Summary Of 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)”

Relationship to meaning: - Death, as the narrator, gives us an insight into the events surrounding Liesel that otherwise would not have been known. Also Death explains definitions, events, and other items of note.

Liesel described as a mischievous little girl, that was skinny, pale, also she had her lips chapped. She had dirty blonde hair with hazel eyes. Liesel was very sarcastic and shy at times. Rudy was a gentleman, but sometimes, he could be very direct and sarcastic. Rudy was light complected with narrow cheekbones and was boney. He was also very slender, with Blonde hair and blue eyes. He was Liesel partner in crime. Death is the narrator of the story. He is fascinated by the colors of the world and by humans. However, throughout the novel, death had noticed that humans were capable of ugliness and so much beauty. Death is often humorous, informative or dark asides.

The relationship between Max and Walter Kugler was made stronger when Walter offered Max hiding as he was Jewish. Walter demonstrates his care for Max when he said “Bring nothing," Walter said. "Just what you're wearing. I'll give you the rest” (136). Walter and Max were friend from before the war; nonetheless, when the war began and the Jews were being targeted, Walter stepped up and took Max into his care despite being a member of the german army. Furthermore, Liesel and her best friend, Rudy, became very good friends through the events of the war. Rudy fell in love is Liesel and in many places had shown his feelings towards her. When Liesel’s book was thrown into the ice freezing river, without hesitation Rudy jumped in to get it and said after “‘How about a kiss, Saumensch’, he said?”. Throughout the novel, Rudy always bugged Liesel for a kiss, but Liesel always refused despite she wanting to kiss him too until it was too late. Max’s friendship with Walter and Liesel’s friendship with Rudy illustrate the positive side the war had on the

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 first of them happens on the Fuhrer (Adolf Hitler)’s birthday. Because of her Hitler Youth group, Liesel is forced to attend the celebration in the town center. There, the people make a large pile of books and belongings and papers, all to be burned and destroyed for entertainment. Here, Liesel is traumatized by the shouts of Communism and destruction. She sneaks away and sits on the steps to wait for Papa. This is finally where Liesel analyzes her mother’s complete disappearance. She realizes that her being gone was of Hitler’s doing, and curses Hitler’s name. The other traumatic event happens at the very end of the novel. Liesel is in her basement writing The Book Thief, which is a summary of her life since she arrived at 33 Himmel Street in her own words. During this time, a bomb is dropped on Molching. This bomb ends up killing Hans and Rosa Hubermann and Rudy Steiner. This moment is when Liesel loses almost everybody who matters to her. Max Vandenburg already had left, her foster parents and best friend are dead, and her mother and brother have long been gone. Readers can see how much this affected Liesel when she doesn’t leave her bed in the Mayor’s house for days. She lets all of this emotion she’s built up pour out when she finds Max Vandenburg in a store and just hugs

At one point in the novel, the reader is introduced to Max. He is a Jew. Jewish people were the Nazis main target and the scapegoat for the loss of World War I. Max would have been sent to a labor camp to die if he was caught in public, so he hid in a dark room for two years. According to The Book Thief, “A GUIDED TOUR OF SUFFERING To your left, perhaps you're right, perhaps even straight ahead, you find a small black room. In it sits a Jew. He is scum. He is starving. He is afraid. Please—try not to look away.” Max may have survived Dachau and World War II altogether, but so many other Jews -and people of different religions, sexualities, races, etc- died because of the Nazis. Only

Liesel most definitely could have trusted Rudy with the secret of having Max hidden in her basement. Rudy was clearly Liesel’s best friend and partner in crime when Liesel was doing her acts of thievery stealing the books from the mayor’s wife bookself. The devotion to Liesel Rudy also had was strong and I believe Liesel could have trusted Rudy.

The tone of the narrator, Death, is intimate throughout the book. When he first sees Liesel, he becomes interesting in her as he takes away her brother’s soul. Events lead him into interacting with many people in Liesel’s life and the war allows him to see her often, this attraction is encompassed on the last few words of the book, “I am haunted by humans” ( Zusak 550). Death, who seems to haunt millions of people around the world, is haunted by humans. It is ironic but it shows the beauty that is humans. This desire to see Liesel, to be haunted by her, leads to a caring tone, but this does not mean that Death is basis in his telling of the story. Death tries to forget Liesel but periodically, he goes to check. His being haunted does not only apply to Liesel, he is able to recall the deaths of many other humans that had captured his eye or in someway is connected to Liesel. There is a fondness when Death thinks of humans and a slight dislike but he craves to see certain ones and to interact with them. Humans are so interesting, complex, and eye catching that Death wishes to watch over some of

In The Book Thief, the author, Markus Zusak writes a beautiful story following a young German girl named Liesel who experiences the atrocities that occur during World War II. Early in the book, she is given by her mother to foster parents who raise her as their own. During her childhood, she begins stealing books and learns about the power of words. Throughout the story, she bonds with many people including her neighbors, her foster parents and a Jew hidden in their basement. Most of the characters end up dying due to the horrible living conditions and time period the book takes place in.

2. It is ironic that Liesel steals books because the first time she steals the book she is not even able to read yet. The first time she stole a book was at her brothers funeral to keep as a memory of him and also her mother. Liesel was upset and "she started to dig" for The Gravediggers Handbook (Zusak 23).This seemed ironic also, because she dug for a book in the snow at her brothers burial. Hitler used words as a powerful tool to change the way a whole country viewed Jews. Words turn into something to use as hate from the Nazis and Hitler toward the Jews. Germans are scared of words that show how Jews really are .They have bonfires and they throw the books in the bonfire and burn them, along with the truth about Jews. Even though Germans in general have a hatred towards books, Liesel is saved by words. Max, who is a Jew is also saved by words. Max

Liesel wants to walk with her, but both her and Max are beaten senseless by the Gestapo. The rest of the book goes on about the life of Liesel and her book thievery. Being a poor girl in Nazi Germany, her and Rudy did more stealing than books. In one instance in winter, they put water on a sidewalk.

Liesel is a German and is a very stubborn and curious person. Liesel is also a very kind person once you get to know her. Liesel lives with her two foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermann. Liesel’s birth parents (who were communists) had to give her up due to the fact that Hitler hated the communists and also due to the fact that her

The Book Thief was an excellent book. The beginning started out with Death explaining all of the times where he encountered the book thief. The first time Death encountered the Book Thief (A.K.A. Liesel Meminger) was on a train with her brother and her mother. Her brother died when on the train, and at her brother's funeral she stole her first book called “ The Grave Digger's Handbook.” After her brother died, her mother sent her to a foster home and left her there. She stayed with Hans Hubermann and Rosa Hubermann in which she learns to love them. Hans is very good at the accordion and teaches Liesel the joy in rolling cigarettes. Rosa is very strict and constantly swears. She becomes friends with a boy named Rudy Steiner who loves to run.

She reads a book she finds on the floor and has pensive thoughts about the people that died in her life and how she will no longer hope for Max and Alex Steiner because the world does not deserve them and she even thinks that words are no good. She even says, without words, the Führer is nothing. She ends up ripping up the book but immediately writing a letter to apologise to Ilsa. Ilsa, having read the letter sees that Liesel is good at writing so she gives her lined paper. Liesel uses the lined paper and starts to write a book called the book thief. Liesel continues to write the story of her life and finishes it in October.