Book Thief Themes

These behaviors impact the way many view Germany during this time period. The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, also takes place during this time. It focuses on a girl named Liesel, her family, her friend Rudy, a Jew named Max, and Death. The author personifies Death as the narrator of Liesel’s story, living in Nazi Germany during WWII.

Many authors have written novels about to the Holocaust. Markus Zusak is no exception. However, his novel The Book Thief gives a different perspective on World War II. Rather than telling the story of a survivor or a victim, he tells the story from a German citizens point of view. Zusak tells the German point of view from the point of view of Death. In his Holocaust novel The Book Thief, Markus Zusak uses descriptive language to instill urgency and images in the reader’s head.

It relied on mass communication to convey its message of hate and to mobilize a nation in its service. However, The Book Thief focuses on using language to heal, save, and fight against the injustice. Liesel talks about the power of words in an attempt to provide comfort and distraction. She says “His first plan to attack was to plant words…. He watched them grow, until eventually, great forest of words had risen throughout Germany.. It was a nation of farmed thoughts.” pg. 475. The author sets many reminders of language within the novel. An example of this is when Liesel and Hans write on the back of sandpaper and the newspaper becomes imprinted against Hans’s skin. Liesel, Hans and Max made a dictionary on the wall in the basement, writing new words up when they learnt them. This amazes me because it shows the dedication and will to learn that Liesel has, and passes onto others throughout the novel. Max’s story shows the author's ideas about the power of words by showing that Hitler is someone who uses language for evil purposes, while Liesel loves language and is able to resist Hitler through reading and writing her own

Published in 2005 by Australian author Markus Zusak, The Book Thief follows Liesel on her journey to start a new life in a foster home. The novel sheds light on the rise of nationalism post-World War One Germany as Adolf Hitler rose to power; people not of ‘his ideal race’ were grouped as a threat and killed. The tragic death explored within the text as a result of war is explored through death as a concept. Uniquely, death is also portrayed as a character, who narrates the novel. Against this historical backdrop, The Book Thief represents that death is significant through both the idea and the personified character who portrays the destructive power of war.

Life during the 1940’s was hard for the entire world. As Germany caused suffering and loss in multiple other countries, the people of Germany suffered as well. The Book Thief follows the story of a German girl named Liesel, who was forced to be taken away from her family at a young age. She then becomes the foster daughter of Rosa and Hans Hubermann, whose children have grown up and left. Liesel struggles to understand why her mother had left her, and why Hitler was causing all of the bad things in her life to happen. In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak uses the theme of loss to show how it can bring people closer 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

Philip K. Dick, a notable author, once said “There exists, for everyone, a sentence - a series of words - that has the power to destroy you. Another sentence exists, another series of words, that could heal you. If you're lucky you will get the second, but you can be certain of getting the first.” The Book Thief explores an array of themes but none more meaningful than the power of language to heal and destroy. The novel follows the life of Liesel Meminger, who learns how much words can influence her life in minuscule ways. Learning the alphabet and creating words was one the first ways that Hans and Liesel bonded. They would sit in the basement for long hours writing words on the wall. The power of words also brought Max and Liesel together. Liesel would describe the weather to him when was trapped in the basement. Hitler used the power words to spread propaganda of racism and hatred. Ultimately, it’s Liesel’s words in her journal she leaves behind after the bombing that institutes the emotional connection Death feels to her. The power of words is the most important theme in The Book Thief.

Do you like war? Do you despise war? Have you ever attempted to help someone during a war, probably not though? In The Book Thief, there is a girl named Liesel who were adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann and they helped harbor a Jew during WWII. In The Things They Carried, is about a soldier named Jimmy Cross who adores an English major named Martha and then one of the soldiers’ gets shot and assassinated which makes Jimmy forget about Martha and become a better leader. In The Book Thief and The Things They Carried have some similarities and differences and some of them I’ll explain with literary devices. The theme for The Book Thief is death/war/brutality and the theme for The Things They Carried is to focus on what’s more important than yourself.

Shifting from Liesel, Death takes us to a small dark room where we come upon a sad hunched figure. A man, a Jewish man sits alone in this room filtering and re-filtering the same stale air. Starving and scared this figure only rises from himself to greet his friend Walter. " Max wake up." (139) Walter came with gifts, a fake identity card, a copy of Mein Kampf containing a key and a small ration of food barely large enough to be considered a meal. breaking his food into the portions Max devoured what he allowed himself before pleading to a man hundreds of miles away. " Please." (141)

A common misconception of Markus Zusak – author of The Book Thief – is based off the incorrect origin of which culture and religion the book came from. The man is neither German nor Jewish, two main components that show themselves significant in the writing. Although beautifully crafted and eloquent within its wording, The Book Thief is based off secondary sources (told by his mother who lived in a small German village) that take away from the noxious events surrounding the Holocaust. If there was substantial information regarding more realistic scenes than just fiction of German nature, this book would be blooming with positive aspects to review. However, because of the fabricated characters of Liesel and Rudy roaming around the pages

The Book Thief is a novel authored by Markus Zusak that is based on people back to the time of Nazi Germany during the time World War II. The book focuses on a little girl’s life and the people around her encounter through struggles and challenges during the time of war. Although war brought about many endless calamities, the war resulted in characters coming together and had a positive impact by creating strong friendship and love bonds between these characters. The book talks about many relationships between the characters and about how they were established. The novel discusses the calamities that ended up taking place as a result of the war. Liesel Meminger, the main character, creates many relations with several characters throughout

In the novel The book Thief, Markus Zusak explores that death and war are often more difficult for those who survive. At the center of the text is the idea that those who are left behind after tragedy suffer greatly. This is revealed through the hardship of life and experience a gentle transition. This was shown as an experience of Liesel who struggles as well as the other characters that have difficult processing their grief and guilt. Zusak’s novel acts to alert his readers the dangers of war and by the hardship of life and experience a gentle transition.

Over the course of reading The Book Thief, readers will come to know about Markus Zusak’s constant use of descriptive words, figurative language, and character plots throughout the story. In one particular part of the novel, Zusak shows an example of all three of these points to support one of the many central themes he gives us. While Liesel is standing in front of the burnt offerings near the town hall and the square after a Hitler rally, she sees a book underneath all of the hot ash. This moment allows Zusak to go into explicit detail to make a point about the significance of the moment to the reader. In The Book Thief, Zusak uses vocabulary that evokes recklessness and stealthiness, personification about books, and Liesel’s internal

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak has multiple themes throughout the novel. One theme that struck out the most with me is the power that words have upon us. Liesel, the main character of the novel, learns that words hold great power to force people to commit cruel acts. She is a young, illiterate girl and learns to read for the first time at the age of 9. As she begins to read and learn, she understands that the roots of Hitler's power comes from propaganda.

In times of war everything gets destroyed, from countries to lives to culture. Nothing is off limits when someone is willing to go to the extreme to get what they want, no matter who they step on on the way. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, readers see the effects of war on the small, fictional town of Molching, Germany during World War II, specifically on that of young Liesel Meminger and her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Through the eyes of Death one can relate the themes of war and the censorship of an overrun country with those of extremist groups today who, years later, utilize some of the same methods of control in order to gain power.