What would you do if you hid a Jew that was meant to be killed? Narrated by Death, Liesel Meminger and her brother Werner are on a train to Molching, Germany, during the early stages of WWII, to a foster family, when Werner dies suddenly, leaving Liesel alone. Before leaving her mother, Liesel finds a book on the snow of the cemetery her brother was buried in, but does not know how to read, so her new father, Hans, teaches her how to. Liesel then starts to steal books whenever she has the chance, becoming known as “The Book Thief”. A year following Liesel moving in, Hans hides a poor Jewish man named Max Vandenberg in their home from relocation and certain death. Since they’re hiding a Jew, Liesel and her family are in danger of being killed …show more content…
After his funeral and before leaving her mother, she brings a grave digger’s guide she found in the graveyard her brother was buried in, but doesn’t know how to read it. She meets her new parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, who she doesn’t trust at first, but shortly does after Hans teaches her how to roll cigarettes. After finding out that Liesel can’t read or write, Hans teaches her how to every night by helping her read the grave digger guide she brought. Liesel bonds with Rudy Steiner and he helps her steal books from the mayor’s library, which she is then allowed to visit often. A year later, Hans takes in Max Vandenberg, a Jewish man who was going to be relocated and killed. Now that there’s a Jew in their basement, Liesel and her family are in danger of being killed by Nazis. She cares for Max in the basement by teaching him how about reading, writing, and life outside of the basement, and upon reading a book made for her, Liesel becomes inspired to write one of her own. A few weeks later, Hans finds that Jews are marching through Himmel Street, and gives a hungry one some bread to eat at the cost of being beaten by Nazi soldiers, blowing their cover, so Max leaves to save them. One day, while Liesel is finishing her book “The Book Thief” in the family’s basement. After the bombing of Himmel Street, Liesel finds Rudy’s dead body, and after all of these years, she finally kisses him. After leaving whatever is left of Himmel Street, Death, after taking the souls of the Steiners, Frau, Hans and Rosa, he finds out that she dropped her book, and takes it with him. Liesel is taken in by Ilsa Hermann who has survived the bombing, but after Alex Steiner, Rudy’s father who was sent to war returns a while after the bombing, she goes with him later. Two years following the
Death states that, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). This book shows us human doing things that weren’t even imaginable before this point. Many people give into ideas that were lies. But, we also watch a few people go out of their way and sacrifice everything for a man they barely even know. They do everything they can to keep him safe and alive. They work harder, the get another job, and they even steal. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, death examines the ugliness and the beauty of humans.
“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.
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
Liesel Meminger is a main character described in “The Book Thief”. After her mother can no longer support her Liesel and her brother, although he does not make the journey, are sent to a foster home in a small town in Germany called Munich were Liesel meets Hans and Rosa Hubermann or Mama and Papa. Although the initial warming up is hard Liesel soon becomes very close to her Papa. “Over the next few weeks and into summer, the midnight class began at the end of each nightmare” (Zusak,69). Hans teaches Liesel each night how to read and write to ease her mind when all Liesel can think about is her dead brother. Hans truly becomes Papa when Liesel trusts Hans will never let her be
“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble” (Berg, Huffington Post). In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, a love for the words was able to affect the situation for the better, but also for the worse. We must understand the power of words.
Liesel Meminger, who was a very sympathetic young girl which her words were used from her warm heart towards people. Frau Holtzapfel had lost both of her sons, so for her to be happy, Liesel would read to her a lot, which also made Frau Holtzapfel feel comforted. Also when Max was taken in by the Hubermann’s, he was a Jew, which meant he wasn’t allowed to see the outside world. Liesel would go outside and tell Max the
11 million people died during the Holocaust. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger loses many of her loved ones. At the beginning of the book, Liesel’s brother dies of illness on a train, and her mother is taken away by the Nazis for being a communist. After losing everyone she ever cared about, the story drags Liesel into a humble household where she discovers her passion for books, and her love for her family and friends. However, her loved ones are once again torn away from her as Himmel Street, the street she lives on, gets bombed. She loses her foster parents, her best friend, and everyone else she came to know. As a result of these adverse events, Liesel’s innocence was stolen from her. In The Book Thief, loss plays an essential role in developing characters, especially Liesel. After losing Werner, her brother, Liesel is plagued by
Liesel is kind-hearted because in The Book Thief she said, “ I don’t want to lose someone else”. She said this to Max after they became close friends. Given that, she is kind-hearted one can tell that she would do anything to protect her family from death. After WWII max and Liesel reunite and they hug and cry until they fell to the floor. Where Liesel use to live in 33 Himmel Street before there was a raid that destroyed the whole street, they hide Max. Her best friend is Rudy Steiner, he is a neighbor at first but then the friendship grows after each mischievous thing they do together. With Rudy, she grows and steals books for fun. Rudy might think it is fun, but to Liesel, it means for her. Like I said, she does this in memory of her brother. They have a race and it is a draw after falling. Rudy then said to Liesel, “If it’s a draw, do I still get my kiss?” Liesel then says, “ Not in a million years” and Rudy at the end he says “One day, Liesel, you’ll be dying to kiss me”. Therefore, at the end of the book and middle, she desires to kiss him but doesn’t until the end where he is dead. Later on, her family and she hide a Jew, Max Vandenburg, from the Nazis. Max and Liesel have grown close together. Liesel is competitive, compassionate,
Liesel sits and talks to Max, but he keeps sleeping for days. Death visits Himmel Street, but he doesn't take Max's struggling soul, and he doesn't see Liesel. Max opens his eyes twice but both times falls back into his coma. Liesel starts to read The Whistler to him. Finally Rosa makes Liesel go out
At the funeral, Liesel steals a book from one of the gravediggers. Liesel is adopted by Rosa and Hans Hubermann, and befriends her neighbor, Rudy, who is a big fan of Jesse Owens and who has a crush of Liesel. Hans learns that Liesel was never educated on how to read so he starts to teach her how using the book she stole. Liesel also delivers laundry for Rosa, and when giving laundry to the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, she becomes infatuated with all the books in the mayor's study, and is permitted bu Ilsa to read them. Max, a Jew whose father served with Hans in the first world war comes to Molching to hide from the holocaust, he lives in the basement, and Liesel and he become friends. Frau Hermann tells Liesel that they can no longer afford to have the Hubermanns do their laudry and Liesel becomes upset because her family is already struggling financially already. She and Rudy start to steal books from the Hermanns' library, Ilsa finds out later on but does not punish Liesel for her crimes. Liesel builds Max a snowman in the basement and he becomes ill and falls into a coma, Hans and Rosa worry what they will do with his body if he dies; he doesn't, however, and recovers some months later. Bombings happen near Molching and Nazis inspect basements to see if they are deep enough to be used as bomb shelters, when the alarms go off,
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak shows through the midst of brutality, beauty can still be shown. The main characters Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner and Hans Huberman, prove this statement they are all faced with perilous situations, but still manage to show beauty throughout the situations. Liesel Meminger display beauty during the air raids, as she manages to read to people in the basement. Rudy Steiner displays beauty he jumps in the river to get Liesel’s book. Through Hans Huberman nobel character he displays beauty as he risks his life to hide a Jewish man in his basement.
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
After losing her mother and her brother, Liesel’s life and identity is changed drastically many times. It is through books that she discovers and becomes comfortable with this change. When she first meets Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her new foster parents, she does not wish to speak with them or get to know them. However, once Hans discovers Liesel with the book she stole when her brother was buried, The Gravedigger’s Manual, they bond over Hans teaching Liesel to read. Liesle describes the first time her and Hans have a lesson in the middle of the night: “She had done this at school, in the kindergarten class, but this time was better. … It was nice to watch Papa’s hand as he wrote the words and slowly constructed the primitive sketches” (Zusak
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Liesel loves to read and it doesn't take her long to withhold her title as Book Thief. She starts with The Grave Digger’s Handbook which is the book she picks up after her brother’s death. Hans teachers her to read and painted her a “chalkboard” in the basement so that she can write down the new words she has learned. There ends up being a town “parade” which is really a book burning event where Hitler and the Nazis are commemorated, during this time Germany was looking towards invading new countries. Liesel is handed a book and pressured to throw it into the fire, to which she eventually does so. However, once the fire has been put out and everyone has gone home, she notices a book that is only slightly charred, not destroyed by the fire and picks it up. A car drives by and a woman, who is Ilsa Herman, the mayor’s wife, sees her take the book, but Liesel hides it under her coat and runs away quickly back home.