The Book Thief is about a young, sheltered German girl learning to read. Through her relationship with other characters, particularly Max, she grows and becomes more understanding of what happens in the world and the hardships that people have to face, especially in the time period of Nazi Germany. The Book Thief explores the ideas of death and war, but above all, the good qualities of humans and their worth. Leisel and Max are two very different people. A German and a Jew, young and old, accepted and marginalised. Through her relationship with Max, Leisel demonstrates great support, trust and kindness, all examples of human worth in times of great difficulty. Given the historical and political context of the novel, Max, as a Jew, would have …show more content…
Over the course of the novel, Leisel and Max overcome their guilt and escape their emotional trauma, by putting their pasts aside. Like Max, Leisel has gone through several traumatic experiences in her life that have severely affected her, like leaving her family and witnessing her brother die. However, she doesn’t let this pain and agony affect her so much that she despises her life. Instead, she opens up to the pain of others and sympathises with them. Through this, and the sharing of nightmares, she bonds with Max, and she puts great trust in him. Instead of directing her hate towards other, she opens her heart up to Max, trusting him with her darkest fears and nightmares. Max also puts great trust in her, by revealing his past, which he so desperately tried to hide. Leisel is being trusted with Max’s secret. Max is essentially trusting Leisel with his life. This great trust they put in each other is like glue that holds their relationship together. It shows how two very different people can have a bond so strong nothing can come between them, not even the most gruesome pasts. It demonstrates the range of ways human beings can show good moral qualities in difficult
The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by Markus Zusak set in Munich, Germany during the Nazi reign from 1936-1943. The novel incorporates a main character that is, in the beginning, an innocent child who doesn't understand the world and takes her on a journey where she grows up and matures through the hardships and challenges of her life. The story is narrated by the character Death, who is a fresh take on the Grim Reaper, only wearing the black cloak when it's cold and never carries a syte. Death describes the life Liesel Meminger, an orphaned girl who witnesses her brother's death and burial and finds herself being adopted by the benevolent old couple, the Hubermanns. The rest of the story follows Liesel's journey through her incredibly challenging life with the Hubermanns and characters such as Rudy, The mayor's wife, and Max helping her along. Symbolism in The Book Thief deepens the story by conveying many different ideas and emotions that supports the reader's understanding of the story. This is especially apparent with the use of the gravediggers to help the reader remember characters, the use of color to help the reader feel the proper emotions and remember the correct events, and the use of Liesel's changing feelings about Rudy to convey how Liesel grows and matures through the book.
The Book Thief, written by Australian novelist Markus Zusak, follows a young girl living in Nazi Germany, and employs innovative techniques to convey the central idea of the extremes of human behavior. This central idea was explored through stylistic techniques and conventions such as Death as the narrator, juxtaposition, irony, lack of chronological order, narrative voices, and themes, namely the power of words.
The Book Thief, is a Death narrated novel by Markus Zusak. The story takes place in Nazi Germany, 1939, where Liesel Meminger arrives on Himmel Street to start a new life with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. She lives to a very old age and when Death finally comes to take her away, he wants to tell Liesel about beauty and brutality. But what could he tell her about beauty and brutality that she didn’t know, the Book Thief had lived through it all. The time she saw Max marching to Dachau, the time Rudy went into the Amper River to save The Whistler, and the final moments she spent with Mama. Liesel Meminger’s life had always represent beauty in the wake of brutality.
The Book Thief is set in the time of World War 2 where the Holocaust is present and disaster is everywhere. Throughout the story, Liesel, the main character, learns that words are extremely powerful and hold the ability for people to use them for good or for evil. Among the disaster and altercations, Liesel uses her literature to comfort her and make herself more powerful due to her knowledge, which demonstrates the theme of the story, the comfort and power of literature and words softens the pain of loss.
The Book Thief is a historical novel written by Markus Zusak. It provides the readers a deeper understanding of the lives of Jews and Germans in Germany during the brutal Nazi regime and how they manage to survive. This includes not only the physical survival of the fittest, but also the survival of their moral beliefs. In addition to the author’s theme of inhumanity and humanity of man, he provides a background story for the characters in the book and how they are similar and different by their moral beliefs, their goals, their guilt, and their relationship with words. Two of the characters that are mentioned throughout the book to remind the readers of their struggles to survive in the Third Reich are Liesel and Max. Liesel is the foster daughter of Hans and Rosa Hubermann and “the book thief” who realizes the power of words in the Nazi community while Max is a fist fighter and German Jew who hides in Hans’s basement to escape from Nazi incarceration and eventually survives the concentration camp after he is arrested on his way to Stuttgart by the Nazis. Liesel and Max can be compared and contrasted through analyzing their struggles, includes their fear of the death, their guilt of
The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak shows how the impact on the power of language has on Liesel Meimeger through the structure of the novel. The structure of the novel shows the development of the character Liesel, highlighting the impact of the power of language. In her development, she finds the ability to express herself as well as to connect to others. Books become a comfort to her and heal her, they help her grow strong relationships with other characters in her life. However, she also sees the damage words have caused through Nazi propaganda, understanding that Hitler 's words have been the cause of suffering of the people in her life. Despite this, the structure of the novel shows the ability of the character to understand that
In Markus Zusak novel “The Book Thief,” a little girl named Liesel serves as the protagonist. The plot of the story takes place in Germany during the late thirties, early fourtees while the anti-jewish sentimant is most prominent and Hitlers is at his peak in terms of power and followers. The book revolves around the life of Leisel and how these attrocious conditions shaped her life. This book does a great job of demonstrating many aspects described in “How to Read Literature Like a
In the midst of a normal day in Nazi Germany, an innocent shop owner was forced to his knees - with his hands behind his back. A massive, looming crowd of passersby encircled the scene; time yielded as no one looked away nor ran in to help. Wrists shackled and face bruised, the shop owner pleaded the officers for mercy, but his actions were in vain. However, they showed one spectator a new path that he must choose - the path of justice. Stepping forward, he defended the convicted man, not with violence, but with words. “STOP!” he shouted. “He is a good man. We all...” He was cut short as a brutal uppercut from one of the officers sent the late middle-aged man flying.
Max feels guilt and shame because he has been taught that the fact that he is Jewish makes him
One day a Nazi guard was checking basements for hidden jews, which at the time Liesel and Papa were hiding Max in their basement. Bravely Leisel did cut her leg,” She tried to concentrate on her bleeding leg” (Zusak 343). This is when Max is hiding in the basement and if there is no distraction than the guard will kill Papa, Max, and Liesel. Liesel cuts her leg open in order for the guard to focus on that and one consequence was an injured leg but a positive consequence was that she saved all of their lives. Within The Book Thief Liesel makes vital choices in order for her to survive just like the example
Liesel never tells anyone about the Jew living in their basement, which in turn gives Max peace of mind. Finding a home for Max to feel like he belongs, is very hard for him. When he meets Liesel, he discovers a desire to keep living. Liesel makes him feel like he has worth in this world and continues to motivate Max. Liesel becomes a safe shelter for Max, and when she hugs him, it shows a sisterly love, even if Max isn’t her real brother.
The Book Thief is about Liesel Meminger, whose brother, mother, and father died, and had to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann right before World War II. When they were burying her brother, she steals a book from a grave-digger. Later, when the book burning started, Liesel realizes how her mother and father died, and steals a book from the burning books. She is seen by the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, who invited Liesel to read in her room. Later, a man named Max, a Jew, saves Hans's life, so he tries to hide him in his basement. When the Germans saw Hans giving food to the other Jews, Max is sent away and Hans is sent to a military service. Liesel loses hope, and she starts writing a book in the Hubermanns' basement because she wanted to blame
Since The Book Thief is a historical fiction text, the fictitious characters interact in a realistic WWII setting in Germany. Three characters in the book, Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner, and Ilsa Hermann develop their identities within the parameters of the Nazi controlled society. However, if Liesel, Rudy, and Ilsa were characters in today's society, their lives would be different. All character in the book are different both by their personality and physical appearance. Starting with protagonist of the book Liesel Meminger.
When bombs were striking Molching, Germany, the reader can sense the fear throughout the basement that is packed with people. When Max came to live with Liesel and her family, Liesel never saw Max as a runaway Jew; she only saw him as a close friend. Liesel’s love for Max shows the reader that love overcomes labels and stereotypes. To her there were no labels, and everyone was given an equal chance in her eyes. At the end of The Book Thief, the reader feels heartbroken for Liesel when all the people she cherishes most are killed during a bombing attack in the night. The Book Thief can help the Fahrenheit 451 society relearn the emotions they have never encountered before. The people of Fahrenheit 451 would be reminded that they must stay staunch to what they are feeling and not let their emotions slip away from
In Max’s story, Hitler grows a forest of propaganda-bearing trees but a young girl plants an indestructible tree from a seed of friendship. She stays at the top until her friend meets her there. When they climb down, the tree falls, smashing Hitler’s forest. Although most people returned to his forest, others quietly followed the two friends. Despite the violence against Jews in Nazi Germany, there were a number of Germans who disagreed with Nazism. Max’s story aims to encourage Liesel to be willing to counter words of hatred with words of love.