Symbols 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.

At the library, she was offered a book by the mayor’s wife multiple times but Liesel declined. After being removed from the job because the mayor couldn’t offered job, Liesel must leave. Though she declined the book many times, she returns to the house to steal food but instead retrieves the book. She steals it for her close friend Rudy. The book itself represents the connection between the two especially Rudy valiantly saves the book after it was almost thrown into a river.

Mein Kampf was a key symbol in the novel, it helped Max with his struggle plus it helped Hans with his image. Mein Kampf shows how powerful words can be and how words can have such an influence on people’s decisions. Hitler’s struggle helped Hans and Max in their own struggle, without his knowledge. I read some of Mein Kampf and I was astonished to see how well he wrote. Obviously he knew what he was doing and how to do it. I was shocked while hearing the tragic stories during the Holocaust when I visited Europe this summer.

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.

Her enthusiastic attitude can only be calmed down by the sound of Papa’s accordion. Nothing can come in between her and her words, not the darkness of the room, and of course not even the Nazi Germans. Furthermore, in the book A Girl Made of Darkness, it is shown that Liesel is intrigued by the smallest thing in life as she questions her parents about her Christmas present (Zusak, 89). Understand her family situation, Liesel is not expecting for any present for Christmas, however her dad has been able to trade cigarettes for some books . To most of us, when we receive presents we will just accept the present, no questions asked. On the contrary,many questions have been proliferating in Liesel’s mind when Papa gives her the gifts. Not to mention another obvious evidence is when Max first arrived at the Hubermann’s house. As can be seen, Zusak has portrayed Liesel as the book thief because her inquisitive characteristic indicate those who questions the Nazi German

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.

Her book thievery first began when she was illiterate. Liesel stole "The Grave Digger's Handbook" from her brother's burial as a symbol. It represented the last time she saw her brother and her mother since she was given away to a foster family.

The first book that the book thief, or Liesel stole was The Grave Digger’s Handbook. That is ironic because Liesel found it while her brother was being buried. “ When the dragging was done, the mother and girl stood and breathed. There was something black and rectangular logged in the snow. Only the girl saw it. She

The most important and powerful thing in Markus Zusak's book, The Book Thief is words. Words make and break Liesel, they build her up and break her down, they are a part of her, and they bring happiness and destruction to not only her but to all people in Nazi Germany. Words can be life changing, they cantransform you into something great. “Once, words had rendered Liesel useless, but now, when she sat on the floor, with the mayors wife at her husband's desk,she felt an innate sense of power.” (147).

“Even death has a heart” (Zusak 242). When death comes to mind it is thought of as a state, rather than being a character. In The Book Thief, Death was the narrator; Death explains that dying was not the worst thing that could happen to a person. Death uses symbols to help develop themes. Words have power, war goes further than the battlefield, and sometimes what should be done will cause the most regret are all themes taken from the book.

Rochman describes his accordion, “By a sense of duty and guilt to shelter the son of the man who saved his life in World War I. After an act of compassion for a Jewish man being made to parade the streets of Molching with his fellows, Hans is subsequently sent off to war,” (Rochman 25). It is important to realize that not only does he symbolise a “Jew Lover,” but he’s also a father to Liesel. Hans is the role model and teacher that Liesel never had. He tenderly released Liesel out of her shell of grief after the abandonment of her mother and the death of her brother. Hans is simply the start of Liesel’s love for books. Additionally, his accordion also portrays a memory to Rosa and Liesel when he passed away in the raiding of Molching, Germany. Upon his death, Liesel placed the accordion on his body saying "The sound of the accordion was, in fact, the announcement of safety," (Zusak, 28). Given these points, it is clearly shown that Hans’ Hubermann symbolises a father that Liesel never had, and the effect that the accordion left in the town of

The accordion is taken wherever Hans Hubermann goes, and the fact that he is leaving it to go off to war makes it a more visible symbol. Hubermann is leaving it because one it reminds him of the friend who saved him, and two as a comfort to his wife and adopted daughter. To describe the accordion as a symbol in one word, it would be regret. By Hans going to his second war, he remembers a tragic thing that happened at the first war he fought in. His friend had played the accordion and had volunteered Hans for a job, instead of having him go to the fight they were going to. Because of the friend Hans lived, while everyone who went to fight that day died. The friend had taught Hans to play the accordion, so when it came to taking the accordion

Markus Zusak’s Novel The Book Thief is about a little girl whose brother died and is given to a foster family during around the time of the Holocaust/persecution of Jews. Throughout The Book Thief symbolism is shown through many objects to signify there importance and impact on the character(s). In The Book Thief symbolism is shown through many objects such as The Accordion and books that Liesel reads.

In The Giver, Gabriel symbolizes hope. For example, Gabriel appears in the novel when Jonas brings him along to Elsewhere. Lowry writes, “He hugged Gabriel and rubbed him briskly, warming him, to keep him alive...But somewhere ahead, through the blinding storm, he knew there was warmth and light” (224). Jonas is currently trying to climb a hill to reach a sled that will bring him downhill. However, it says that Jonas knew that there was “warmth and light” ahead, and this becomes true. The fact that there is warmth and light means that there is life ahead, and wherever there is life, we can infer that there is a shelter. If Jonas can get Gabriel to the house safely, then we still have hope for their future. Gabriel is also a baby, which means that he is untainted by the rigid rules of the community, which then, in turn, means that he can have a separate future, a path that the citizens of the community cannot walk because of the rules’ influence. Lily is an example of this. She cannot symbolize hope, since she already follows the rules. She was raised in the community’s way, the method where feelings are stolen, memories are taken away, and rules transform humans to robots. Gabriel can walk a different road, one with emotion, warmth, and the absence of rules. His path is the ideal future, the future we cannot give up on. The Giver teaches us that we cannot give up on hope. Jonas tried to keep Gabriel, the only hope of the community, alive, very much like what we should do.

Movies and books can have very noticable differences. When movies take place based on books, they tend to leave out important details that a reader would know after finishing the book. Sometimes, directors have to change the main characters to fit the time limit or plot of the movie. In The Book Thief movie directed by Brian Percival, and The Book Thief book written by Markus Zusak, many differences impact the way the watcher of the movie interprets the actions of the characters based on the book. Items, too important to the author of the book to leave out, show in the movie to keep the general plot of the book intact. Both the book and the movie show the importance of the accordion, but lack showing the cigarettes and maturity in the main character, Liesel.