Liesel Zusak's The Book Thief

1. Brother’s Funeral “When it came down to it, one of the called the shots. The other did what he was told. The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one. (Zusack 18)”

In The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger is a caring person. When her foster father, Hans Hubermann, is lecturing Liesel about not telling anyone that they are hiding a jew named Max in their basement; Liesel starts crying. Hans tell her that if she speaks of Max, himself and Liesel’s foster mother Rosa, will be taken away and they will never come back. Liesel starts bawling at this point in the lecture. This shows how much she really cares about her family. Liesel cares about the people that she loves and their presence in her life. Liesel cares about others and fights for justice when she sees someone being treated unfairly. One example of this is when Liesel stands up for Rudy when she sees Victor beating him up and giving him a bloody nose.

Every time Liesel steals books from people, she consistently places the lives of others at risk. An example of this is when Liesel is worried about Max dying and wants to steal a book and read it to him

The youngest kids were soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the crime scene. Liesel did not. The book thief saw only the mechanics of the words—their bodies stranded on the paper, beaten down for her to walk on” (Zusak 381). With the power of her words, Liesel effectively gave the people who once was scrambled and scared something else to think about. She allowed them the ability to imagine, and feel the story, rather than focusing on their reality, grounding them to a sense of security. Even when as their problems continue to knock onto their fear, Liesel was able to overcome, and help other overcome the chaos of World War II, even in the most briefest

Zusak as the author, demonstrates Liesel as a thief to compare her with other rebellious Germans. Throwback to the book Arrival On Himmel Street, death has written “Her knees entered the ground. Her moment had arrived. Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t-” (23), these words indicate the similarities between Liesel and many other Germans during the period. As we all have known, during World War II, many German families has to suffer from separation. Childrens are separated from their parents, siblings are supported by each others. Just like Liesel, many in the time were departed from their parents on their way to their foster parents. Unfortunately for some of them, their siblings, who share the same journey with them cannot make it to the destination. Not only Liesel shares faiths with the rebellious German who are affected by the World War II, she is also experiencing the same feeling that they are sensing. They are all angry, they are in disbelief, that their loved ones have left them behind in the lonely world. Correspondingly, in the book The Woman With The Iron Fist, Issa has spoken “This is what I have to put up with, these rich bastards, these lazy swine…”(43). These words have spoken for the majority of Germans at the time. Through the words, the abusive tone of the character Issa, we can clearly see the spark of rebellious. Although these words were not directly from Liesel, we all know that “Who

Liesel Meminger is the daughter of Paula Meminger. She is also the sister of late Warren Meminger. Consequently, she steals the first book in the novel, called The Gravedigger's Handbook. Therefore, Death gave her the nickname of “ the book thief” before us knowing that she would become “the book thief”. Liesel Meminger is the hardworking, book-thieving, kind-hearted protagonist of The Book Thief. She loves books so much that she steals them, even before knowing how to read. All of this started because stealing books reminds her of Warren Meminger. This is even she bonds more with Hans Hubermann, her foster father, dedicates his time to teach her how to read. We might be asking, why hasn’t she gotten an education at the age of 10. The answer is not as clear as others, but it definitely has to do with Liesel father’s communist affiliations. He was part of the German Communist Party, that was popular when Hitler took over. This is also the reason why she had to be fostered.

Liesel Meminger is the main character in Marcus Zusak's novel, "The Book Thief". She had hair that was "a close enough brand of German blond, but she had dangerous eyes. Dark brown" (Zusak 31). From the age of nine, Liesel had to overcome many hardships during Hitler's rein of power. The fact that her real parents were communists made the situation worse. However, she still managed to be a loyal, caring, courageous, understanding, strong-willed girl who loved stealing books to flourish her love of words.

The Book Thief’s main character is Liesel Meminger throughout the book she develops more and more by opening up and doing new things. At first she was very shy and would not do hardly anything for example, “It took nearly fifteen minutes to coax her from the car. It was the tall man who did it. Quietly.”(28) That is when she first got out of the car “There was the gate next, which she clung to.”(28) This shows all the more how shy she was at the beginning of the book when she first arrived on Himmel Street. Then as the book goes on she starts to adopt her foster-mother, Rosa or Mama’s style of speaking and starts cussing some when talking to her best friend, Rudy and even the mayors wife when she terminated her mothers washing and ironing

Liesel discovers that by educating herself, she has the capability to allow herself to survive her desperate circumstances, while developing bonds with others. Liesel has gone through a lot and been in desperate circumstances. She uses her books as a way to persevere, she discovers the “book [with] silver writing on it,”(pg 21) it represents the end of a phase and a beginning of a new one. Liesel quickly adapts to reading, to mourn the loss of her brother, since she found the book where they buried her him. During the book burning, there is an opportunity for Liesel to retrieve more books, “the book thief [has] struck,” (pg 22) for the first time.

Liesel is the most dynamic character she changes a great quantity throughout the story and has to undergo some serious situations. In the beginning Liesel starts distressed about starting school, she loves to read and even gets in a bit of a predicament with her teacher when she recites a different

Liesel Meminger, the main character in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, is a very complex and deep character. Throughout the almost six year span of her life starting from age nine covered by this novel, Liesel not only grows intellectually and physically, but as a whole person. Physically when Liesel arrived on Himmel Street as a foster child, “everything about her was undernourished” (Zusak, 31). Death described even her smile as hungry. Liesel was depicted with “Her hair was a close enough brand of German blond, but she had dangerous eyes.

Words can influence the mind in many ways that thought may not be able to. They are carefully placed and shared in different ways by each and every individual. Words have powerful impacts and can majorly impact how one may think, feel, or even lead others to feel. Written by Markus Zusak, “The Book Thief” describes a story of an innocent foster girl, Liesel Meminger, who resides in Munich, Germany at one of the most troubling time periods in history, Nazi Germany. A tale narrated by the one and only Death himself, shows the perspective from his point of view, as well as others, describing how Liesel had been seized away from her birth mother at a young age, and put into a foster family. Her new family, the Hubermanns. As she matures and grows into a more critical thinker, understanding and analyzing everything that carefully happens around her. Her foster-father, Hans guides her and teaches her how to read, which little does she know sparks her journey, the art of stealing books. Liesel soon discovers that words aren 't simply lines on a page, they are strong emotions packed into a form that merely is held in her delicate hands. Not only did she hold the pages of emotion, she held a power, a dangerous weapon of words, a weapon of control, and every book that she had stolen was giving her unimaginable power that made her think in ways that she would’ve never thought she could have. As with Nazi propaganda, and a gift that enabled her to broaden her worldview. Liesel evolves

There are always two sides to a story, one that you don’t know and one that you don’t want to know. One shall always enhance the good and the evil, because they both hold their own beauties and uglies. One can see these profound universal life conclusions in a paradox. A paradox is a self contradictory statement that approves two opposite conclusions at the same time; a paradox can be discovered in everyday life situations if carefully observed. One basic example can be when one is told something disgraceful by their mother and the emotion of hate can wither through their persona, yet miraculously one will always love their mother no matter what occurs between them. In the novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, he appoints Death as the narrator and portrays glory and horror compacted within humanity from his perspective. Death outlines the life of a young girl named Liesel during the time period of World War II. Due to poor conditions, Liesel has to move in with a foster family; surprisingly she feels a quick connection between her foster dad whom she often refers to as “Papa.” Papa teaches Liesel how to read and write and later on as her life proceeds Liesel is exposed to the reality of life. Liesel blames “words” for the current situation of Germany and the poor treatment of Jews. She has always loved to read and write however at the same time she has built hate upon those identical “words.” She believes that Hitler, the current ruler of Germany in 1930s, has earned his

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak presents an exemplary story of a young girl, her middle-aged foster parents and their constant, grueling effort to hide a Jewish fugitive in their basement. The numerous stories of rescuers resonate the shared feeling of humanity and morality and give truth to the premise that "one person can make a difference". In November 1940, a young fist fighter knocked on the door of 33 Himmel Street. It was a clear night but his eyes were clouded by terror. Any other family would have reported him to the SS or disagreed to help him. But Hans Hubermann remembered the promise he gave to the young man's dead father: to keep his son alive. That young man was Max Vanderburg who carried a sorry plight of being a Jewish. Hans faced a dilemma: should he put his family in a constant state of trepidation of a hiding a Jew or should the young Jew be saved. The brave man chose the latter and gave the Jew a second life.

“You’ll never change the world if you’re worried about being liked.” This statement is highlighted in The Book Thief, written by Mark Zusak, which takes place in Nazi Germany. The Book Thief tells a story of people who aid the persecuted population of Nazi Germany, even though it conflicts against the Aryan race. For instance, Hans Hubberman, the protagonists father, took it upon himself to re-paint a Jewish stores door, this resulted in him being socially exiled from the Nazi citizens. This event didn’t hinder his believes in equality, in-fact his actions created a domino affected within his family and friends. Although The Book Thief’s characters were amerced in Nazi-propaganda, they were able to aid those