Symbolism 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.

While other may just quickly glance at the narrator’s paintings and not notice anything, Rockwell had always examined the narrator’s work in silence and noticed the subtle details of the narrator’s paintings. Because of Rockwell’s unconventionality, he is able to discern through the façade the narrator puts on and unveil his true identity. Unlike the other individuals who have scrutinized the narrator’s paintings, Rockwell began “frowning at a picture [the narrator] had made.” This illustrates his peculiar thoughts where he is capable of discovering something different from the narrator’s paintings of Sara. Rockwell is able to analyze the meaning behind the narrator’s paintings of Sara and eventually pry out the true meaning of his artwork. Rockwell represents the brutal, cold reality that the narrator must confront and accept. This is demonstrated through his honest, direct words as he tells the narrator that he is “doing [him] a favour by telling you this.” He wishes that the narrator will gradually begin to abandon his painful past and embrace the reality that he must end up confronting. Towards the end, even

Hope is elusive and one needs courage to ensure it does not fly away. In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak develops the theme of courage and hope throughout the novel, showing people need both to survive. He portrays the theme effectively through the characterization of Liesel as well as the symbolism of Hans Hubermann’s accordion.

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.

In a way, Liesel and Max give each other purpose. Max needs Liesel to brighten his life with stories from the outside world and to bring him the energy of youth. Liesel benefits from Max because she learns a lot about suffering and he is someone with whom she identifies. They both rely on each other for comfort, friendship, and trust. They quickly become good friends. They share their nightmares because they are the only ones that can relate to one another,. Max has left his family and Liesel has lost her brother. Sharing their misfortunes the two become connected through sharing their souls and the printed word. Liesel teaches Max that he can express his scrappy personality through words "I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I

Ambiguity is a concept I came across while reading The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak. The novel discussed numerous paradoxes of the human experience, and thus stimulated my mind into exploring branches of philosophy previously unknown to me. Though the concept is a simple one, the source of ambiguity is much more complicated. From my reading of this story and study in a psychology class, I learned that one’s natural instinct and nurturing environment is what affects one’s perspective. Equally important, no matter how similar common the human condition is, everyone is different. No person has the same life experiences, and thus has a different perspective. These conflicting perspectives are what lead to ambiguity, which leads me to quite a harsh

Furthermore, the illustrations paint a beautiful picture that I like to think is an insight into a child’s mind, which I is a key element in this book and what makes it so great. Since the book is narrated by a child the intentional simplicity of the words and the controlled chaos that is the illustrations breathes unadulterated life into a rather normal children’s book.

Guilt is like a disease that plagues your thoughts, until it gets to much too handle. Why did I do that? Why had I not done something? Why him, not me? Guilt is a theme in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, from important characters, like Liesl's guilt for not telling her foster mother Ilsa Hubermann, that she loved her, to minor characters, like Michael Holtzapfel hanging himself over the fact that he survived Stalingrad, but his brother didn’t. Guilt directly affects the characters, changed how the story goes, and the tone of the story and the mood reader.

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.

One of the main characteristics of war is its ability to take away individuals’ feelings of strength. Such individuals will become unable to feel a sense of identity unless they find some source of power, no matter its form may be. The main characters in The Book Thief and Between Shades of Gray use art and literature as a means for empowering themselves within the conflict-ridden setting around them: World War II. The “testimony [of these characters is produced] to create an absolute record, to speak in a world where [their] voices have been extinguished” (Sepetys 338). Liesel, the main character in The Book Thief, and Lina, from Between Shades of Gray, create testimony of their endurances by leaving behind writing and drawings that tell their story to future generations after being forced into silence during their own lifetime.

When faced with these moments of isolation, Max, Liesel, and Hans try to escape it, sometimes leading them into dangerous situations, to no longer feel alone. In Liesel’s case, one of these attempts was to start stealing books. Liesel stole books like “The Shoulder Shrug” and “The Whistler” and enjoyed reading them. She read these books so she could “escape” her isolation and enter different worlds. While stealing these books, she also bonded with many people (mainly with Rudy), helping her to slowly strengthen her relationships and move away from her loneliness. Max, another character

When there were bomb raids approaching the town, the people gathered in a small basement and Liesel began to read to everyone there. It is amazing how her words would calm everyone present and made them forget that they could possibly die at any given moment. When everything in her life is at a downfall, reading and writing takes Liesel out of this cruel world. That is the main reason why she is attracted to words and books. Words kept her alive in a dull world but also literally kept her living. She was reading in that basement when the bombs hit her street so it saved her. She also developed relationships with people with words and storytelling. In a time like this, a normal conversation will not help. But in order to distract one from reality the best way to do that is to share stories. Max Vandenburg is not in great condition when he arrives, but creates a special bond with Liesel through words. The two have frequent nightmares about their past and losing the ones that they care about the most. Though all this has happened, they both enjoy to story tell and that’s how their bond grows. "Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out, like the rain (85)". Liesel’s words effected her situation and the perspective of it so much. As words bought friendship to Liesel, it also bought

Do you like war? Do you despise war? Have you ever attempted to help someone during a war, probably not though? In The Book Thief, there is a girl named Liesel who were adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann and they helped harbor a Jew during WWII. In The Things They Carried, is about a soldier named Jimmy Cross who adores an English major named Martha and then one of the soldiers’ gets shot and assassinated which makes Jimmy forget about Martha and become a better leader. In The Book Thief and The Things They Carried have some similarities and differences and some of them I’ll explain with literary devices. The theme for The Book Thief is death/war/brutality and the theme for The Things They Carried is to focus on what’s more important than yourself.

aims his focal point at imagery to provide vivid and rich details. Literary devices play a crucial

There are three themes that are used throughout the reading which are; love, beauty, and death. The most important theme in this story would be beauty. When the husband gets so attached to his art work he forgets about the beautiful wife he has of his own and only thinks about the beauty of this portrait. Love is also showed in this story but by the wife. The wife is so in love with her husband she is willing to do anything and everything to make her husband happy. Which is not getting in the away of him painting his picture. The last theme would be death even though this is a major theme it comes last. After the husband not realizing the actual beauty and love the