Music writing

The church was peaceful and full of rays of light that shot through the colorful windows. But this church was not what it seemed, It’s beauty despised the evil within it. It cried out for help. The shallow hum of bass eco through the building. Its source, unknown. Walking further in you could make out roughly where the vibrations came from. A door that came out from under the building. The brass door handle rattled with the vibration. The door opened exposing itself to the endless staircase below, The humming had now stopped and the drip of water could now be heard from the depths of the staircase. Once down you could see the concrete floor was ankle-deep in water. The drip of a leaking pipe made itself present. The darkness of the basement covered its surroundings like a coat of black paint. The flashlight that was being used pressured the darkness to leap out of its path. In the far corner lay a wooden bookshelf which had now been rotting away in the waters that poison it. An album of photos of the runs, They had all gathered together for one purpose. To celebrate the life of God.

NCEA 2.4 genre Investigation

The genre of magical realism in itself is one that expresses deep and confrontational material which will get the reader questioning themselves and the world around them. This technique helps the author express themselves in much greater detail. One novel which expresses a magnitude of magical realism elements is “The book thief” by Markus Zusak.

There are many occasions where strong elements of magical realism are used throughout the novel. One instance of this is at the very beginning where we are introduced to our narrator Death. Death quotes that “you are going to die”. By doing this he not only breaks the fourth wall but also creates an uneasy feeling. Stating something so obvious like this would usually be a little off-putting but since it is Death stating this you feel like you have some personal connection. Death is directly connected to the subject of the inevitable end so that type of connection just seems a little confronting for some. This allows Death to get under our skin. This is only within the first couple of words of the novel so right from the start Markus Zusak is embedding the importance of Death in this novel.

One of the main ideas that this novel supports is that words are just as powerful as weapons. The setting supports this as it is based in Nazi Germany. Hitler gained his power through well-placed words and sentences. We as the reader tag along in a 3rd person narrative through Germany’s WW2, the story is told through the eyes of a young girl named Liesel, Who at the start of the novel obtains a book called the “gravediggers handbook”. She acquires this right after her brother’s unexpected death and this is where she becomes “the book thief” or at least where she starts her journey. Death quotes in this moment of loss that “I witness the ones that are left behind, crumbled among the jigsaw puzzles of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs”. Death is trying to explain to the reader that living with the loss of a loved one is far worse than death itself. You can also see another side of things, as we see life “Death” sees death and all the strange jigsaw puzzles that people leave behind with them. It’s fascinating how everything came together, as through the death of her brother came the first stolen book, ironically called The Gravediggers Handbook, and as well as it brought Death. This was their first encounter and where their story began.

The relation between the start of the novel seems very coincidental considering who the narrator is. The beginning of the play starts with death and ends with it. Her brother’s death on the train, and now with the bombing of Munich which cast death over everyone but Liesel. She survived the bombing and had to witness all of the ones she loved lie lifeless on the streets and beneath the rubble of buildings. As Liesel is dragged away by a worker her homemade book named “The book thief” is left behind and is thrown in the bin by another worker. Death notices this and retrieves the book, somehow he is able to come out of his spiritual state in order to save something not only of value to him but to Liesel as well. This shows the connection he has towards Liesel who has now escaped his grasp three times. It is shown that Death has feelings and emotions just as any human would, just because he is Death does not mean he needs to be so grim. He likes to see the brighter side of life as said in this quote “First the colours. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.” It is expressed here that death has trouble trying to see how vibrant life can be. He states later on in the novel that in his line of work he tries to make a point to notice the beautiful colours. “People observe the colours of a day only at its beginning and ends, but to me, it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colours. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.” It is also found that death is quite formal when speaking to the reader, for example. “Of course, an introduction. A beginning. Where are my manners?” Gathering all these points together you can see Death is just like you or I. With emotions and imagination to help block out the bad in the world. For even Death is only human.

As stated before, words in the right hands can be extremely powerful. Roughly halfway through the novel, Liesel is faced with a difficult decision. She is told by the mayor’s wife that Rosa Hubermanns ironing service will no longer be required. Liesel was furious at the woman as she knows that Rosa was the only one with a job, which meant no income for Rosa. Liesel is faced with two choices, she can either accept what has happened and tell Rosa or deny everything that has happened. Unfortunately, Liesel decides to deny what has happened and amongst all her mixed emotions she then proceeds to yell at the Mayor’s wife. Many harsh words are exchanged which hurt the woman immensely “The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words. Cuts had opened and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin”. Markus Zusak is showing us that words can be a powerful force, especially when in the right hands. Like in the quote it states “Cuts had opened and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin”. This is showing how violent these words must have been so instead Markus Zusak is using metaphors to help give us an idea.

Markus Zusak portrays his ideas through elements of magical realism. From the breaking of the forth wall to expressing the true power of words. This novel contains much deep and confrontational material. Throughout all of these elements there has been key messages that Markus Zusak wants you to notice so that you can use them throughout your life. This is a novel about a touching story but also a novel on history which allows us to see the mistakes of mankind so that we can sway from doing the same. In all, Markus Zusak wants this to be something people learn from, so then they may use it in their day to day life. To learn from history and our past mistakes, that is what Markus Zusak desires.

Examine two paragraphs from the book thief

“Yes, the Fuhrer decided that he would rule the world with words. “I will never fire a gun, I will not have to”

Here Zusak shows us the power of words and really exemplifies this by telling us about the power that Hitler gained from his words. He uses imagery with the use of a gun or lack of one to show us the Fuhrer’s confidence to be able to win the war with ease. Zusak’s ideas show us that you don’t have to be a fighter in a physical sense to win a war or a battle for that matter as all battles that have taken place have always had a strong leader to guild them to victory or defeat. Without these people, whole operations would be in complete shambles.

“The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words. Cuts had opened and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin”

Here again, Zusak wants to show us the power of words and how the main character Liesel Meminger is becoming seemingly stronger with them. Zusak uses the imagery of a supposed nife cutting away at this poor woman, or you could think about it as a metaphor. As these words have gotten her from the inside and have shown themselves on the surface of the woman’s skin, The cuts sickening and repulsive just like the words themselves.

Quotes and Annotations of the book thief

” First the colour then the humans. That’s usually how i see things. Or at least how i try” – PG 13

This is deaths introduction and the first place where we start to build a fascinating picture of how he works, take note that he is also the narrator of the story. He likes to see the colour then the humans. To give supporting evidence that this is in fact death we must look at the way the narrator describes people. He says humans and not people suggesting that he is not one of them, an outside force watching over all. Seeing colours before everything else is something that you wouldn’t expect from death, but maybe he wants to see the brighter side of the situation, or maybe the colours help define the situation for him. For him to also say “Or at least how i try” he’s suggesting that he’s constantly failing to comply with either his or a higher being’s rules. For this to be the case there must have been something quite awful to have happened to even get death to try to avoid it. Just from this opening quote we learn a lot about death and the way he likes to try to run things, and that something quite terrible must have or will happen in this story.

“It was January 1939. She was nine years old, soon to be ten. Her brother was dead.” – PG 21

Here we find a list of four things but one is not like the others. In this list it’s talking about time, age and death. This list was made by death our narrator, and for some strange reason he included death in a place where it normally wouldn’t be found, well in the average persons lists. For some this could be seen as quite the realistic list, wherever there is life there is death. You could see this as in death can come at anytime no matter the current circumstances. For this it seems to be close to a nine year olds birthday, and with this you would automatically relate it to a good and exciting time, but unfortunate enough death has shown its face in a time of joy, but death dose not wait.

Gattaca – Visual Language

Andrew Niccol uses a variety of ideas to help portray the struggle of the near modern future, and how by progressing with the biological enhancements on humankind will intern devastate society. To help show this he uses Visual Language to demonstrate, For example, the bold buildings shown show little variety and are all very similar, this is relating to there being no major differences in not only the buildings but the people too. In a society filled with the perfect human, with the same desired traits nothing would change. There would be no difference in capabilities and thought processes making the world very dull and cold. You can see this at the very start and all the way through the movie, that is everyone wears the same suit the same shoes even having the same hairstyle. For at the start of the play Vincent was a nobody an outcast to society, his non-existent traits were not wanted and so was abandoned only left to clean up after those who bested him, but with imperfections came dreams and desires to strive and succeed, and that is exactly what he had a dream to show others that just because he did not have the perfect biological traits didn’t mean he couldn’t do what they could. But with perfections also come expectations and requirements you have to meet, unfortunately for Eugene the expectations he was required to meet where unattained and as a result sent him to attempted suicide leaving him crippled. for this, you may have the perfect genetics but nothing can change your mindset. And in a perfect society, there were still mishaps there was vincent and Eugene the two completely different people but also the same. Andrew Niccol used these two as messengers that although diffrent they worked perfetly together, with Eugene giving vicent

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