Essay On The Book Thief

In the past few weeks, we have been reading the book, the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The book tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a girl from Germany in the time of the Holocaust. The book starts with her as a nine year old, and progresses through her life until she is an old lady. The story details the life of this woman through these times. And in the story, her priorities are reading and learning. She steals books like The Grave Digger’s Handbook and The Shoulder Shrug, but one book which has negative influence was the book made by the Nazi Leader, Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Hitler wrote the autobiographical book, which was spread around the Germans, who were brainwashed by the propaganda. The Mein Kampf influenced these citizens, but was the influence good? The book created nothing but negativity. There are three examples which are strong showings to prove the influence of the Führer caused nothing but hatred. Those three are Hans Junior, Max, and the entire population of the Jews. Those three personas were effected in a way which caused nothing but hurt to people.

During the Holocaust, one of the most terrible events that has occured in human history, six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Throughout The Book Thief, the protagonist, an almost ten year old, blond-haired, brown-eyed girl named, Liesel Meminger life is changed when her brother dies and mother leaves her with her new foster family. However, throughout her stay in Himmel Street it has allowed her to slowly mature into adulthood. This was because of her stolen books. The three out of the ten books that have helped Liesel grow were: The Grave Digger’s Handbook, The Shoulder Shrug, and The Standover Man.

“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.” This is a quote said by Death in the novel The Book Thief. Death says this quote while witnessing a young boy named Rudy giving a stuffed teddy bear to a dying enemy fighter pilot. In this quote, Death is stating that he sees many people come and go. And through his time, Death sees that people can be both good and bad. While saying this quote, Death wonders how humans can possess two completely opposite characteristics. To me, this quote means that humans can show both positive qualities and negative qualities. Throughout the text, we see both the ugliness and beauty in characters such as Liesel, Hans, and Rudy.

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.

Kindness is shown even through the worsts of people, there is a mix of good and evil in the reader.Death is kind and caring towards humans with their souls. Death also has no choice in choosing his job as well as he does not enjoy it , and Death thinks that there is only good and evil, not a mix of both.

From this, we can show a major difference from when Liesel first met Max. Liesel’s and Max’s relationship contributed to the theme of the story as it showed the irony of Adolf Hitler’s commands. Adolf Hitler said that no Jew was to be spared and that all Jews should be executed, but Liesel and Max’s relationship showed a German and a Jew being very close

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak takes place during World War II. The narrator of the book doesn’t give a name, though he gives clues about who he is and he turns out to be death. The narrator is death. His job was to carry souls of humans away when their time has come. When he first encountered the book thief, it had been when her brother had died. It was winter, January 1939. Liesel Meminger, her mother and her brother, Werner, were on a train leaving Munich, Germany to Molching to move in with her foster parents, Rosa, and Hans Huberman. Of course as you know, her brother had not made it. As they held a small funeral in a near town, the guy who dug up the grave had dropped a handbook in the snow. The Grave Digger’s Handbook the title read.

Heil Hitler. Behind this statement is a mirage of things. Floods of horrible picture of dying starving Jews in concentration camps, Hitler at the helm at things, committing mass genocide. So how does someone stop a powerhouse such as this? For Liesel, a small girl in Molching, stealing books is her getaway. “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a unique book which puts Death into the narrator 's place. And when Death becomes a storyteller, telling the story of Liesel using three colors. Red. White. Black. Death talks to readers about how Liesel steals books as a way to escape reality and along the way learns about the horrible, tyrannical country that she calls home. But by putting Death as the good guy we can look more into the details. It is with this different mindset that allows certain themes to be more recognized. One prevailing theme that occurs frequently was one which readers could see what common, regular citizens were experiencing in a Nazi controlled Germany instead of from a surviving Jew’s point of view. Then as if that wasn’t distinctive enough, readers are able to look through a small child’s view and what she can do to oppose an oppressed country.

History and especially World War Two is a testament to the duality of human nature. Jeffery Kluger in an article for Time Magazine reflects on this aspect of human nature. “The madness {lies} in the fact that the savage and the splendid can exist in one creature, one person and often in one instant.” I enjoyed reading about Liesel Meminger in the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Liesel is nine years old and lives in Nazi Germany. In the early chapters of the book we learn that her younger brother has dies, her father is missing ad her communist

The book thief by markus zusak takes place in a small German town called Molching, and focusses on the life of Liesel Meminger throughout World War Two. The novel tells about the hardships of living under the Nazi Regime as not only Liesel, but her friends Max and Rudy are but a few who oppose the Nazi party. One of the most important parts of this novel is during the exposition, with the death of Liesel's brother. This starts the story, sparking Liesel's nightmares, which ultimately bring Liesel and Hans (Liesels foster father) closer together. It also starts her love of book thievery when she picks up The Grave Digger's Handbook when he was buried. Her wanting to be able to read is important as she begins as an immature illiterate girl, but her becoming literate matures her.

We start to meet her in a train, that is where she experiences loss for one of the first times, she loses her brother, and then her mother. The only thing left of them is a book, The Gravedigger's Handbook.She arrives at Himmel Street, Himmel means heaven, which you couldn't really call this street that. Himmel Street is on the outskirts of Munich, where she meets the Hubermann's. The Hubermann’s consisted of Hans, and Rosa Hubermann. Now Rosa taught her the art of saumensch, those who aren't familiar to these words, it can be translated into the word pig. Hans helped her with her nightmare, and soon you

The title of The Book Thief fits the book very well. First of all, it sounds intellectual, which lets people know the type of reading they are about to be doing when they sit down with this book. If someone was looking for a light, fun read, this tells them not to pick this book up. Also, the phrase “the book thief”, comes back many times within the novel, whether when Death is referring to Liesel, or when Liesel titles her autobiography after her unknown nickname.

The Book thief is about the life of a little girl named Liesel who lives with her foster parents in the fictional town of Molching, German during World War II. She was sent to her foster parents because her mother was believed to be a

“Good artists copy, great artists steal” (pablo picasso). Liesel Meminger is the main character in “the Book Thief” and she stole books because you were not allowed to read books during that time and if you were caught, the books would be burned and you would get in trouble. In WW2, it was recorded that 100,000 pieces of art and books were stolen from German museums, Jewish museums, and Jewish libraries. Theft was a problem during WW2, because Nazis stole what cultural value that Jews had left.

Novels are more often than not written in the first person perspective of the main protagonist in that novel, however in two rare cases the books are narrated by Death and a mentally retarded man’s progress reports. It is very uncommon to see books narrated in such a unique narrative structure such as these award winning books, but that is not a bad thing, contrarily the narrators from these two books helped elaborate the rich plot of both stories by giving their own unique perspective of the book. The first novel is The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, which takes place in a fictional German village named Molching, located near modern day Munich and is narrated by none other than death. The plot follows the life of Liesel Meminger, a girl