Haunted by humans?
What does that suppose to mean?
"revenge is a dish best served cold"
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MovieChat Forums > The Book Thief (2013) Discussion > Haunted by humans?
Humans are haunted by the fear of death from the time they're old enough to understand what death is. In the movie, Death would like to stop taking lives, but he can't; his fate is to go on taking lives forever. I think he's haunted by humans because he envies what they have, mortality.
shareDeath has power over humans because we're afraid of death from the moment we understand what it is. In the movie, Death envies humans because eventually they no longer exist. He doesn't like what he does and would gladly end his own existence, but he can't; it's his fate to go on wielding his power over humans forever, regardless of whether they're young or old, good or evil. In that way, humans haunt him.
sharegood explanation!
I'll be good I swear... I'll never see a movie ever again.
Regardless, a pretty cool line.
shareMy take on the line was a little different. Death is haunted by humans because some, whom you would least suspect, have reacted in such courageous ways. If everyone reacted with fear or anger I don't think Death would give humans a second thought and thus not be haunted. But occasionally Death takes the exemplary soul who takes death in stride. It is thinking on those souls that haunts Death.
shareYeah I quite agree with this explanation. Those who fear death good or bad it wouldn't bother him to take away their lives, like his emotionless speech about taking the lives of those who was bombed. But when it came to the Book Thief who was courageous and kind in the darkest times and when she invited death at 90 years old, it made him nervous to think more of the humans who'll do and act the same, stare death in the face and carry on living. This is why he's haunted.
shareDeath says it, just before:
I wanted to tell the book thief she was one of the few souls that made me wonder what it was to live
In spite of being eternal (as long as there are humans), and seeing the worse and best, the most fearsome and wondrous aspects of the Universe; Death can only briefly peek into the human soul during the transition or separation of the body and soul (the existence of souls implies an afterlife, also beyond Death's reach). It can't create, it can't destroy. It's just an spectator. And even thought it witnesses wonder beyond our comprehension, it can't help feeling haunted by those humans that live, that build and weave their souls with their fellow ephemerals, shining and flourishing in what they can only perceive as perennial darkness. Standing up to it even when it rages and tears at them. share
Reminded me of the last line of "A River Runs Through It." "I am haunted by Waters."
share