The Power of Words

We have all heard the phrase “Actions speak louder than words” but sometimes words are more powerful. If you know the right things to say, sometimes there’s no need for any action to take place just by the simple flow of the words its good enough. In the text “Backpacks vs. Briefcases” it explains about how developed our rhetorical skills are without us really knowing we have them because we have slowly learned to detect rhetorical messages. Even with just doing a simple task there’s all sort of persuading ads trying to get you to buy something or convincing you into believing or rethinking certain things. Most of the times books have hidden meanings or a purpose the author wants to share with the rest of us. So when they write there’s a hidden rhetorical message somewhere between the pages.
One of my favorite books is The Book Thief, in my personal opinion it’s a heart-wrenching story about how words are more powerful than what we give them credit. At times without really meaning to we say things that stick to people whether it’s in a positive way or a negative way is completely up to you. The point is words stick with us like memories whether it’s from something a loved one once told us to words from our books, words are a big part of life.
The Book Thief mentions the power of words frequently throughout the novel to the point where it’s a reoccurring theme. One quote that really stands out is “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” In this quote the protagonist is describing her own thoughts about words and how she thinks she has to make words right so they can have a positive effect in the lives she has touched with her words. She has said it so many times that words can affect you for the rest of your life and the narrator of the novel which is Death tells the readers that she affected him so much for her words more than her actions and that she will always be dear to him.
One thing about the power of words is that there is no way that you can make words powerful if you don’t believe they are powerful and that words are enough to accomplish things without action meaning war and violence. “The best word shakers were the ones who understood the true power of words. They were the ones who could climb the highest.”
The Book Thief constantly convinces us that words are powerful and beautiful. The entire story is just full of life in itself and the way Death describes life as hauntingly beautiful is in a sense accurate but the way he makes the words flow is rhetorical and poetic. “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” The perfect ending because Death gives us his opinion of Life which is quite ironic. Since he’s trying to convinve us life is beautiful.

Works Cited

Bolin, Laura Carroll. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 45-58. Writing Spaces. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.