The Book Thief Zusak Power Of Words

“The Book Thief” is a novel and film about a girl who survives death during WW2 and how words became very important to her life. Liesel Meminger was brought to her foster home unable to read. Her foster father, Hans, finds out she can’t read and helps teaches her German. Liesel then falls in love with words and uses them to write her story.The theme “power of words” is displayed in the novel and film equally. Three ways the power of words were shown was by making an emotional connection with the audience, influencing people to do something, and creating unlikely friendships.

In a way, Liesel and Max give each other purpose. Max needs Liesel to brighten his life with stories from the outside world and to bring him the energy of youth. Liesel benefits from Max because she learns a lot about suffering and he is someone with whom she identifies. They both rely on each other for comfort, friendship, and trust. They quickly become good friends. They share their nightmares because they are the only ones that can relate to one another,. Max has left his family and Liesel has lost her brother. Sharing their misfortunes the two become connected through sharing their souls and the printed word. Liesel teaches Max that he can express his scrappy personality through words "I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble” (Berg, Huffington Post). In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, a love for the words was able to affect the situation for the better, but also for the worse. We must understand the power of words.

Words are everywhere, words make up books, and the power of words make The Book Thief which will never be able to be improved upon. Words help us communicate with others, but mainly they have positive and negative sides to them. In the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death narrates the story while Liesel Meminger also tells her story of living in Nazi, Germany. We will discuss how there are many people such as Max Vandenburg and Liesel Meminger who choose to use to use their power of words in the positive way. We will also discuss how people also like to use their power of words in the negative way such as Adolf Hitler. The power of words are very effective especially in Markus Zusak’s writing, and we’ll discuss the main parts of the book which have been effected with the power of words.

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.

Liesel’s empowerment stems from three sovereign aspects, from discovering the influence of words through books, to discovering new ideas and concepts, and revolting against the horrific Nazi agenda. The younger generation in The Book Thief during Nazi Germany shows a constant hope for the Jewish people in the future. Liesel’s empowerment not only benefits her, but it benefits other people as well, like Max. “Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. On her birthday it was she who gave a gift to me” (Max 35.20) this quote reveals the trust that Max has put into Liesel because of her strong willed empowerment, which gives him strength to keep continuing his journey with the family.

Markus Zusak develops the theme the power of words in this novel by using words to create comfort and serenity throughout the time of the war. Words are used to help develop ideas, thoughts, and knowledge for young Liesel Meminger as she reads the books she steals from the mayor’s library. Liesel begins school not knowing anything at all including how to read and write. She learns from her adopted father, Hans Hubermann, who takes Liesel in since her parents are not capable of taking care of her. Each night, Hans reads to Liesel hoping she will develop and learn how to read and pronounce words. In the basement of the Hubermanns, Hans has walls which include the alphabet letters printed on them. Liesel and Hans develop a bond between them as he teaches her words. Words comfort Liesel as she goes through the hard times and makes her want to read more. The Hubermanns take in a Jew named Max along with Liesel. Liesel and Max become closer and grow a bond

When there were bomb raids approaching the town, the people gathered in a small basement and Liesel began to read to everyone there. It is amazing how her words would calm everyone present and made them forget that they could possibly die at any given moment. When everything in her life is at a downfall, reading and writing takes Liesel out of this cruel world. That is the main reason why she is attracted to words and books. Words kept her alive in a dull world but also literally kept her living. She was reading in that basement when the bombs hit her street so it saved her. She also developed relationships with people with words and storytelling. In a time like this, a normal conversation will not help. But in order to distract one from reality the best way to do that is to share stories. Max Vandenburg is not in great condition when he arrives, but creates a special bond with Liesel through words. The two have frequent nightmares about their past and losing the ones that they care about the most. Though all this has happened, they both enjoy to story tell and that’s how their bond grows. "Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out, like the rain (85)". Liesel’s words effected her situation and the perspective of it so much. As words bought friendship to Liesel, it also bought

He was trying to be a good father by letting Rudy experience a “normal childhood” while he could, and he didn’t want that opportunity taken away from him. Then again, the acceptance of the Nazi party recruit offer could have meant a longer life for the young Rudy Steiner. This is because Rudy is later killed by a bomb that lands on Himmel street. These examples from the text show the negative and positive affect of words (both written and spoken) on other characters throughout the story. Another quote that affected Max positively was Liesel’s when he fell to the ground when walking in the line of Jews. Liesel’s powerful citation was what struck Max to fight his way back up to the group to avoid being pounded on with the damaging whip. Liesel said what would bring Max back up to fight for what he had left. Liesel said to herself quietly, “Max. Jewish fist fighter. Maxi Taxi. That’s what that friend called you in Stuttgart when you fought on the street, remember? Remember, Max? You told me. I remember everything. That was you-the boy with the hard fists, and you said that you would launch a punch on death’s face when he came for you. Remember the snowman, Max? Remember? In the basement? Remember the

The developmental stage of a young child’s life is very crucial and can be impacted by the media. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger is a young girl living in a very important part of Germany’s history, the Second World War. Liesel’s childhood unfolds and develops against the backdrop of a time when words, books specifically were used for power and control. Liesel is someone who has a love for reading and, as such, books become very important to her, not only for her education but for her rebellion and discovering her true identity. Throughout the novel, books become a crucial symbol used to convey the desires and discovery of identity for the main character as her childish ignorance changes to her mature adulthood.

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

In the novel The Book Thief written by Marcus Zusak, Max found himself in a situation where the propaganda that Hitler has set affected his life in many ways. With the help of Liesel’s words and reading and the care that the Hubermanns gave, Max grew stronger and he had the courage to stand up and protect himself from the force that Hitler had set against the him and the Jews. By having the his power of will, Max was fighting Hitler in his own circumstances even if it 's just in his imagination.

Ilsa Hermann gives her a empty book and urges her to write; Liesel composes “the story of her own life” (pg335), containing both catastrophe and excellence, at a frantic pace. Liesel has gone to the acknowledgment that words can cause both savagery and solace, and she endeavors to make them “right” by battling awful disinformation with writing that radiates from selflessness and love. Even though Liesel was “happiest alone” (pg248), Max and Liesel “were held together by the quiet gathering of words” (pg248) as through words their friendship was bound and drew them together in sanctuary as the horror of the war disturbed them. In her many moments of fear and uncertainty, she “wanted to kill the words” but other times admired “the lovely books and their manicured titles”. Throughout the book, the book thief was influencing the other characters; the mindset of Liesel “grew on them like a vine”(pg265).

“Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings,” wrote Nobel Prize Winner, writer, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Wiesel’s writings reflect not only the horror lurking in history, but the power of human resiliency and compassion in the face of such atrocities. Markus Zusak, in his novel The Book Thief, explores one such story of hope through the relationships and education of his character Liesel Meminger as she grows up in Nazi Germany. Zusak’s detailed depictions of character and setting provide for truly engrossing delivery of continuously relevant themes. Told through pairings of blunt truths and figurative prose, immersive sensory details and introspection,

The recuperative power of language is revealed when Liesel begins an intrepid career in book thievery, finding solace in books and words amidst the cataclysmic historical period of Nazi Germany. Liesel’s unconscious desire to overcome her traumatic experiences is discovered within the confines of the basement. This is symbolic as, in Freudian psychoanalysis, the basement represents unconscious drives, repressed fears, traumas and fantasies. In Liesel’s journey to process her trauma and acknowledge new traumas, she psychoanalytically seeks out the comfort of the womb due to the absence of a motherly figure in the form of the basement. Zusak alters the archetypal image of the basement, picturing it as a metaphorical ‘womb’ for Liesel, a place of salvation and safety. “Liesel revisited those dark rooms of her past.” (p. 117) When Liesel discovers it is unlikely she will ever see her biological mother, she retreads underneath the table in an attempt to alleviate her pain. However, when Liesel feels psychologically strong enough to face the trauma of her abandonment, she is able to leave her place of safety and security and share her story with Max. This demonstrates the complexities of trauma and how an individual utilises differing coping mechanisms to confront their psychological suffering. Liesel, whilst opening herself to the pain of others, learns to express and