“Faith is harder to shake than knowledge, love succumbs less to change than respect, hate is more enduring than aversion, and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted less in a scientific knowledge dominating the masses than in a fanaticism which inspired them and…drove them forward” (Hitler 1943). In one small quote, Adolf Hitler—writing his memoirs, titled Mein Kampf—bluntly summarized the core beliefs that underwrote his policies and practices first as the Chancellor, then as the dictator of Germany. Embracing French social psychologist Gustave Le Bon’s idea that the masses would respond better to emotional sentiments than to reason, a young Hitler quickly rose through the ranks of the National Socialist…show more content… Comprised of painted-over pages of Hitler’s memoirs Mein Kampf, The Word Shaker told the story of a Tyrant ruling with only words, symbols, and hatred, cultivated in the fields of Germany. As the people gathered around his words, he gave them symbols, and assigned them a place under his rule. Those that understood the heart of words were sent up the trees he had cultivated, to shake the words down. Out of these ‘Word Shakers,’ one stood apart, because “she knew how powerless a person could be without words” (Zusak, 302). The book further follows Liesel and Max’s friendship as a seed, planted and sprouted, and hated by the Tyrant. The Word Shaker climbs into the tree that the seed has become, and refuses to leave. Her strength lends itself to the tree, which survives the onslaught of the Tyrants axes. No one can chop it down. When the Nazi’s once again march a group of Jews through the town, Liesal spots Max, her friend, and runs to him, much like her father did. And, like her father, she was brutally disciplined for it. That was the last she saw of Max, but his work stayed in her memory. Even as the Allies moved in to bomb her home, and take from her everything she loved in the world, she remembered the Word Shaker. And at the end of her life, Death came to take her, and he remembered the words of the Word Shaker too. They have read over the last line of the story over and over again: I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them