Prologue

   The prologue consists of four chapters, but they are all short with only a few pages in each of them, which is why I decided to summarize them all in one blog post.

   To start off with the first chapter, I noticed that there are subtitles, (centered in the middle of the page, with bold fonts, capital letters, and star-like looking shapes on both sides of them) and not just a little, but quite a lot. On the first page of the chapter, there were already two of them. These subtitles help to switch the scene or topic, which happens quite a lot throughout the prologue. I also noticed that the person talking (the narrator himself) has a strong connection with "colors". On the first line of the first chapter, it starts off by saying, "First, the colors. Then the humans." Later in the first chapter, we find the word "color" again. This time, it says "Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I'll hear after that will be my own breathing and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps." Throughout these lines, I felt a spiritual sense in the scene and the narrator, as though he is an angel-like existence to people. He also goes on by describing his favorite color as "dark chocolate". Thus, I imagine that colors are what stand in between himself and the spiritual world. Overall, the first chapter mostly talked about the narrator himself.

   In the second chapter, it mainly talked about a girl, her mother, and a corpse. There were two other people, that were described as "guards". However, the girl and the mother were silent all throughout, which made me think they were in a position where they could not disobey. The setting was described as "white", which meant that it was full of snow. When I heard that the characters were all riding on a train, with guards, on a snowy day, the girl without a father, and a dead corpse, it made me think that it might be a scene involved with the Nazis. Apparently, the narrator got curious and interested in the girl, which is why he stayed along and watched. Watching them go along by, the narrator says something spiritual again, "A small soul was in my arms." (Which I predict he is talking about the dead corpse.) Soon after, he says he was surprised the guards did not notice him walking along with them, "even though his breath was loud that day." This probably means that although he is unable to see form other people, the sounds he make can be heard by others. Lastly, when I read the last line of the chapter, I noticed that the girl is the main character of the book, as he called her "the book thief", which is the title of the book.

   In the third chapter, the girl from the last chapter shows up again. However, this time it was years after the narrator saw her the last time, on the snowy day. This time, the setting was not described in detail, but we know that there was a crashed plane in the scene, with a pilot on it. In addition, there was another person near the girl, a boy. This boy was the first to rush to the plane, followed by her, (the book thief) around thirty seconds later. When the boy rushed to the pilot, he opened his toolbox he brought with him, and out of all the things he took out a teddy bear, and placed it on the pilot's chest. From this scene, I was a little creeped out, to be honest, but maybe the pilot was someone who was close to the boy. (My only guess at the moment) A few moments later, the narrator "walked in, loosened his soul, and carried it gently away." Although there was no detailed explanation about the pilot, there were some about his appearance. On the last page of this chapter, the narrator explains about an "eclipse" he sees when a human dies, in this case, the pilot. He explains that he has seen millions of them, more than he cares to remember. From this chapter, I was able to confirm that the narrator is, in fact, someone that is unnatural to the world we live in.

   Lastly, going into the fourth chapter, it starts off by talking about the last time the narrator saw the girl. Specifically, he described the sky that day "as boiling soup, some places burnt, with pepper, streaked across the redness." I was feeling the sense that this might be a scene during the war, as the narrator said "the last time I saw her" (meaning that she might die soon or later) and also felt as if the color of the redness in the sky described bombings and smoke. Soon after reading, my prediction turned out to be correct, as the narrator explained the situation. He explained the site saying, it was full of bombs, and blood streaming down the road. When the book thief caught the narrator's eyes, he decided to stay and watch her. There, he saw her clutching onto a book, while she was trying to go back to her basement to write, or read through her story one last time. I believe that this scene really showed the readers how much the books mean to her.

   Before reading the prologue, I did not understand what effects they were supposed to have on the readers, but I think I understand them better now. I believe there are two main reasons to write a prologue (or at least for this book). First, it is so that the readers understand the narrator better, especially in stories where the narrators are not the typical type of human being. Second, it is to grab the reader's attention by bringing up the main events in the stories.