What Is The Turning Point Of The Book Thief

Name and significance – Liesel Meminger is the novel’s protagonist, as Death narrates her story

In “The Book Thief” written by Marcus Zusak, Liesel is a small, resourceful girl, who Death says “Has a mountain to climb”. It is not a physical mountain that Liesel has to climb, rather a emotional mountain full of rocks that tumble down the steep slopes trying to knock her off every time she stops moving forward. All her life she has gone without and been abandoned, but that never stopped her from climbing. Liesel is a very lucky girl to have so many “climbing partners” so to speak, such as Hans, Rosa, Max, and Rudy. Without her partners to help anchor her to the mountain, I am sure she would have perished long ago. Her journey started when she was just a small girl living in poverty with her mother and brother.

In 1939 through 1943, Death is hit with an overwhelming number of souls. Throughout the story Death receives more and more souls, mainly because this story is taken place in Germany during World War 2. It all starts with Liesel’s little brother dies on a train, on the way to their new foster house. Death visits Liesel three times throughout this story, each time he sees her the sky is a different color. The first time he visits her he sees red, the second time he sees white, and the last time he sees black. Death is the appropriate narrator for this story, because he is neither a person in the story nor a person outside of the story, he tells the story in third person omniscient or first person.

The novel opens with an introduction by the novel’s narrator, Death. He explains the current state of the world, and soon we follow him to the scene of a death. On a train to Munich, we see Liesel, a little German girl, riding with her mother and brother. Liesel’s brother Werner soon dies on the ride. At the next train stop, Werner is offloaded to be buried in the village cemetery. Death, and the reader, watch the burial, and see Liesel steal her first book- The Gravedigger’s handbook. Werner’s death and burial is the first act of inhumanity in the novel.

Liesel Meminger was a girl that went through a lot throughout her life. During our short time of reading about her life we saw her go through so many emotions, struggles, and different changes. Throughout The Book Thief by Markus Zusak we see a girls story during the time of WW2 and the Holocaust. We read this story of Liesel Meminger and wonder how anyone could ever survive during a time like this, because for most people this was an extremely awful time to live in. But through his use of imagery, and other literary devices, Zukas found a way to write a perfect book describing this girl's life and to show how genuinely hard it was to live during this time.

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

Death performs his solemn duties that his job requires of him. Death’s job may come with pleasant moments but may also comes with dreary moments. Death wants to tell Liesel many things when they meet but he cannot think of anything to tell her that she does not already know. Death wants to tell her about beauty and brutality, that he always overestimates the human race, underestimated the human race, and that he rarely just estimates the human race. Death also wants to ask Liesel questions about how something may be glorious and ugly at the same time, and how words and stories may be brilliant and damning at the same time.

I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak for my Classic Literature Project. I chose this book for my project because of its high acclaim and status as a New York Times Bestseller. The story follows the life Liesel Meminger, a book thief in Nazi Germany. As time progresses, she discovers her love for books and words while adjusting to her new life.

Nowadays, we take the ability to read for granted. But for Liesel Meminger, the opportunity to learn how to read was a gift. In the novel The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, more than one major theme relating to books and writing are evident. The power of words, literature, and reading, are all contributing to the overall theme of the power of books and writing in The Book Thief.

In story Death also gives the snapshots of World War II. Through Death as a narrator, story gets a unique touch in it. Death explained a different point of view about all the deaths occur in that period of time. Somewhere Deaths tried to explain the nature of humans, as he said “I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.” And this way Death analyzed the humans and their nature and their appetite for destruction

The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak is a story about Liesel Meminger who has gone to live with the Huberman's in the small town of Molching shortly before World War 2. The family ends up hiding a Jewish man in their basement which leads to a number of different concerns. As a result of the unique features of this book, many students at some point in the High School years will be required to read this book. The Book Thief should be taught in schools because of its unique perspective, the historical information and the lessons taught in the book. The Book Thief teaches an abundance of different life lessons throughout the story.

Death: Death is an omniscient narrator that can describe all the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and emotions. At the beginning of the book, he seems cruel, but as the reader continues, you will find that Death is actually tired of all the sadness and suffering that he has seen over the years. Death is exhausted from all the souls he has carried and finds hope in Liesel’s life story. In the book, he describes how he looks like:

Death is the busiest he's ever been when he goes to collect the soul of a little boy named Warren. It is there that Death sees Liesel for the first time. Death only sees liesel twice after this, at her brothers

Death has played a significant part in the book, it has introduced us to the setting and one of the main characters. The role of death seems to be narrating the story and I believe that this will be the role throughout the entire book. Death appears when somebody around the book thief dies. Throughout the first part Death had seen the book thief a total of three times, the first encounter was on the train, during the winter, when her brother died. The second encounter was after the plane crash When death had gone to pick up a 24 year old man. The last encounter in this section was after the bombing. Although Death had only seen her three times she made an impact in his life.

In the novel, “The Book Thief” written by Australian writer, Markus Zusak is a story about an orphan named Liesel Meminger. At the beginning of the story, Liesel’s mother gave her up to go live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann. When Hans finds out that Liesel cannot read he begins to teach her how to read which develops her love of reading. Out of the kindness of their heart, the Huberman’s decide to help a Jewish boy named Max Vandenburg hide. Overall the book is a splendid story of friendship and survival.