Fulkerson 1

Drew Fulkerson
Mrs. Barnes
Honors Language Arts 8
28 September 2016
Window of Opportunity
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
said Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist. Fear can make things impossible by closing the window of
opportunity and making what a person was trying to achieve impossible. In The Book Thief by
Markus Zusak and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, both authors portray the theme of that
by living your life in fear, you close your window of opportunity. The Book Thief is about a girl
named Liesel Meminger who lives in Nazi Germany in the midst of WWII. A Light in the Attic is
a collection of poems. Some are childish and some have a darker side. Both authors show that
where there is fear, there is no opportunity through the climax, with irony, and through the
characters actions.
The climax of the story is one way the authors portray the theme. In the poem Fear,
Barnabus Browning lived his whole life in fear of drowning. In the climax of the poem, this fear
kills him. Shaking with fear That a wave might appear, and cried so many tears That they filled
up the room And he drowned (Silverstein 136). The quote from the climax depicts the theme.
Barnabus is so scared of drowning that he would not do anything. He would not even go outside
because the rain could have drowned him in his mind. His fear closed the opportunity to go and
be an average kid. In the climax of The Book Thief, Rudys parents fear of the military school
rumors caused them not to send Rudy to it. Their fear put an end to ***THREE
POSSIBILITIES*** 1. Alex Steiner wouldnt have suffered the same punishment as Hans
Hubermann. 2. Rudy would have gone away to school. 3. And just maybe, he would have

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lived.(Zusak 411). When Rudys parents told the Nazi soldier that Rudy would not go to the
school, all of the opportunities in the quote were destroyed, leaving no trace of them behind.
Much like Barnabus Browning, they feared too much and they ended up killing their son later in
the falling action with a chain reaction.
Irony is another way the authors develop the theme. In Fear, Silverstein's use of irony
demonstrates the theme. Barnabus tried with all of his might to prevent himself from drowning,
but in an ironic twist, his precautions end up drowning him. With his door locked tight And the
windows nailed down... And cried so many tears That they filled up the room and he drowned
(Silverstein 136). The way in which Barnabus precautions backfire illustrates the theme. Since
he was so scared, he did not do anything, he just sat on his bed waiting for his death. He had the
opportunity to do whatever he wanted, but his fear did not allow him to, it sealed him in his room
and left him there to die. His fear did not allow him to live his life fully, and ultimately, cut his
life short. In The Book Thief, during the first air raid, Rudys sarcasm towards Liesel shows how
much he actually fears the bombs. He says Ah, come on, Liesel dont be like that. Whats the
worst that could happen, apart from all of us being flattened or fried or whatever bombs do?
(Zusak 373). His fear of getting killed by a bomb caused him to cower into the basement, closing
the opportunity for death to come and sweep him off his feet like it does later in the book.
The third and final way the authors display the theme is through the characters actions.
In Hippos Hope, a hippo wants to fly so he makes himself a pair of wings. However, in one of
the endings, he fears what will happen if he jumps off a mountain with wings, and chickens out.
He looked up at the sky and looked down at the sea-... And he turned and went home and had
cookies and tea-...(Silverstein 89). Because he was too scared to try and fly when the chance
arose, he did not have the opportunity to fly like he dreamed of. In The Book Thief, Hans fear of

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Max getting found causes Max to leave the Hubermann household. Because Hans was human
and gave a piece of bread to a dying Jew, the Nazis suspected him of being a Jew lover, forcing
Hans to give up Max out of fear. He left. Max? But he did not come back ***THE LAST
WORDS OF MAX VANDENBURG*** Youve done enough (Zusak 397-398). The actions of
Hans made Max go away. This opens up a window of opportunity for Max to get captured, and
closes his window to live peacefully.
While some may disagree that the actions of the characters show that fear closes a
window of opportunity, they are wrong. They are wrong because in the poem Arrows, the
young boy shot a cloud with an arrow. He said I dont shoot arrows anymore (Silverstein 127).
The boys fear of hitting another cloud stopped him from partaking in one of his pastimes, and by
doing so, there is no opportunity for anything good or bad to happen, making his fear affect him
negatively. Much like in Arrows Maxs fear closes his opportunity in The Book Thief. Since
Max was a Jew in the middle of WWII, he was scared of being captured by the Nazi party and
being sent to his death. This fear drove him into the Hubermanns basement. For Max
Vandenburg, there was cool cement and plenty of time to spend with it (Zusak 250). By
spending all of his time in the basement to stay safe, Max lost a couple years of his life to fear,
keeping him from his opportunity to live.
Both authors use plot, irony, and character to reveal a theme of where there is fear, there
is no opportunity. No man is fearless. To have fear is to be a human being. Paulo Coelho's
statement about fear was true. Do not stop pursuing a dream because of the fear of failure, stop
pursuing a dream because it was accomplished.