Book Thief Essay

In the epilogue of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the story has come to an end as we learn the destiny of the book thief. Death, the narrator, says, “Liesel Meminger lived to a very old age, far away from Molching and the demise of Himmel Street. She died in a suburb of Sydney. The house number was forty-five—the same as the Fielders’ shelter—and the sky was the best blue of afternoon. Like her papa, her soul was sitting up. In her final visions, she saw her three children, her grandchildren, her husband, and the long list of lives that merged with hers. Among them, lit like lanterns, were Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her brother, and the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever” (397). Liesel, the “perpetual survivor” and so full of

words, grew up and moved away. She had a family and a life outside the basement of 33 Himmel Street. It is both tragic and redemptive, and my heart aches from thinking of either emotion. The book thief escaped. Her survival and resilience took her to Sydney, Australia—thousands of miles away from hurt, terror and heartache she had faced, after the war kills all of her loved ones.
However, not quite all of Liesel’s loved ones were taken from her.

There’s one more “loved one” left in her life; it is Max. “After the war was over and Hitler delivered himself to [Death’s] arms, Alex Steiner resumed work in his tailor shop . . . he busied himself there for a few hours a day, and Liesel often accompanied him” (400). The two of them often walk to Dachau concentration camp after its liberation to look for Max. However, the Americans now holding the camp will not let them in. Yet one day, “in October 1945, a man with swampy eyes, feathers of hair, and clean-shaven face walked into the shop” (400) and asks for Liesel. It is Max! Apparently, he survived the concentration camp and is happily reunited with Liesel. Death says they embrace and fall weeping on the ground. I find this part exasperating because I thought this is the beginning of Max and Liesel’s “love story”; however, Max’s story ends here. Max is such a loveable character, and I wanted to know about the rest of his life after the war. I wanted to know if he took Liesel with him to Australia since a lot of Jews and Germans migrated to Australia, U.S.A., and Canada after the World War II. However, Death, being the paradoxical narrator as he is, left me in confusion about whom Liesel married; and if Max was the man she married and started a family with. How I would love to think it was Max. I would like to think that Max and her fell in love and left for a new start in Australia. After all, they are all

they had left. Wouldn't it be sensible for them to pick up the pieces of their broken lives and start over together? However, there is no clue in the book of such possibility that Max and Liesel crossed the bridge of their sibling-like relationship. Therefore, as much as I would want Max to be with Liesel, I think she married a different person that Death does not know about. Otherwise, when he saw the people in Liesel’s final vision, Death would have referred to her husband as Max and not just her “husband.”
The thing is, The Book Thief, with its language and metaphors—it talks about the human soul. It is about life and death—how the “beauty and brutality” of the war affected people, and how the results became their source of peace and tranquility. It is about survival and resilience—and all such things made “romance” seem impossible. It is not a love story at all; except for Rudy and Liesel. I think one of the reason what makes this book so brilliant is because the characters’ stories did exist. Himmel Street may have been fictional, and so may have many of the characters, but the horrors of Nazi Germany were real. Liesel and Max, just like the rest of the survivors after the Nazi regime, went on to have a life and had families. Yes, it would not hurt if Max becomes Liesel’s husband; but isn't it great if it could be somebody else too, after all she had been through? I believe so. Therefore, as much as I'd want them to be husband and wife, I think I would just disregard my “romantic” thoughts and stick to their “brother and sister connection.” Because one can not deny the fact that despite all of the hurt, terror and heartache that Max and Liesel faced, I am sure that neither one of them chose to dwell on the past. They both moved on instead of letting the past empower them. In my opinion, Max and Liesel are not together because both took solace in the reality that even though they may be apart, they will always be together.