Book Thief

This story was written, charmingly, in an unorthodox, yet loving manner. Rich with reality, the novel, led me into the atrocious, but true, glimpse into the world at the time. The phrases and paragraphs, struck me, illustrating the spliced lives of the protagonists, through complex, evocative, at times ethereal, imagery. The plot, progressive, and compelling, is profoundly sad, touching and uplifting. Flowing at a fast-pace, the plot, is a genuine page-turner, of which brought sadness in me when a disaster stroke, or warmth, when the characters embraced their connections to each other. The story covering the effects of hunger, war, prejudice, love, hatred, friendship, deception and growth, through its character development, cleverly stayed faithful to the plot, throughout. The characters, executed flawlessly on the author’s part, though not superficial, were tragic, and believable. The interwoven lives of these characters are complex, inspiring and perturbing. Being memorable, the characters had great prose, and development in the story. In the Book Thief, the use of Death as the narrator, persistent use of unintentional humour, was quite unique. Personally, I enjoyed Death’s utilization of dark, unintentional humour, as it ironically, lightened the saddest of

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, Rudy and, Death develop their identities within the parameters of the Nazi-controlled society. However, if Liesel, Rudy and, Death were characters in today's society, their lives would be different.

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 novel and film about a girl who survives death during WW2 and how words became very important to her life. Liesel Meminger was brought to her foster home unable to read. Her foster father, Hans, finds out she can’t read and helps teaches her German. Liesel then falls in love with words and uses them to write her story.The theme “power of words” is displayed in the novel and film equally. Three ways the power of words were shown was by making an emotional connection with the audience, influencing people to do something, and creating unlikely friendships.

Explore the presence of a postmodern writing style in The Book Thief, and subsequently determine how each element elevates the narrative and themes.

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.

What is the first thing you think about when you hear the word death? In most cases, people fear death but as the narrator in Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, Death is a compassionate and honorable character.

The Book Thief is about a young German girl named Liesel Meminger as she goes through life while living in Germany in 1939. Liesel and her foster parents live a normal life on 33 Himmel Street. There is only one difference between their family and the others, they are hiding Max Vandenburg (a Jewish man) in their basement during the time of the Holocaust. This story, narrated by Death follows the life of Liesel from her first step into 33 Himmel Street, until the day she died in Sydney, Australia.

The Book Thief’s plot is character driven in the beginning. Characters choose to make their own decisions and consequently feel the effects of later on. For example, Liesel and Rudy intentionally make the decision to steal books from Ilsa Hermann’s library. The Hubermann and the Steiner families both make the subconscious decision to dislike the Nazis. Finally, Hans Hubermann makes the potentionally incriminating decision to harbor a Jew, Max, in his basement. These characters choose to go against their morals, yet their decisions work in their favor. Nearing the end of the book, the plot structure switches to plot driven; external forces disturbing the characters more than their own decisions and actions do. This novel is centered around the Holocaust and the war was taking place, and without this, many of the major events would not have happened, resulting in a different outcome for the characters. The bombs set off due to the war also influenced the characters by a great deal, causing their panic and fear to control their

Words are everywhere, words make up books, and the power of words make The Book Thief which will never be able to be improved upon. Words help us communicate with others, but mainly they have positive and negative sides to them. In the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death narrates the story while Liesel Meminger also tells her story of living in Nazi, Germany. We will discuss how there are many people such as Max Vandenburg and Liesel Meminger who choose to use to use their power of words in the positive way. We will also discuss how people also like to use their power of words in the negative way such as Adolf Hitler. The power of words are very effective especially in Markus Zusak’s writing, and we’ll discuss the main parts of the book which have been effected with the power of words.

Historically, people have used literacy to obtain political power. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, it is evident that books, reading, and words themselves represent power for different characters in different ways. Close analysis of Liesel Meminger and Max Vandenburg reveals that power can be achieved through literacy in a context where literacy is severely limited.

Liesel most definitely could have trusted Rudy with the secret of having Max hidden in her basement. Rudy was clearly Liesel’s best friend and partner in crime when Liesel was doing her acts of thievery stealing the books from the mayor’s wife bookself. The devotion to Liesel Rudy also had was strong and I believe Liesel could have trusted Rudy.

Words are more influential than thought. Words can have such a powerful impact on how you interpret things, how you feel, and how you can make others feel as well. The word choice used in The Book Thief demonstrates many themes throughout such as death, friendship, guilt, reason, and the struggle between ones inner self and the society in which he is surrounded. As complex as this may sound, the method was used in a simplistic fashion to construct the meaning and details of certain situations through the senses that ultimately capture how the characters take in the world around them. The power of words in the novel The Book Thief is used to control individuals and gain power if rooted from bad intentions; however, the power of words also

The Book Thief Seminar Questions- due 3/27 on Turnitin.com AND in class on 3/28 or 3/29. ***NOTE: These questions are a formal writing assignment. Your responses MUST be typed, MUST be in your hand on the day of the seminar, and MUST include full paragraphs and specific references to the text, including page numbers, in order to receive credit.

“Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.” - Pearl Strachan Hurd. The Book Thief is a story about Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old German girl who lives with Hans and Rosa Hubermann after her mother was forced to give her away. I believe the most important example of the power of words in The Book Thief is Max’s word shaker story because of Hitler and Liesel’s influence.