Book Report On The Book Thief By Max Vandenburg

Imagine. It’s a frigid, snowy day in Nazi Germany. Cold, ashy snowflakes blanket your surroundings in a shade of dove white. The street in front of you is filled with people like you, but they seem as if they have had their souls torn from their bodies. Words, words full of hate are being thrown at these innocents from your friends, peers, and neighbors. Your father, the only one you’ve ever known, steps out of the crowd of people and into the crowd of bodies. He offers up pure compassion in the form of a piece of bread for the Jews. A whip cuts through the air and lands on his back. And all because of one man. The Fuhrer.

The novel “The Book Thief” is about a young girl who grows up in Nazi Germany. Her story consists of how she learned to function and act under the Third Reich. Certain characters contribute to Liesel becoming an empathic person. In the story “The Book Thief”, Liesel keeps her empathy and understanding when many people around her have lost it with the help of other characters in the

novel.

Max Vandenburg.

A man who remained humble and thankful when he only received the most basic of human needs. Max shows Liesel one of the most important traits of an empathic person. Humility. A sleeping man lies before you in your bed. His face seems distraught as if someone was hitting him. His eyes dart under his eyelids sporadically, “Liesel, in the act of watching, was already noticing the similarities between this stranger and herself. They both arrived in a state of agitation on Himmel Street” pg.206. Max takes a bunch of singular ideas of Liesel's and joins them together to make one huge thought. The thought of that even though they came to the same place in similar situations, she has the better life. This comes from a sense of humility. She feels very lucky that she has the opportunity to go outside. Before she might have taken it for granted, just like anyone else would. Now that she’s seen how fortunate she is, Liesel will never be unthankful

again.

Nazi Germany was a time without knowledge of other cultures. Ilsa Hermann and her library helped keep Leisel from falling into the rabbit-hole of fascism by presenting her with the gift of knowledge. “Think about it! I was just dropping off laundry like any other day when bam! When of mama’s customers let me in! You won’t believe what she had in that house Rudy!” exclaimed Liesel. There were books! Wonderful, incredible, fascinating books! “There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every colored book” Even though Ilsa Hermann seems like a minor character in the novel, she plays a much bigger role than it seems. When the library is introduced to Liesel, the idea of other cultures and ideas is showing itself to her. Even though that the books may not be necessarily about Jewish culture, She still learns that her way of life isn’t the only path. Before you even think about being empathetic or even compassionate, You have to be knowledgeable. You can't put yourself in someone else's shoes without knowing what those shoes are like.

This period in history is largely remembered as a time where empathy didn’t exist. Ignorance was everywhere. But, what this book shows us that not all was lost. Our main character, Liesel kept her empathy when everyone around her had lost it. Characters in the book helped mold her personality to what it is at the end of the novel. They came together and taught her compassion, sympathy, and knowledge. So what have we learned? Once upon a time, There was a girl who had a friend who lived in the shadows, A father who used bread as a sword and a woman who taught her the world.