The Book Thief Movie Analysis

I think the best parts of the book are where you see Liesel grow and understand the difficult times that she lives in with her limited knowledge of life. Something I really enjoyed this book was the characterization and background of the characters. One of the best parts of the book is when we see the first time Liesel ever steal a book, after her young brother Werner died on the train ride to their new foster parents’ home. She was with her mother who could not support her two children after Liesel’s father was accused of being a ‘communist’. They stop at a graveyard where a young gravedigger buries Werner as his family sobs over him. After this, the narrator describes Liesel seeing the dropped book “The Grave Diggers Manual”, and tucking it into her clothing (Zusak 54). This is a turning point where we can see Liesel’s personality developing as she seeks comfort in her life from sorrow, “The book thief had struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.” (Zusak 19). The worst part of the book was arguably the very end. Although a terrible end to the story is foreshadowed continually throughout the book, it still comes as a shock when you find out the fate of the characters. We find that after all of the characters had

Characteristics and thematic significance - Liesel’s initial behavior was defensive and prickly, due to her early experiences in loss and pain. However, as the novel progresses, she learns of others suffering and matures both morally and emotionally.

The Book Thief, written by Australian novelist Markus Zusak, follows a young girl living in Nazi Germany, and employs innovative techniques to convey the central idea of the extremes of human behavior. This central idea was explored through stylistic techniques and conventions such as Death as the narrator, juxtaposition, irony, lack of chronological order, narrative voices, and themes, namely the power of words.

Narration is important in almost any book,  which is why it is especially important in   Mark Zusak’s: The Book Thief.  He uses foreshadowing, perspective, and interaction with the  reader to make the book so much more interesting. Zusak's selection of Death as the narrator heavily changes and alters the way the book is read. Death allows the reader to have a completely new and different perspective of Death itself, he heavily foreshadows very important events in the book, and he interacts with the reader many times throughout the book. By presenting death as the narrator, Zusak provides a more outside and impartial view of humanity’s pain and suffering (Johnson).

Many authors have written novels about to the Holocaust. Markus Zusak is no exception. However, his novel The Book Thief gives a different perspective on World War II. Rather than telling the story of a survivor or a victim, he tells the story from a German citizens point of view. Zusak tells the German point of view from the point of view of Death. In his Holocaust novel The Book Thief, Markus Zusak uses descriptive language to instill urgency and images in the reader’s head.

With the author using a third person omniscient narrator, which is death, this improves the strength of the theme. With death being the narrator of the book it helps the reader see how death was all around Liesel. “You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies. I’ve seen millions of theme. I’ve seen more eclipses than I care to remember” (Zusak 11). Death darkens the story and this makes you feel their emotions. With a third person omniscient

In chapter twelve we see once again Ender’s instinct to win for all time during a battle. Even with the odds stacked against him, Ender defeated Bonzo’s army. Ender realizes that Bonzo, if he didn’t already, hates Ender to his core, “this would surely turn his rage murderous […] Bonzo will be thirsting for blood now” (195). Petra attempts to warn Ender that he is in danger but, he already knows this. All five of his platoon leaders escort him to his room that night. When he arrives, he finds that Dink has left him a message of warning, “Don’t ever be alone. –Dink” (205). Ender can only sleep because he thinks that surely the teachers will keep him safe outside of the battle room. However, Graff insists that Ender must handle things on his own, that there will be

Death is so interested in Liesel’s life because she is a survivor and she looks at life through rose colored glasses. Meaning she looks at the good things of bad situations and, she would rather risk her life for her friend, that

The definition of a protagonist is a character, who has some type of pitfall in their life which they are not equipped for, they must be an underdog, who has no chance and still succeeds, not matter the amount of loss in their lives. Death doesn’t have a pitfall in it’s life because it doesn’t have a life, intact it is the opposite of life. It can’t be equipped for something it doesn’t have. Whether death is an underdog is debatable, but in this particular story, it is not, it not only hurts the protagonist(assuming Liesel is the protagonist) but also provides are a tool for the antagonist of the story (The Nazi) to use, the Nazi’s use death as a threat. Death does not grow or evolve. We feel sympathy and connection Liesel because of her

Starting off the reader is introduced to the narrator of the book, Death. Death assures the readers that he is not as bad as most perceive him to be. Death is impacted by himself which is how Death meets the main character Liesel. “I had already made the most elementary of mistakes….I waverd. I buckled--I became interested. In the girl” (7). Death previous to this passage explains that he uses colors to distract himself from survivors. Death meets Liesel for the first time and is interested in her enough that he lingers for a bit. He sees her on two more occasions. “I wanted to stop. To crouch down….I did not crouch down. I did not speak. Instead, I watched her a while. When she was able to move, I

The book thief has a very engaging plot line that grasps the reader and keeps their attention, making them pay attention to every detail. In the book, there were often little theoretical puzzle pieces that the author left behind that kept the reader interested. An important piece that was in the book was when death collected the book that Liesel left behind, which became more important was when he returned it at the end. This gave the story an extra, yet valuable sense of completion. Small details like this on were often looked over in the writing of the movie, which made the movie lack the completion that the book had.

General 1. Title – The Book Thief 2. Author – Markus Zusak 3. Date of Original Publication - 2005 4.

The film opens with a train traveling through the European countryside. It is 1938. Liesel Meminger sits on the train with her mother and younger brother, only to look over and find that her brother dies in her mothers arms. As they bury her brother, the gravedigger drops a book and Liesel picks it up and takes it with her. It is the only left that she has to remember her brother. She is then taken to her new foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermann. Upon her arrival, she meets Rudy Steiner who will be her best friend until the end; his end at least.

Lighting and colour theory is an often overlooked aspect of filmmaking which can have drastic effects on the perceptions of the audience, the atmosphere, and the watchability of the film. In The Book Thief they use lighting and colour to show ideas about locations and perceptions and perceptions of characters. One such way colour is used is the vibrant greens used in the wealthier area of the town, compared to the shades of grey predominant in the majority of the town. This change in colour shows the audience that the rich weren’t as badly affected by that which affected the rest of the town. Secondly, lighting was used in the scene wherein Liesel meets Max when he wakes up for the first time. In this scene Max wakes up and sees Liesel, but

It was displayed early on with Liesel’s younger brother dying it also is shown throughout the entire film at times like war and bombs It’s something that none of the characters could escape from as it’s narrated by death. Quote by the narrator “I guess I should introduce myself properly, but then again you’ll meet me soon enough not before your time, of course I make it a policy to avoid the living” which obviously means that he is going to be showing death in the film. Liesel’s younger brother dies and a lot more other character he also states that he avoids the living which he did in the film by people dying. They used a voice over technique in the beginning when the narrator (death) was talking the film technique was used so the audience can understand it easier and also the feelings and thoughts of the narrator. Death was also shown when Liesel’s younger brother died. They used film techniques by having close ups of Liesel’s younger brother to show detail and also loud sound effects to draw the audience in. The next scene went straight to the burial of her brother which showed loud sound effects leading up to the burial which was to shift the mood and get the audience to have a sense of worry or fear and draw them in. These film techniques were used to entertain, communicate meaning and to produce a particular emotion to an