The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

The Book Thief, written by an Australian author, Markus Zusak, is a devastatingly powerful historical-fiction novel that bears several re-readings. Being one of the greatest, most divinely-written epilogues in my school library, The Book Thief, is a soul-shattering, thought-provoking story that undoubtedly can be recommended to the young and old alike. This poignant, prolonged, but achingly sad book, is the pinnacle of contemporary historical-fiction, poised to become a classic. Phenomenally breathtaking, and inspiring, bringing nothing but anticipatory dread, this lyrical, surreal book, though depressingly morbid at times, was my “gateway” to historical-fiction. The tribulations and trials provided in the novel, had inevitable passion, perspective

In the story The Book Thief, the author Markus Zusak does and amazing job of using literary devices in his story. From metaphors, to similes, to personification and even onomonopeias. It puts images in your mind that in other looks you could not even imagine. It shows and tells what the person is doing and how they are doing it. These literary devices bring excitement and engagement to the writing. It makes you want to keep reading the book. His forms of figurative language come easy to zusak.

Death can be thought of as a very violent being and people often associate it with maliciousness. The animated coloring plays to a reader’s familiarity of certain colors and what they represent to create a more vehement image. In the chapter titled “Beside the Railway Line”, Death states that something is blinding white when Liesel’s brother dies. It could possibly be comparing the white snow with the cold of death. There is also repeated mention of the colors of Rudy’s hair and Hans’ eyes. Rudy’s hair is described as being “lemon yellow”. Humanity mostly affiliates the color yellow with happiness, memory, communication, youthfulness and carelessness. But in The Book Thief it is twisted into a grim style. In the novel, Rudy is very happy and he cherishes his youth. When he dies, Liesel remembers the kiss he kept asking for and the mean things she would say to him and it causes great pain for her. Death almost always explains the way a person is when it comes for them. He says that Hans’ silver eyes were open and that Hans’ came peacefully. Silver is often correlated with love and peace. Only because Liesel loved Hans so much, is that why the silver of his eyes are so very important. Death gives a tranquil atmosphere to the violence it concocts. Readers become comfortable with Death the idea of it and frequently miss the gesture of violence.

When writing a book authors like to use colors and symbols to describe and help make the story. In most books color is used a lot in the story to describe things from the sky to people's clothes. The Book Thief use color theory very often. Color Theory says that people will judge a character on the environment and what colors are in the environment(“Color Theory“). We are told the color of the sky when the main narrator Death is doing his job. He does not like his job so he uses colors to distract him from taking people's souls. Death says that he looks at the sky when he is doing his job, "I do try to enjoy every color I see - the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off the stress," (Zusak 4). The color of the sky when someone dies had a lot of meaning behind the color. In the Book Thief, the colors are red, blue, black show up in the book the most.

Death also used the colors of the spectrum to describe his job as a “soul gatherer” and the connection with people. Death says “A color will be perched on my shoulder and I will gently carry you away” (Zusak, 4). This explains what Death does when he collects souls. He uses the colors to recollect on events, trauma and his own personal feelings. In discussing the colors, this emphasizes the act of describing the difficult experience of WWII in which returns to the fact that Death is made to resemble a human.

The color white is used throughout The Book Thief to symbolize death, innocence, and sadness. Early in the novel Death uses white to describe death, “White is without question a color, and personally, I don’t think you want to argue with me” (Zusak 6), Death says that “you” do not want to argue with him because he determines how long that “you” will live. White is also associated with death because the color white symbolizes peacefulness when people die, they are peaceful and innocent (Morton). Later in the book Death associates white with innocence, “The sky was white but deteriorating fast” (Zusak 470), Zusak said this because the sky looked harmless when it was white then later in the novel when the sky turns back to brown and red (Morton). Hans was sad when the war was starting in Germany because he knew that there were going to be a significant amount of casualties. When the

The Book Thief is about a young German girl named Liesel Meminger as she goes through life while living in Germany in 1939. Liesel and her foster parents live a normal life on 33 Himmel Street. There is only one difference between their family and the others, they are hiding Max Vandenburg (a Jewish man) in their basement during the time of the Holocaust. This story, narrated by Death follows the life of Liesel from her first step into 33 Himmel Street, until the day she died in Sydney, Australia.

The Book Thief (2013), directed by Brian Percival, is about a young old girl living in Nazi Germany (between 1939 and 1943) in the fictional town of Molching, Germany. Death narrates the story of the main protagonist, Liesel Meminger, beginning when she is nine years old and suffering from the death of her brother and separation from her mother. Liesel then goes to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann (played by Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson). When Liesel arrives, she is illiterate and is made fun of in school by the other children. Hans, a painter and accordion player, teaches her how to read, using the book Liesel took from her brother's burial: The Grave Digger's Handbook. Over the course of the movie, Liesel develops a love for reading and decides to steal books because of the economical hardships associated with World War II. Liesel's foster parents also decide to help a young Jewish man named Max, whose father fought with Hans as in World War One as German soldiers. The Book Thief illustrates a different perspective in regards to the Nazi Regimen and its effects on the German people, specifically children.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story set in Germany during World War 2. This novel follows the life of Liesel Meminger, a girl who develops greatly. With Death as the all knowing narrator of the story, the reader has the ability to see various perspectives. It tells the story of oppression, portrays the power of words, and shows the human ability for kindness or cruelty. I chose to do option four, in which I have chosen important sections from the novel.

Themes are inserted within literature by the author in an attempt to provoke readers to think about the topic provided. In the novel, The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, many topics are presents, such as, courage, suffering, and human behavior. The most prevalent, however, is the courage possessed by certain individuals. This theme, bravery, is evident throughout the entire course of the novel in Liesel Meminger, the Hubermanns, and Max Vandenburg.

Liesel most definitely could have trusted Rudy with the secret of having Max hidden in her basement. Rudy was clearly Liesel’s best friend and partner in crime when Liesel was doing her acts of thievery stealing the books from the mayor’s wife bookself. The devotion to Liesel Rudy also had was strong and I believe Liesel could have trusted Rudy.

Imagine yourself being alone in the world, isolated from everyone else. You have no friends or family and are discriminated against by the rest of the world. Now, imagine the things you would do to escape this isolation. If you are anything like the characters in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, then you would take great risks, even if they can result in your death, to get away from this solitude. In the novel, isolation plays an important role in the character’s lives as it causes a great deal of pain, creates life changing moments, and affects the character’s actions in such a way that causes them to take dangerous risks in order to escape this isolation.

The Book Thief starts out with a gloomy kinda character who starts off giving a truthful yet harsh fact. When you keep reading you realize that character is the narrator. The narrator in The Book Thief is Death. Death likes to observe colors so he can give himself a distraction. His favorite color is a very dark dark chocolate-colored sky. He uses these colors because he can't stand to look at the left over humans ( the survivor) but from time to time he fails. Death tells the story through his eyes. He tells you about the souls that he took. He tells you about the book

“When Liesel arrived in Molching, she had at least some inkling that she was being saved, but that was not a comfort” (Zusak 23). Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief was a very dynamic character throughout her story. She showed how strong she could be, but she was still haunted by her past. Although many misfortunes came to her, she tried not to let them get to her and stayed strong-minded. She was not afraid to put herself in danger to protect the ones she loved. At the beginning of the story, she would not even go into the Hubermann’s in fear of what would happen. However, she realized by the end of the story that they were her true family. She was an angry girl who despised her new family, but that all changed. Liesel Meminger from The Book

Words can influence the mind in many ways that thought may not be able to. They are carefully placed and shared in different ways by each and every individual. Words have powerful impacts and can majorly impact how one may think, feel, or even lead others to feel. Written by Markus Zusak, “The Book Thief” describes a story of an innocent foster girl, Liesel Meminger, who resides in Munich, Germany at one of the most troubling time periods in history, Nazi Germany. A tale narrated by the one and only Death himself, shows the perspective from his point of view, as well as others, describing how Liesel had been seized away from her birth mother at a young age, and put into a foster family. Her new family, the Hubermanns. As she matures and grows into a more critical thinker, understanding and analyzing everything that carefully happens around her. Her foster-father, Hans guides her and teaches her how to read, which little does she know sparks her journey, the art of stealing books. Liesel soon discovers that words aren 't simply lines on a page, they are strong emotions packed into a form that merely is held in her delicate hands. Not only did she hold the pages of emotion, she held a power, a dangerous weapon of words, a weapon of control, and every book that she had stolen was giving her unimaginable power that made her think in ways that she would’ve never thought she could have. As with Nazi propaganda, and a gift that enabled her to broaden her worldview. Liesel evolves