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The Book Thief Analysis

Decent Essays

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a very emotional and intense story. It takes place in Germany during the time of the Holocaust and portrays how hard life was for some children and adults during that time. In the story Liesel becomes friends with a Jew who her foster parents are hiding from Hitler. She loses her Papa to the military as a punishment for him giving a Jew a piece of bread and her friend Max who is sent to a concentration camp after being captured by the Nazi’s. Liesel along her hard life journey steals books during key moments in her life and it becomes a hobby of hers. I certainly believe this book should be a required reading novel for high school students, because of its important themes that relate to real life situations for people of any ages today. The Book Thief’s most important theme is; “Don’t ever take what you have for granted.” Zusak characterizes this theme in several ways throughout this novel. In this story Liesel finds joy in very few things, one being; stealing books from the library of Ilsa Hermann and/or any other location she may find one. In times today things come easy to most people, especially if you have money. A large amount of the world’s population is constantly out to eat, or getting the latest technology, and don’t realize back in the day people were constantly wondering if they would even live much longer or when they would see their next meal. The time of the Holocaust was a hard time, mainly for jews, and for a child at

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