain people did hide their Jewish friends to save their lives (at the risk of their own). I wanted them to see people who were unwilling to fly the Nazi flag and boys and girls who thought the Hitler Youth was boring and ridiculous. If nothing else, there’s another side that lives beneath the propaganda reels that are still so effective decades later.(556)

Historical records are considered the collective memory of men. Zusak establishes the nature of history as a mere construct, which records events based on the wishes of the society’s powerful forces. The valuable lesson is taught not to believe history’s rendition of events where people are broadly divided into victims and oppressors. Alexander points out that:
Intellectuals, political leaders, and symbol creators of all kinds make competing claims. They identify protagonists and antagonists and weave them into accusatory narratives projected to audiences of third parties. Which narrative wins out is a matter of performative power. (2)

The existence of more complex layers beyond this biased categorization is laid bare by Zusak as he speaks the tale of the Second World War from the side that was considered the villainous lot. Humanity and retention of values in the face of harsh situations are deemed significant and the black and white worldview hinders this. Zusak urges for testimonies to come from everyone who has suffered and not just from the most suffered. There seems to be an urge to see how war creates trauma in the lives of everyone and that not all receive opportunities to voice their troubles. Selective amnesia is at play here as the trauma felt by the German working class seems to be entirely forgotten over decades. The treatment of Jewish population as sub-human beings during the war is not much different from the silence maintained in the present while speaking about the trauma of the German population. The Book Thief thus becomes a symbol of amnesia when it comes to traumatic narration.

The pain that the best of Nazi population underwent to provide refuge to their fellow beings stand as strong portraits of humanity. Zusak himself admits that the purpose behind this novel is to expose “the beautiful moments in an ugly time”. Since the majority of literary texts are created so that the future generations could read, reflect and learn from, it is only appropriate that the brightest spots amongst the darkest times could be visualized.

While the trauma experienced by the Jewish classes was more of physical oppression, the trauma of these social groups can be understood to be of a peculiar nature as it is more based on ideological oppression. The Jews who fled in fear of persecution often sought refuge in the homes of these compassionate Germans. In the Nazi world where “you shouldn’t want to be like black people or Jewish people or anyone who is . . . not us”(66) let alone save an outcast, the bravery of the few “rescuers” are truly commendable.

Despite the threat of being punished if any association with the Jews, many risked their life and lived their life in constant fear of expulsion. Furthermore, economic hardships were prevalent, despite Hitler’s reign that promised better life opportunities for the Aryan class with the elimination of Jews. They still suffered conditions that were worse than before. There was a constant scarcity of food and other basic amenities in the poorer sections of Germany. Both these groups went through approximately similar kinds of mental trauma as both lived under a constant fear of being exposed and persecuted. Insecurity loomed over both and the working class had an added trauma in having the responsibility to take care of the ones they have sworn to protect. When food was scarce for the survival of a normal family, taking on other helpless souls meant depletion of one’s own scarce benefits. Zusak voices the situation through his narrator Death that:
On the ration cards of Nazi Germany, there was no listing for punishment, but everyone had to take their turn. For some it was death in a foreign country during the war. For others it was poverty and guilt when the war was over, when six million discoveries were made throughout Europe. (422)

Yet the narratives of these humanitarian people were constantly overlooked.

Zusak teaches his readers that through the act of providing space for voicing and recording the stories and choices of common citizens who became rescuers during the Holocaust, we can reach a better understanding of the actuality of the events that took place and also understand how the human behaviour is, during the times of extreme crisis such as these. By examining what led some to endure trauma for the sake of others we gain more insight into the nature of human relationships.

Conclusion

YA fiction works to serve a higher purpose in addition to acting as a means to acknowledge the trauma felt by young adults. They also provide examples as to how the trauma felt by an individual could be resolved. So, when a teenager confronted with the harshness of the world reads a YA work, the reader connects with the protagonist who faces similar issues and does not feel alone. Along with that, he acquires some strength to overcome his trouble from the way the protagonist resolved their trauma. So, YA fiction aids in resolution of trauma that has been haunting the adolescent was carrying around.

Zusak through his trauma narrative The Book Thief urges young readers to indulge in expression of their trauma and not to remain passive. The expression can be through sharing experiences, taking part in artistic processes, indulging in some action or by making use of words.

Works Cited

1. “About the Program.”Yadvashem.org, www.yadvashem.org /righteous.html.
2. Alexander, Jeffrey C. Trauma, Social Theory. Polity, 2015.
3. Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.
4. Freud, Sigmund.Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Translated by James Straghey, Liveright, 1961.
5. “Righteous Among the Nations’: History & Overview.” Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org /history-and-overview- of-the-righteous -gentitles.
6. Stillman, Heidi, and Markus Zusak. “Interview with Markus Zusak.” Chicago Public Library, Chicago Public Library, 2012, www.chipublib.org /interview-with- markus-zusak/.
7. Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief.Illustrated by Trudy White, Black Swan, 2013.
8. ---.Anniversary ed.,Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.