Relationships In The Book Thief

The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by Markus Zusak set in Munich, Germany during the Nazi reign from 1936-1943. The novel incorporates a main character that is, in the beginning, an innocent child who doesn't understand the world and takes her on a journey where she grows up and matures through the hardships and challenges of her life. The story is narrated by the character Death, who is a fresh take on the Grim Reaper, only wearing the black cloak when it's cold and never carries a syte. Death describes the life Liesel Meminger, an orphaned girl who witnesses her brother's death and burial and finds herself being adopted by the benevolent old couple, the Hubermanns. The rest of the story follows Liesel's journey through her incredibly challenging life with the Hubermanns and characters such as Rudy, The mayor's wife, and Max helping her along. Symbolism in The Book Thief deepens the story by conveying many different ideas and emotions that supports the reader's understanding of the story. This is especially apparent with the use of the gravediggers to help the reader remember characters, the use of color to help the reader feel the proper emotions and remember the correct events, and the use of Liesel's changing feelings about Rudy to convey how Liesel grows and matures through the book.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Liesel Meminger is a nine year old girl that was living in Germany in 1939. Her mother was taken away from Liesel and her brother. When Liesel and her brother where going to go see their mother Liesel brother died. She found a book called “The Grave Diggers Handbook”. Liesel was taken to a foster home. She gets along with her foster parents. The foster parent’s names are Hans and Rosa Hubermann. The foster parents of Liesel show her how to read and write. Liesel best friend name is Rudy Steiner they have many memories together. They both are thieves, Rudy and Liesel. Rudy has a big crush on Liesel. Max Vandenburg is a Jew being hidden in the basement of Liesel basement. Liesel and Rudy stole books from

Don’t judge a book by its cover. There are countless examples of this famous saying. One of such is in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, where minor characters are not as insignificant as they may seem. Minor characters in The Book Thief had life changing effects on Liesel Meminger. These characters, of which there are three, are Adolf Hitler, Werner Meminger, and Ilsa Hermann.

The Book Thief is set in the time of World War 2 where the Holocaust is present and disaster is everywhere. Throughout the story, Liesel, the main character, learns that words are extremely powerful and hold the ability for people to use them for good or for evil. Among the disaster and altercations, Liesel uses her literature to comfort her and make herself more powerful due to her knowledge, which demonstrates the theme of the story, the comfort and power of literature and words softens the pain of loss.

The acts of human nature can become a very difficult concept to understand. Markus Zusak uses Death throughout the The Book Thief to express the complexity of human nature. Death illustrates how complicated beings humans are and how they hold the capacity to act in both evil and beautiful ways. Throughout the novel Death helps give readers insight to the ignorance displayed and the pain it may cause a person. In the most troublesome and discriminatory times of the Holocaust, Death will point out the beautiful acts of compassion carried out by characters involved in the novel. Sometimes beauty and pain is mixed within the sacrifice some make for those they love and are loyal to.

In The Book Thief, a work of historical fiction, written by Markus Zusak introduces the main character Liesel Meminger, the reader starts to see how she keeps having many conflicts but always stays positive. Liesel has many conflicts, for example her brother dies early in the book and that shapes the way she is. Later on Liesel steals books and that makes her happy because the first book she stole was the grave digger's handbook and that is how she remembers her brother. Liesel steals and reads books this is how she finds happiness with all the bad things going on around her. In the end of the book most of the people she loves die and it is hard for her to find happiness again. The author uses the setting and point of view to express theme and to make the reader feel sympathy; He uses this because with the theme of finding light in the darkness, deaths perception, and the setting of Germany makes the theme clearer.

After reading and scrutinizing The Book Thief, one can see that bread, the accordion, and books, the three main symbols used in the novel, are indispensable to the merriment of the book. To add information, these three symbols all represent different things, actions, and people, but can all be compared and contrasted. Three different ways that these emblems can be compared and contrasted is by looking at what they represent, why they represent it, and the reasoning behind why the author used that specific symbol.

In the beginning of The Book Thief, the reader meets Liesel Meminger, her mother, and her brother, Werner Meminger. The father is never introduced. It is only said that he is a communist. Werner dies on the train to Himmel Street, the place that Liesel is left with a couple, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel’s mother is never seen again, but the reader assumes that she was taken away for being one of the Nazi’s targets. According to The Book Thief, “What came to her then was the dustiness of the floor, the feeling that her clothes were more next to her than on her, and the sudden realization that this would all be for nothing—that her mother would never write back and she would never see her again.” Nazis were the epitome of evil. They tore families apart and killed millions of innocent people.

In “The Book Thief” written by Marcus Zusak, Liesel is a small, resourceful girl, who Death says “Has a mountain to climb”. It is not a physical mountain that Liesel has to climb, rather a emotional mountain full of rocks that tumble down the steep slopes trying to knock her off every time she stops moving forward. All her life she has gone without and been abandoned, but that never stopped her from climbing. Liesel is a very lucky girl to have so many “climbing partners” so to speak, such as Hans, Rosa, Max, and Rudy. Without her partners to help anchor her to the mountain, I am sure she would have perished long ago. Her journey started when she was just a small girl living in poverty with her mother and brother.

The developmental stage of a young child’s life is very crucial and can be impacted by the media. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger is a young girl living in a very important part of Germany’s history, the Second World War. Liesel’s childhood unfolds and develops against the backdrop of a time when words, books specifically were used for power and control. Liesel is someone who has a love for reading and, as such, books become very important to her, not only for her education but for her rebellion and discovering her true identity. Throughout the novel, books become a crucial symbol used to convey the desires and discovery of identity for the main character as her childish ignorance changes to her mature adulthood.

The theme in , “ The Book Thief “ by Markus Zusak , is the power of communication and how it influence people . Liesel did not know how to read at first , but then she begins learning to read and starts craving different terms . Her need for words made her steal books because it was her safe haven that kept her mind off the war that was going on . At this time , Adolf Hitler used words to brainwash Germans to do brutality things on the innocents . When Liesel finds out about this , she realized it was a vicious thing , so she tried to stay away from words .

If you believe in yourself and have dedication, pride, and never quit, you will be successful. Markus Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, creates a story of a young orphan named Liesel Meminger, who is living with her new foster family. She learns the wonders of reading from her foster father and grows to love books. During Liesel’s time with her new family, she shows determination through her efforts and kindness with her encounters with other people. Liesel in The Book Thief expresses her traits, such as hardworking, and bravery.

In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, the element of narrative tension that stands out the most is investment. For example at the beginning of the chapter titled “Death and Chocolate” there is a lot of investment because we are not aware of who is narrating and we want to know. The narrator says, “The question is what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?” (Zusak 4). During this part of the story, we had no idea who the narrator was. When he says, “when I come for you” it makes us wonder who he is and why he would be coming for someone. As a reader, we were very invested on what the outcome was going to be so we wanted to continue reading to figure out the outcome. Another example of investment

In history, art has been known as a production of works for emotional power. Art is formed by artists who have a story to share. It is used to express a deep emotion they cannot quite put into words, for example, sorrow or grief. Throughout the novel, Markus Zusak shows people distracting themselves from desperate times of sorrow through art. The use of art in The Book Thief represents creative outlets used as a coping mechanism for each character. The forms of art in the midst of pain are an accordion, a sketchbook, and books. To someone who were to pick up one of these items wouldn’t see much importance but to the main characters, they are what keeps them inspired and hopeful during the catastrophic events caused by Hitler.

The main characters in The Book Thief are Liesel Meminger, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Rudy Steiner, Ilsa Hermann, and Max Vandenburg. Liesel is a girl and is ten through fourteen throughout the novel. She called the book thief by her best friend, she loves being called this, she received the name when she told him that she had stolen five books. In the beginning of the book Liesel moves in with foster parents after the Nazis take her mother away. Hans and Rosa Hubermann are Liesel’s foster parents. Hans is a painter, plays the accordion, and helps Liesel learn to read. Rudy is Liesel’s best friend, he also has wanted a kiss from her. Ilsa is the mayor’s wife and a customer of Rosa, who irons clothing for her. Ilsa lets Liesel read in her library