Analysis Of The Book ' The Book Thief '

When readers first meet Liesel Meminger, she is a young girl standing quietly with her mother and brother on the train. At this time, she seems confused and a little bit afraid. She doesn’t know exactly

In this chapter, Hans starts to regret helping another Jew, especially one where they pretty much know that he is going to die soon based on his health. He feels as though helping him brought even more of a risk than taking Max in. Then Ilsa kind of forgives Liesel for her outburst towards her and want to encourage her to continue reading. Also in this chapter, Liesel starts to figure out the power that words can have on others. Hans also kicks Max out of the house because he doesn’t want to hurt the family any more than he feels he already has.

The tone of the narrator, Death, is intimate throughout the book. When he first sees Liesel, he becomes interesting in her as he takes away her brother’s soul. Events lead him into interacting with many people in Liesel’s life and the war allows him to see her often, this attraction is encompassed on the last few words of the book, “I am haunted by humans” ( Zusak 550). Death, who seems to haunt millions of people around the world, is haunted by humans. It is ironic but it shows the beauty that is humans. This desire to see Liesel, to be haunted by her, leads to a caring tone, but this does not mean that Death is basis in his telling of the story. Death tries to forget Liesel but periodically, he goes to check. His being haunted does not only apply to Liesel, he is able to recall the deaths of many other humans that had captured his eye or in someway is connected to Liesel. There is a fondness when Death thinks of humans and a slight dislike but he craves to see certain ones and to interact with them. Humans are so interesting, complex, and eye catching that Death wishes to watch over some of

The author achieves this by using Death as character but, also as an immortal and all knowing narrator. Zusak uses the omniscient Death to present a character's guilt giving a more objective look into a character's guilt. On the other hand the first person view would give the reader details that wouldn’t produce an accurate showing of the characters remorse. Instead the first person view would be clouded by emotions and filled with the thoughts of the character in the moment instead of the important details need to showcase survivor's guilt. For example when Death tells us about Liesel's nightmare on page 36, “She would wake up...screaming and drowning in the flood of sheets...the bed that was meant for her brother…”. The authors use of Death as a narrator reveals Leisel being haunted by her brothers death, but if it was Liesel's point of view it would be filled with her emotions at the time which doesn't help develop the survivors guilt which comes from more of a contemplative space. This is illustrated again when Liesel kisses Rudy’s dead body on page 536, “She leaned down and...Liesel kissed her best friend...true on his lips.” This helps establish the survivor's guilt by showing how haunted Liesel was by the fact that she never kissed Rudy who tried kissing her multiple times while alive. However if this event wasn’t in Death’s point of view survivor's

Liesel Meminger is the daughter of Paula Meminger. She is also the sister of late Warren Meminger. Consequently, she steals the first book in the novel, called The Gravedigger's Handbook. Therefore, Death gave her the nickname of “ the book thief” before us knowing that she would become “the book thief”. Liesel Meminger is the hardworking, book-thieving, kind-hearted protagonist of The Book Thief. She loves books so much that she steals them, even before knowing how to read. All of this started because stealing books reminds her of Warren Meminger. This is even she bonds more with Hans Hubermann, her foster father, dedicates his time to teach her how to read. We might be asking, why hasn’t she gotten an education at the age of 10. The answer is not as clear as others, but it definitely has to do with Liesel father’s communist affiliations. He was part of the German Communist Party, that was popular when Hitler took over. This is also the reason why she had to be fostered.

Events contributing to rising action – Liesel’s brother’s death on the train when they were on their way to the Hubermann’s home. When Liesel stole the Gravedigger’s Handbook at her brother’s funeral. When Liesel moved into her new home. At Hitler’s party when Liesel stole a book. When Max took shelter in Liesel’s home. All these events led up to the main climax.

The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, outlines the tragedies and events that take place in Liesel Meminger’s life, in Nazi Germany. Throughout this young girl’s struggle of living in the oppressive Nazi regime, she is able to learn crucial lessons about life and the art of survival- some that follow her to the grave. The most important lesson she learned and the pivotal theme of the novel is that rebellion can be and beneficial in certain situations.

Themes are inserted within literature by the author in an attempt to provoke readers to think about the topic provided. In the novel, The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, many topics are presents, such as, courage, suffering, and human behavior. The most prevalent, however, is the courage possessed by certain individuals. This theme, bravery, is evident throughout the entire course of the novel in Liesel Meminger, the Hubermanns, and Max Vandenburg.

In conclusion, by choosing death as the narrator Markus Zusak provides the reader with the information that Liesel does not know and death knows but also describes Liesel, her life and how she feels about the things that are happening in her life. Also, by choosing death as the narrator it allows Zusak to describe the other characters and their thoughts which is effective because it does not create confusion and makes the reader eager to read more. For example, “AN ATTRIBUTIVE OF ROSA HUBERMANN She was a good woman for a crisis”. This is written in bold which means that it has been used as a distraction and to give information about the characters who death is talking about and it also provides the reader with the opinion of

In 1939 through 1943, Death is hit with an overwhelming number of souls. Throughout the story Death receives more and more souls, mainly because this story is taken place in Germany during World War 2. It all starts with Liesel’s little brother dies on a train, on the way to their new foster house. Death visits Liesel three times throughout this story, each time he sees her the sky is a different color. The first time he visits her he sees red, the second time he sees white, and the last time he sees black. Death is the appropriate narrator for this story, because he is neither a person in the story nor a person outside of the story, he tells the story in third person omniscient or first person.

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words can be very powerful. Words can either break a person down or build them up. There are several examples in this story where words either bring people together or tear them apart. While words prove to both heal and hurt in this story, the healing words leave a longer and lasting mark on the person that is being healed, while the damaging ones do less to hurt than the comforting ones do to help.

When Hans had become friends with a Jewish man named Erik Vandenburg, who teaches Hans the accordion. During the war Erik saved Hans's life by saying that he was the soldier with the best handwriting. This caused Hans to not participate in the war and instead send letters while the rest of the men fight. When Hans heard Erik had died he visited Erik’s family and realized that Erik had a son named Max. Leaving the Vandenburg’s with his address, years later a man named Max arrives at the Hubermann’s house and surprises Hans by telling him he was Erik’s son. Max explained everything that had happened which led him to the front of his house. Realizing that Max was sick and poor, Hans and Rosa decided to let Max stay in their basement where no one would be able to find him. When Max soon becomes apart of the family, he is taken away by the Nazi’s and the Hubermann secret is revealed. Having Max be captured by the Nazi’s it leads Liesel on a hunt to find Max. Liesel soon finds Max being ordered by Nazi’s, and quickly runs up to him without the Nazi’s noticing and tries to help Max. Realizing the Nazi’s were coming Max tries pushing Liesel off and instead Liesel sticks like glue, which leads to both getting whipped in public (page 514 - 515). There’s a song by Mariah Carey called Hero, this song shows that we all have the capability of being our own hero and

1. Brother’s Funeral “When it came down to it, one of the called the shots. The other did what he was told. The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one. (Zusack 18)”

Liesel Meminger, her brother and her mom are traveling by train to the place their mom picks out to be their foster home and to live with their foster parents Rosa and Hans Huberman. But on the way her brother, Werner, dies and is buried in a graveyard full of snow. Liesel found her first book called The Grave Diggers Handbook and takes it. This is how she gets her nickname the book thief. They get in a car and drive to Himmel Street and arrive at the home that Liesel is staying at. As they arrive she thinks Rosa is a bit scary but she is getting used to how she

Hans is a passionate, caring man who earns his living as a house painter by day and an accordion player by night. Liesel believes his eyes show kindness, and is closer to him from the beginning than to her foster mother. He is one of a few in their village who is not a registered member of the Nazi party, which comes to have serious repercussions on the family as the book progresses. Rosa Hubermann is a stern, strong woman who looks like a “wardrobe with a coat thrown over it” and would be “cute,” but appears perpetually annoyed. She peppers her language with epithets like “Saumensch” and “Saukerl” and “Arschloch”. “Sau” refers to “pig” and mensch is girl and kerl is man, arschloch sounds pretty close to its English equivalent. From the beginning Liesel is “saumensch,” which at first refers to Rosa’s annoyance at taking this girl in, even though it does mean more money for the family. But by the end, it has become a term of true endearment. Liesel’s best friend in the village is a little boy named Rudy, “the boy next door who was obsessed with the black American athlete Jesse Owens.” Rudy is in love with Liesel and always pesters her for a kiss, which he does finally receive, after some pretty serious turns in the story. He is a simple, almost naïve boy, and would do almost anything for her, including jumping into a nearly