Summary Of The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story set in Germany during World War 2. This novel follows the life of Liesel Meminger, a girl who develops greatly. With Death as the all knowing narrator of the story, the reader has the ability to see various perspectives. It tells the story of oppression, portrays the power of words, and shows the human ability for kindness or cruelty. I chose to do option four, in which I have chosen important sections from the novel.

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

Firstly, The Book Thief has several paradoxes embedded throughout it, as Markus Zusak uses specific scenarios in Liesel’s life to express the depth within the contradiction of two distinct conclusions. In the first few years that Liesel started living on Himmel street, Hubermanns had welcomed a Jew named Max Vandenburg to live in their basement, despite being aware of the consequences of this and knowing that by doing this, he would be putting their own lives in jeopardy. Max and Liesel have numerous amounts of similarities, as they both were able to understand each other’s feelings and emotions. Later on as Max continues to live with the Hubermanns, daydreams start to commence and cloud his daily thoughts. In his imagination, Max boxes

Death is a very well-known figure that is feared by many in all countries. He is suspected of being cruel, disturbing and all synonyms of horrifying. Death is inevitable and that is the most fearing aspect of his persona. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Death is made to seem or resemble humans. Effectively using the narration role, Death introduces a unique description and definition of colors in which he uses as a tool to effectively engage the readers to the events occurring throughout the book. He also demonstrates him personal and different experiences as well, mostly about soul gathering and the implications of WWII that have affected him. On the contrary to Death’s dead, appalling and scary nature that many interpret him to be

In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger physically develops from a young girl to a matured young adult while symbolically growing through her ability to read. At this point in the story Liesel has no voice and no freedom, therefore she cannot read. Later, Liesel is told she has to read in front of her class and is teased by Ludwig Schmeikl when she cannot read, symbolizing that she is still struggling with her past and where she fits into the world at this point. But as Liesel begins to learn how to read and write, her character also develops. She begins to be more understanding of other characters.

In Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, the character liesel Meminger, the heroine, becomes a kind, strong and brave girl since she finds hope in the book through the story. After Liesel meets Max, in the basements where Max hides, Max gets cold and becomes very sick due to the lack of fresh air and sunlight. To help Max recover, Liesel spends all of her times reading books to Max: “In place of The Whistler, she’d read The Standover Man several times at Max’s bedside. That was only a few minutes per reading. She’d also tried The Shoulder Shrug, even The Grave Digger’s Handbook, but none of it seemed quite right. I want something new, she thought.”(Chapter 44, 512). Liesel shows her friendship to Max. The hope and strength which she finds

In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak shows different contexts with the same similar message. Zusak is revealing to the reader that words can be very powerful. The societal statement “power is knowledge” can be linked to the book by how knowledge creates power.The setting of Nazi Germany within the book burnings event, the basement with Max, and Liesel defending herself by her choice of words are all relevant to this societal statement since it demonstrates the idea of knowledge in numerous ways, and how powerful words were at these times.

“The heat was still strong enough to warm her when she stood at the foot of the ash heap. When she reached her hand in, she was bitten, but on the second attempt, she made sure she was fast enough. It was hot, but it was also wet, burned only at the edges, but otherwise, unhurt.” (Zusak 120) Liesel Meminger is a young German girl who watched her brother die in front of her at age nine and was separated from her mother in the same day. She grew up with her two foster parents who loved her dearly even though they sometimes showed it in a strange way, and a spunky, blonde boy as a best friend who was in love with her.

“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry,” (Zusak 531). The above statement was delivered by Death. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death is the narrator. Rudy Steiner is the human that the quote refers to. The protagonist of this novel is Liesel Meminger, and Rudy is her best friend. The novel is about Liesel’s years living in Molching, Germany during World War Two. Millions of people died during World War Two. Since it is Death’s job to carry away all the souls, he was a busy man at this time. Death usually does not pay attention to living humans. He makes immense efforts to distract himself from them. The question is: what makes Rudy so special that he provokes such emotion from Death? Death is haunted by Rudy because of his incredible acts of friendship towards Liesel and compassion towards those who were supposed to be his enemies.

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

When I was around five years I loved following my older sister around our house begging her to read me my favorite book. I remember it was about this little house that lived out in the countryside, with her family. The home was small and beautiful, but she was well cared for. The house was beloved by her families for many years. Cheerfully and contentedly she sat until one day her family left. Years passed by and they never came back, she watched her town flourish and grow while she became smaller and less meaningful. The house which was once filled with enchantment, was now lonely and hollow. One day an older woman who grew up running and playing on the lawns of the house noticed her. She reminisced about all the joy and laughter that was shared in the little house and decides to fix her up. Growing up, this was my favorite book because I would always feel so much sympathy towards the home. To my five year old self, the most disastrous things someone could be was lost and lonely.

Although this all started out because Corey, in actuality Corey (or any of the boys) was hardly in the book. Then when Corey was brought up to date, it took him very little effort to solved the

Marcus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, is easily to be described as an excellent penman. Born on June 23rd, 1975 in Sydney, Australia, Zusak is most famous for his works, The Book Thief and I am the Messenger, which won a 2006 Printz Honor. He also won the 2014 Margaret Edwards Award. Currently, he resides in Sydney, Australia with his wife, Mika. As a child, Marcus Zusak wanted to persue his father’s job as a housepainter, but he was, as described, not too skilled at the job.

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness” (84). In the beginning, we are introduced to the narrator by the name of Death. He informs the readers that he has many stories, but only remembers the ones that interest him. The tale of Liesel Meminger is one such tale, as he was always fascinated by her will to live through the most horrible instances. It should be duly noted however, that this story does not have a happy ending. Death makes this clear before we even have a chance to get our hopes up. He tells us that everyone dies; the amount of time that they last is truly the only difference. After this sordid fact is in place, he mentions just Liesel first attracted his attention.

In the novel The Book Thief written by Marcus Zusak, Max found himself in a situation where the propaganda that Hitler has set affected his life in many ways. With the help of Liesel’s words and reading and the care that the Hubermanns gave, Max grew stronger and he had the courage to stand up and protect himself from the force that Hitler had set against the him and the Jews. By having the his power of will, Max was fighting Hitler in his own circumstances even if it 's just in his imagination.