The Book Thief

Quote of TBT

Which of these quotes have the same moral/message? And what is the moral/ message?Why. Please be able to give your full commentary of your answer.

1.)"For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and magnitude, and of course, its consequences"

2.)" “For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”

3.)" “...I believe it important to emphasize how strongly I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.”

4.)" “I am not so naïve as to believe that this slim volume will change the course of history or shake the conscience of the world. Books no longer have the power they once did. Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.”

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Number 2,3,4 are related in themes involving history, learning from history, and human destiny. Number one is making a comment about greed as a cause for most strife in the world.

Thank you. But I need a little more commentary.

This is a short answer forum but I will try to elaborate a little more. The general theme of 2,3,4 is that humanity must learn from their collective history. Not learning from history means we make the same mistakes over and over again. The Holocaust was certainly something that should never happen again. Survivors have a duty to speak about it: they must remind people of the evil than man inflicts on others. Present and future generations have a duty to listen to these stories as well as read the books, like The Book Thief, that hold knowledge about the atrocities. They must always remain cautionary tales about what people are capable of if the world is not vigilant.