Summary Of The Book Thief : Part 6

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

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, takes place in 1940s Nazi Germany in the small town of Molching. The main character, Liesel Meminger, takes on a role as the foster child of Hans and Rosa Hubermann. She also meets a young boy named Rudy Steiner, who goes on to be her best friend and lover. In the book, Liesel faces many challenges big and small. From hiding a Jew in the basement to a thieving lifestyle, Liesel has to learn to overcome all of life's problems. Through all of this, she is supported by her foster father Hans Hubermann who is caring to people he barely knows, intelligence despite his lack of education, and generosity even when he has little for himself.

The book starts off with Liesel, aka the book thief, on a train traveling to Munich with her brother named Werner and their mother. But on the way there the train stops working and Werner ends up dying, but while he is being buried Liesel takes a book from one of the gravediggers. After getting on another train they get to Munich where Liesel is giving away to foster care. She really doesn’t want to leave but she knows that it’s for the best that she leaves her mother and go into foster care.

The novel opens with an introduction by the novel’s narrator, Death. He explains the current state of the world, and soon we follow him to the scene of a death. On a train to Munich, we see Liesel, a little German girl, riding with her mother and brother. Liesel’s brother Werner soon dies on the ride. At the next train stop, Werner is offloaded to be buried in the village cemetery. Death, and the reader, watch the burial, and see Liesel steal her first book- The Gravedigger’s handbook. Werner’s death and burial is the first act of inhumanity in the novel.

Eva Schloss, a Jew, was frequently struggling to remind herself to stay hopeful in the depressing time of the Holocaust. After years of hiding, she was placed in an extremely harsh concentration camp called Auschwitz. For Eva and the other Jews of Europe during this time, along with anyone under Nazi hate, staying alive was their biggest obstacle, but it was very difficult for them to escape the Nazis. Modern literature and media about the Holocaust shows other various challenges that can be connected to this time in Europe. Overcoming obstacles like facing the passing of loved ones, spreading awareness or resolving frustrations is an important subject in real life and in stories.

First, the book is set during World War II in Germany with many deaths happening around Liesel. The time that the book is set in is very important to the plot of the story because with the war going on many deaths are happening, and Death needs to deal with the deaths. Rosa, Hans, and Rudy all died from a bomb from the war and they were the three closest people to Liesel. Also, Death talks in the beginning of the book about how he manages and deals with many deaths. With the war going on he has to deal with even more from the bombings. For example, Death says, “Misfortune? Is that what glued them down like that? Of course not. Let’s not be

Starting off the reader is introduced to the narrator of the book, Death. Death assures the readers that he is not as bad as most perceive him to be. Death is impacted by himself which is how Death meets the main character Liesel. “I had already made the most elementary of mistakes….I waverd. I buckled--I became interested. In the girl” (7). Death previous to this passage explains that he uses colors to distract himself from survivors. Death meets Liesel for the first time and is interested in her enough that he lingers for a bit. He sees her on two more occasions. “I wanted to stop. To crouch down….I did not crouch down. I did not speak. Instead, I watched her a while. When she was able to move, I

Max was another character that I am going to discuss about. He was the hidden Jew in Hans Hubermann’s basement. Hans Hubermann told everything about Max to Liesel. After Liesel heard about max, she got closer with him. He visited the basement frequently and explained the outside world. Every day she reports the weather and shared her thoughts. On pages 312-313 Hans Hubermann and Liesel celebrated the Christmas. “Is this today’s weather report? Liesel stood next to him. Gently, she touched his arm. He raised it again to his mouth. “Thanks, Liesel” It was the beginning of the great Christmas ever. Little food. No present. But there was a snowman in the basement.” P.312 Zusak. For Max, Liesel build the snowman and made him also enjoy the Christmas.

Oskar’s grandfather, Thomas Schell, was acquainted with several occurrences of death from the Dresden bombings that killed hundreds of thousands of people including his fiancé, Anna, and their unborn child. This trauma led him to become mute and hindered his ability to carry strong relationships in his future. However, the novel ultimately revolves around Oskar looking to make peace with his father’s death by meticulously searching who “Black” was that was written in an envelope of an unidentified key that he found in his father’s closet. Devastated Oskar struggled with the unfair and illogical idea of his father, the only person in the world who understood him, passing away in one of the cruelest and saddening moments in the history of the nation (which what to he referred to as heavy boots). As he spent every Saturday, overcoming fears of heights, trains, busy streets, and talking to people, Oskar eagerly traveled through the streets of New York to every person named Black’s doorstep in hopes of finding some answers about the mysterious key. His distant relationship with his mother seemed to only be getting worse as his curiosity for the key consumed his life: “Every time I left the apartment to go searching for the lock, I became a little lighter, because I was getting closer to Dad. But I also became a little heavier, because I was getting farther from Mom” (Foer 52). Death and its companion, grief, becomes the overarching obstacle that each character struggles to overcome throughout this

In a dimly lit stone room, gathered around a simple stone table, surrounded by plain stone pillars, eight large figures stood barking at each other in harsh, guttural tones. The room was undecorated; made for utility without much care for how it pleased the eye. The green-skinned men occupying the room were far better decorated, wearing coloured furs over their leather and chain armor. Each one was adorned with a sigil representing their tribe hanging from a chain around their neck. The largest among them, however, wore no sigil. Instead he wore a simple iron crown with no decorations. This marked him as the chosen leader of the tribes, and he was the only one present who held a blade. The warchief would lead them to victory, then ascend to

After the bombing Liesel finds Rudy, and she thinks he is dead, but after a few minutes of hugging him and crying she realizes that he is still breathing and has a pulse. When Liesel realizes he is alive she calls for help, and the people who found her carried Rudy to a hospital. Rudy has to stay in the hospital for three weeks, and Liesel is beside him the whole time. While they are in the hospital one night there was a dark figure is standing in the doorway, and asks “Do you still play the accordion”, and Liesel goes running to the figure and hugs him, as it turns out the dark figure was Max Vandenberg. As Max, Liesel, and Rudy are leaving the hospital the Mayor’s Wife is standing beside the exit, and hands Liesel a book,

1: The Book Thief Marcus Zusak Plot: • Narrated by Death • The story of Liesel a nine year old girl • Her mother is forced to give Liesel to foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann • They live in Molching, a small town on the outskirts of Munich • Book ‘begins’ in 1939 • Book begins as Liesel travels to Molching with her brother and mother • Her brother dies of a cough in the train (possible Tuberculosis or similar) • Hans Hubermann is caring and gentle and he quickly develops a strong relationship with Liesel • Liesel experiences nightmares where she sees her brother. Hans helps her to cope with the nightmares • Rosa Hubermann is tough and loves to swear, but she loves Liesel even if she shows it in unusual ways. • Hans and Liesel take advantage of Liesel’s

Christmas Eve, Liesel builds a snowman in the basement for Max and also have. Snowball fight. Shortly afterwards, Max gets extremely sick and falls into a coma. Since it is winter Max staying in the basement was already cold which made him so sick. Despite the war, the Hubermann's have “the greatest Christmas ever,”. But when Max get sick the situation become frightening. Not only is Liesel concerned about Max's health but the Hubermann's must also worry about the jeopardy they will be put in if he dies. Liesel feels like Max being in coma is partly her fault because of the snowman, and snowball fight they had in the basement. Leisel feels upset and scared that Max might actually die, and starts to collect and make little gifts for Max to hopefully

German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said “We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverable for ourselves and for others.” Words have strength most individuals are unable to comprehend in their day to day lives, thus the true power words can be ineffectively used, and is often lost admits the books, letters, and newspapers. However when words do inflict _______on someone, that person is changed forever. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words and literature on a variety of characters whether it is for better or for worse. For some it is to control an entire nation, others it is making heartfelt connections, however only a few learn to value this power. Throughout Liesel Memingers life in the novel, she experiences literature with positivity, allowing her to become stronger, more loving, and a more mature. Leisle goes through negative experiences as well, in which words allowed her to learn and improver herself _____. In The Book Thief Liesel's experiences with literature throughout her developmental and influential stages of her life allow her to grow and mature in a beneficial way. While Liesel discovers books and literature, her positive experiences allow her to open up and learn about the world around her, which shapes her into a mature person. As Liesel's brain

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a girl living in Nazi Germany through perspective of death. Just nine years old when her brother dies and her mother leaves her in the care of the Hubermanns, Lisel turns to the comfort of books to ease her pain. However, as she grows up the innocent words in her books lead her to discover the immense pain words carry through the horrific doings of Hitler, a man beloved by many Germans. The portrayal of life in Nazi Germany depicted by the Book Thief is accurate due to events in the book such as the book burning, the Hitler Youth, encounters of hate shown to Jews, and Germany’s invasion of Russia.