The Book Thief: An Analysis

Through all of the irony and vivid coloring, The Book Thief is more easily understood after acquiring knowledge of reading literature with greater care and meticulousness. Applying chapters of How to Read Literature like a Professor can better enhance a reader’s awareness of hidden messages and symbols within certain works of literature. In Chapter Two, Foster explains how meals suggest a communion between all parties involved in it. Markus Zusak also uses meals and food to bring families together in The Book Thief. Foster also explains, in Chapter Eleven, how violence in literature usually stands for more than just violence.

For The Book Thief Essay, the theme I picked was “The true nature of courage”. The reason I picked this specific theme was because I felt like I can relate to it more than the other themes. There are plenty of examples where different characters display courage, when at times they could have shied away. The first couple of examples that come to my head is when Hans paints the over the slurs, or when Rudy and Liesel give the jews bread. Thesis statement: The Book Thief has very courageous characters, but they aren't as courageous as I would be in their situation.

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.

In The Book Thief, a work of historical fiction, written by Markus Zusak introduces the main character Liesel Meminger, the reader starts to see how she keeps having many conflicts but always stays positive. Liesel has many conflicts, for example her brother dies early in the book and that shapes the way she is. Later on Liesel steals books and that makes her happy because the first book she stole was the grave digger's handbook and that is how she remembers her brother. Liesel steals and reads books this is how she finds happiness with all the bad things going on around her. In the end of the book most of the people she loves die and it is hard for her to find happiness again. The author uses the setting and point of view to express theme and to make the reader feel sympathy; He uses this because with the theme of finding light in the darkness, deaths perception, and the setting of Germany makes the theme clearer.

Liesel Meminger is the daughter of Paula Meminger. She is also the sister of late Warren Meminger. Consequently, she steals the first book in the novel, called The Gravedigger's Handbook. Therefore, Death gave her the nickname of “ the book thief” before us knowing that she would become “the book thief”. Liesel Meminger is the hardworking, book-thieving, kind-hearted protagonist of The Book Thief. She loves books so much that she steals them, even before knowing how to read. All of this started because stealing books reminds her of Warren Meminger. This is even she bonds more with Hans Hubermann, her foster father, dedicates his time to teach her how to read. We might be asking, why hasn’t she gotten an education at the age of 10. The answer is not as clear as others, but it definitely has to do with Liesel father’s communist affiliations. He was part of the German Communist Party, that was popular when Hitler took over. This is also the reason why she had to be fostered.

“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it,” said comedian Roseanne Barr. A leader can overpower people; she can take control of what one can or cannot do, but only oneself can control how she treats others. In The Book Thief, Hitler is overpowering the Jews; Liesel, who is living with a foster family, and her family shelters Max, a Jewish man, during the Holocaust. Marcus Zusak’s characters, Liesel, Rosa, and Hans, explain their struggle of staying true to their core beliefs during Hitler’s reign in Nazi, Germany, showing the importance of making the correct decisions even when faced with a difficult situation.

Kindness is shown even through the worsts of people, there is a mix of good and evil in the reader.Death is kind and caring towards humans with their souls. Death also has no choice in choosing his job as well as he does not enjoy it , and Death thinks that there is only good and evil, not a mix of both.

In your story you offered a lot of shock value. I enjoyed reading your story there were several eventful, mysterious and crazy moments that were unexplainable and the way you told your story with journal entries and flashbacks was creative. This was successfully delivered throughout the entirety of the story. There were some confusing moments where the story doesn't acknowledge rather he is alone or rather there is an unknown presence in the room at first. I really enjoyed the way you begin to introduce the ideal of there being a paranoia figure with the traditional things we do in life like the consumption of food and memories. The imagery in the Forrest was well detailed and would be even more eventful if they draw a closer connection with

Finally, a similarity and difference which both The Book thief and The Things They Carried share is conflict. As accordingly, Rudy and Tim both want, “to stop a Hitler or some comparable evil” (42) which revolves around Tim mostly. Rudy on the other hand, wants, “to kill the Fuhrer!” (426). Even though Rudy wants to kill Hitler as much as Tim wants to stop some sort of comparable Hitler, both books share a similarity as to oppose Hitler or evil. A difference in conflict between the two books both have to deal against different problems throughout the books. Jimmy was a terrible leader and blamed himself for one of the soldiers deaths and Ted (the dead soldier) who, “was shot in the head on his way back from peeing.” (12) which was how Ted

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak shows that words build strong emotional bonding between individuals and this individual bonding gets carried over to the global level to build a strong and peaceful society over time. The individual personal communication at a lower level is usually on a daily basis and is built on the emotion and compassion between individuals. As the individuals enjoy the fruit of the words, the benefits of the words are carried over to the global society in the form of speeches, books, and stories. The Book Thief shows how individuals like Liesel, Max, and Hans build strong relationship and bonding through the sharing of right words and appropriate stories. The book further expands on the power that words have on the

Power is defined as the ability to influence the behaviour of others. Many words are used everyday, and they are able to influence people easily, so words have to be used very carefully. Max Vandenburg learns the power of words when they help him survive when he is hiding and sick. Furthermore, Adolf Hitler uses words to gain control over Germany and it’s people. Finally, Liesel Meminger uses words to comfort and connect with people.

The value of words and their meanings are tremendous. In human lives, words are able to cure and to kill. As everything in this world, words are one of those attributes that we use daily almost as a reflex. Unfortunately, many people usually forget how powerful words are and use them without a second thought. Words can also change people and not only them. The story was presented in the book called “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is an excellent example of how words can be meaningful and life changing for a 14-year-old girl and for the Death himself. This meaningful story takes place from 1940 through 1945 throughout World War II; its disasters and horrors. Everything happened in the town called Molching, in Germany

“The Book Thief” is about a little girl, who is sent to foster care. In the beginning it was her younger brother was with her; but on the way to their foster family her brother died. Her new mother is described as a thunderstorm, always rumbling. She insists that Liesel call her “Mama”, and her foster father “Papa”. It is discovered that Liesel cannot read or write. Her Papa discovers the book she stole from the grave digger, and uses it to teach her to read. He then turns the basement into a dictionary for her to keep track of all the new words she is learning. As the film progresses her family takes in a Jewish boy. They take him in because, her Papa fought with the boys dad in World War I. The boy is named Max Vandenburg, when he arrives he is sick. They put him in the second bed in Liesel’s room. She and Max

Personal Narrative Draft #1 (Replace this with your working title) Format (delete once you have made sure the format is correct): 12pt font Times New Roman 1.5 line spacing Indent new paragraphs Exposition: Hook Background Characters Setting Rising Action Begin building suspense Introduce your conflict Use dialogue Use descriptive details Develop main and minor characters Start and continue to develop the theme Stay coherent and keep in mind your audience Continue to build suspense Climax Resolve the conflict Prepare your reader to subtly reveal the theme Falling Action Subtly reveal the theme What happened in the end?

The dialogue in the opening scene is very interesting. I feel like it captures the reader’s interest right off the bat. Your characters are very believable and I could see this types of people in my everyday life. Your story flowed nicely from paragraph to paragraph. Your story was extremely relatable and I really believe many of your readers would say they have gone through similar or knew someone who had dealt with these types of experiences.