Everybody goes through struggles, mine was learning to live without seeing my father everyday, when my parents got divorced. In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak you are introduced to a character who is constantly struggling in a time period where losing someone you love is common. The book picks up in Germany 1939, while Hitler was in power. Zusak does not make it easy to read this book, he pulls you in and gets you attached to the characters, and when they die you feel the loss. He uses excellent imagery such as “She died in a suburb of Sydney. The house number was forty-five - the same as the Fiedlers’ shelter - and the sky was the best blue of afternoon.”. The author is trying to get the message across that humans can be good and bad at the same time, this can be proven by seeing Deaths comments on humans ability to do just this. Through his use of imagery, atmosphere, and tone, Zusak shows the reader the mountain liesel has to climb, the struggles Liesel has to go through; such as death, not having enough support, and losing friends. He shows us the horrible conditions she went through to finally get her happy ending at the end of this book.
Death is always an obstacle, and Liesel witnesses a fair amount of death in her lifetime. At the very beginning of the book it opens up with Liesel’s brother dying, while they are on their way to a foster home. “The book thief and her brother were traveling down toward Munich, where they would soon be given over to foster parents. We
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 power of words, written or spoken, have life. They can change the world.” (search quotes). The power of words should not be underestimated. Liesel proves this to be true in the novel and the film The Book Thief. She uses words to develop relationships with her foster father, Hans Hubermann; Max Vandenburg, the illicit Jew in her basement; and her neighbours. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak there is much more relationship development compared to the film The Book Thief directed by Brian Percival. This consequently causes the theme of the power of words to be less prominent in the film.
Through all of the irony and vivid coloring, The Book Thief is more easily understood after acquiring knowledge of reading literature with greater care and meticulousness. Applying chapters of How to Read Literature like a Professor can better enhance a reader’s awareness of hidden messages and symbols within certain works of literature. In Chapter Two, Foster explains how meals suggest a communion between all parties involved in it. Markus Zusak also uses meals and food to bring families together in The Book Thief. Foster also explains, in Chapter Eleven, how violence in literature usually stands for more than just violence.
The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, outlines the tragedies and events that take place in Liesel Meminger’s life, in Nazi Germany. Throughout this young girl’s struggle of living in the oppressive Nazi regime, she is able to learn crucial lessons about life and the art of survival- some that follow her to the grave. The most important lesson she learned and the pivotal theme of the novel is that rebellion can be and beneficial in certain situations.
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.
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.
1a. I think she was justified because Liesel was using the families money to make contact with the woman that left her behind.
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.
Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, tells the heart-wrenching story of Liesel Meminger, a German girl, as she navigates adolescence in Nazi Germany. With his convincing depiction of the time, it could be said that Zusak worked within the conventions of realistic fiction were it not for his otherworldly narrator—Death. Death traditionally marks the end of a story, so Zusak’s decision to begin his novel with Death’s voice piqued my interest. This interest was intensified by Death’s unique characterization—he is personified, yet retains his inhuman features. This incongruity in conjunction with the aberrant choice in narrator raised the question:
explores her love of books and her thrive to steal she is acquainted with a Jew, who comes to
In a book, the book thief by Markus Zusak there is collective violence throughout the book, the book is about world war two and a orphan named Liesel, Liesel was put in a foster home, her foster parents were Hans and Rosa. Liesel cannot read and Hans learns that in the book, Hans kindly helps her with reading at night when she has a nightmare.Liesel starts to love books and since her family doesn’t have that much money she steals the books. Her family goes through a rough time but things get worse when they shelter a Jewish boy whose father saved Hans’s life.
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.
I think that the place where they died and how they died is very important because it repeats items that represent time. I found this important because the author likes to repeat time and at first I didn’t realize how significant this was to the story. This shows that symbolizes in your book might mean more than just a object or a name. It can means that the book is about a certain thing or it can show you the theme.
“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.
Topic: The Great Depression – investigating history through fiction –The Book Thief Concept: (Idea being taught in this lesson) Analyzing plot for key historical events and development over the course of the text Instructional Objective: Students will be able to determine central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events and ideas develop over the context of the text. Students will be able to analyze a series of events described in the text and determine whether earlier events caused later ones or preceded them.