Analysis Of The Book Thief

The Holocaust was a brutal event in World War Two and millions of people were killed. Although this occurrence was brutal, beautiful things happened too. Beauty and brutality co-existed throughout the the Holocaust and changed people's lives. Markus Zusak used imagery to represent beauty and brutality co-existing in “The Book Thief” throughout the lives of Liesel, Hans, and Death.

Liesel’s personality evolves greatly during her childhood in Munich. Her stolen books show how she changes. They show the steps she takes along the path to becoming a better person. The author does this by telling us about the books Liesel steals and relating them to her current situation. Liesel goes from being stuck in her own sadness to being a strong person that wants to help

The novel, The Book Thief, excellently shows the power of words and how they can have great power and influence people. Through thoughts and actions of Liesel, Markus Zusak illustrates not only that they are powerful, but even dangerous because of this. This can be seen through the imaginary fist fight with Hitler, Liesels words toward Ilsa, and the last words in her book she wrote.

A poet named Rumi once said that “Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom”(Rumi). In Markus Zusak The Book Thief, the theme that even though people are surrounded by hatred, compassion from others can transform the hatred into love is shown when Hans protects Max and hides in the basement, and Ilsa Hermann’s sharing of the books in the library, and when rudy jumped in the river for Liesel's book. In this novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, a girl named Liesel overcome the powerful dictatorship of hitler, through her papa’s help, and many friends. The Hubermann household helps with many of the Jews persecuted by Hitler. The Hubermann family gets through the hardest times together.

Markus Zusak was born on June 23, 1975 in Sydney, Australia, and listened to his parents stories in Munich and Vienna during World War II. The most memorable story his mother told him was seeing a parade of Jews being taken to a concentration camp. She told of an elderly man having troubles keeping up with everyone else, and when a little boy ran up to the man offering him bread, the man praised the boy. Sadly, though, the officers taking the Jews whipped the boy and took the man’s bread. It was this same scenario used in “The Book Thief” whenever Hans helped the old man out causing “Jewish loving” suspicions to arise. Zusak explains his story as everything wrong with humanity and everything that is beautiful about humanity. During

Liesel is denied very few joys in life because her family’s economic position and she steals books as a means to fulfil her empty void. She however is taken aside when she is shown the massive library located and Isla Hermann’s abode and Death narrates “it was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen” Both Liesel and Isla counter loss and hatred with the power of words through her actions related to books and reading. Liesel is most certainly a moral compass, helping the reader that we can counter loss and hatred with the power of words and acts of compassion. The reader further engages with her rite of passage and her witness of extreme ugliness and the beauties of human nature.

Trust me though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like clouds, and she would ring them out like the rain.” This quote, appearing when Liesel is struggling with reading, encompasses the important symbol of Liesel and her relationship with books. This is ultimately summed up in Max’s book that he wrote for Liesel, The Word Shaker. In the story, words are planted by Hitler, until they are a massive forest of destructive ideas. Liesel, however, plants her own tree, with a seed from a tear she cried to save Max. She climbs the tree and stays there. Hitler, and many others try to cut down the tree, but they can’t. One day another man comes, not to cut down the tree, but to climb it. The man who climbs the tree is Max, and they both leave the tree together. The tree finally falls, taking down some bad trees with it. Max’s story was a perfect metaphor, and brought some clarity to a few topics. First it showed that, while one person can’t destroy all Nazi-ism, they can still make a difference. It also brings light to the dynamic of Liesel’s relationship with books. Books and words are her safe

In the book “The book thief” it has a very interesting theme to the story. In the story a young girl named leisel who moves to Germany on a train and gets adopted by the Huberman’s. At this time in history it was bad for the Jews because all of Hitler’s plans saying that the Jews were there problems. The book thief is about a girl stealing books throughout her child hood, during this time her dad Hans Huberman teaches her how to read from the books that she has stolen, her first book that she stole was the grave diggers hand book. The overall theme of this story is “The kindness and the cruelty of humans” which makes good sense because it leisel is a nice person who catered to max,

The character Liesel helps develop the theme of the power of words. An example would be this section from the book. “Arms and elbows fought for room. Some of the adults tried

This inspires Han’s to start teaching Liesel how to read and write. Once she knows how to write, she starts writing letters to her mother. All of them go unanswered and we find out that Liesel’s mother has mysteriously disappeared. On April 20th, 1940 a book burning was held in honor of Adolf Hitler’s birthday and on that day Liesel stole yet another book: The Shoulder Shrug. The mayor’s wife Ilsa Hermann saw her doing this and later invites Liesel to read in her library. She also begins to suspect that Hitler had something to do with her father’s disappearance because a Nazi spokesperson had proclaimed death to Jews and communists during the book burning. The one thing that Liesel knew about her father was that he was accused of being a communist. Hans confirms this and Liesel swears Hitler will be her enemy for life. Hans tells Liesel to keep her anti-Hitler feelings to herself because they are in Nazi-Germany where Hitler is at his strongest. We soon find out that Hans was saved in World War I by a Jewish man named Erik

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak shows that words build strong emotional bonding between individuals and this individual bonding gets carried over to the global level to build a strong and peaceful society over time. The individual personal communication at a lower level is usually on a daily basis and is built on the emotion and compassion between individuals. As the individuals enjoy the fruit of the words, the benefits of the words are carried over to the global society in the form of speeches, books, and stories. The Book Thief shows how individuals like Liesel, Max, and Hans build strong relationship and bonding through the sharing of right words and appropriate stories. The book further expands on the power that words have on the

In Nazi Germany, the axis fought extremely hard to oppress Jews and dehumanize them. These ideals were pushed upon the German citizens relentlessly during Hitler's reign through laws. In the book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the author presents the readers with characters who are under Nazi rule. These characters are all affected by the government in different ways, but the overarching theme of the book is the dehumanization of good people. Hans, Rudy, and Liesel all give humanity back to someone who has been dehumanized, even in the face of adversity.

a jewish man, and starving to death each day. This is the life Liesel Meminger has to live through each and every day in The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak. Liesel is young girl who was adopted into a German family, after her mother was threatened by the fact she was a jewish women in Nazi Germany. Trapped, by Michael Northrop has a similar issue. In Trapped 5 middle school students get stuck after school in what seems like a regular snowstorm but it turns out to be a monstrous storm. The teens have to hunker down for the remainder of the storm and face obstacles that could put their life at risk, similarly to The Book Thief. The reasons why you should

Why I think a main part of the book is that Liesel steals books. She didn’t just steal books from a bookstore, she steals books that will get burned. Also, her family isn’t fortunate enough to buy a lot of books. She steals the books for herself and Max. Like in the book, she did steal books from a library. But that doesn’t make her a thief because

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is a novel that portrays the struggles of a young German girl living in Nazi Germany during the Third Reich. This scared German girl, Liesel, fought and battled to survive in a war-torn society –- holding her tongue when there was injustice and learning the ropes of living in fear. Hidden in this girl's basement was a Jew. Not weak, old and frail Jew, but a young, strong and lively "Jewish fist fighter," as he called himself. Perhaps it was their parallel interests, or maybe it was their match of personalities that made the bond between these two so powerful. Whatever the case, this Jew in the basement, Max Vandenburg, gives Liesel’s life purpose, and Liesel, in turn, gave Max's life purpose.