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The Book Thief Theme Essay

Decent Essays

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a compelling novel set in the late 1930s that explores a variety of themes, for instance war, courage, words, hate, love, innocence and death.
For the purpose of this seminar, I will be further discussing the ideas of love and the innocence of people at the moment of their impending death in relation to The Book Thief, The Fault in Our Stars (John Green) and The Bible.

The main character of the book is a curious young girl by the name of Liesel Meminger. Often referred to throughout the novel as ‘the book thief’ (hence the title), Liesel is a strong-willed character with her own moral compass that just so happens to clash with the one being forced upon other children her age by the Nazi regime. As she enters …show more content…

John 3:16 states “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son”. Jesus had a platonic love for everyone from his twelve disciples to people that he hadn’t even met. This journey of love is similar to the love journey Max and Liesel embarked on in The Book Thief.

Furthermore, in The Fault in Our Stars a strong bond is formed between Hazel Grace and Augustus. Prior to their romantic relationship they came to love each other’s thoughts and ideas on the universe, life and death. Their initial friendship is once again quite remarkable, as in the beginning of the story, Hazel cared for very little, and kept most of her thoughts to herself; but when Augustus comes into her life, she feels compelled to share her ideas and start to wonder about what she could leave for the world after she is dead and gone.

Death is a big part of The Book Thief. In fact I think it’d be safe to say that Death is what makes the book. Despite Death being personified and given a personality by the author, I would not necessarily consider him a main character – or even a character at all. Death is the narrator of the story of Liesel Meminger and the people she associated with, and the only time he interacts with said story is when the souls of her friends, and eventually her, are carried away by him; Which brings me to my next point of how everyone is innocent in the moment of impending

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