More handpicked essays just for you.
The effect of world war ii on american literature pdf
The effect of world war ii on american literature pdf
The effect of world war ii on american literature pdf
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The famous author, George Orwell, once wrote, “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief tells the story of a girl named Liesel Meminger in Nazi Germany whose relationships and words define her. Upon Liesel’s arrival on Himmel Street, she is inspired to learn to read because all of her life before, words controlled her but she wanted to have the power over those words. While Liesel learns how to read, she spends an ample amount of time with her neighbor, Rudy Steiner, the boy with the hair of lemons. Rudy soon becomes Liesel’s best friend and partner in crime when they embark on their thieving escapades. While all the main characters of Himmel Street are memorable in their own right, Rudy Steiner is the most memorable character because he lives his life to the fullest every single day and has courage that most adults do not have. While throughout the entire novel, Rudy is seen helping …show more content…
those who are not able to help himself such as the pitiful Tommy Müller, he also begins to open his eyes to the issues within society in Nazi Germany as well. At the beginning of the novel, Rudy’s hunger got the best of him at times and focused on his well being by stealing food from local farmers and a school boy despite the ethics behind it. However, Zusak points out how in years to come Rudy “would be a giver of bread, not a stealer” (Zusak 164). In the final months of 1942, Rudy uses his ration of bread and, with Liesel, places bread on the road that leads the Jewish prisoners to Dachau, the concentration camp nearby. He organizes this plan even after witnessing Hans’ public punishment after handing a Jewish man a piece of bread on his way to Dachau. Rudy’s act of courage not only exemplifies fearlessness but also profound sincerity. Rudy cannot stand by to witness the helplessness of those around him. Rather than staying quiet, he never shies away from protecting others, even if there are risks of harm for him in the process. Rudy maintains an ambiance of youthfulness and innocence in the wake of Nazi Germany.
Rudy is frequently motivated by normal childhood situations. When he is bullied by a fellow Hitler Youth student, Franz Deutscher, he continues to take the brutal hits. Eventually he transfers to another sector of Hitler Youth to avoid Franz Deutscher. However, at the local track meet, Rudy is determined to do well just so he can prove himself to everyone, Deutscher in particular. His great track meet records and exceptional marks in school inevitably grab the attention of the Nazis and Rudy is asked to join a special Nazi training school to create “‘an elite group of German citizens in the name of the Führer’” (Zusak 409). Although Rudy has great character, he is also just a boy who is hopelessly devoted to a girl. In many instances, he always tries to get a kiss out of Liesel, to the point that he dives into December water to fetch her her book. The friendship and love that Liesel and Rudy form is powerful; the two make each other who they
are. Rudy’s death impacts Liesel immensely. Liesel finds Rudy’s corpse among the rubble and kisses Rudy “soft and true on his lips” (Zusak 536). Liesel cared deeply about Rudy and the two were never able to establish a romantic relationship, despite their apparent attraction for one another. Additionally, Death too cannot reconcile with Rudy’s death. Death looks into the contents of his soul to capture a glimpse of a black-painted boy running through imaginary tape, Rudy hip-deep in December water, chasing a book, and imagining a glorious kiss from Liesel. Death recognizes the boy’s will to live and experience life to the fullest and that shatters Death’s heart. Rudy is the most memorable character because has courage that many do not possess and strives to live life fully. He helps those who are unable to help themselves, in spite of his own safety at times. However, Rudy truly is just a boy who is motivated by normal childhood scenario, whether it be getting back at a bully or young love. Rudy’s death marks a tragic loss of a life meant to be lived.
The Book Thief and The Devil’s Arithmetic both focus on the prejudice Hitler had on different types of people during World War II. Liesel and Hannah both lost someone they had dearly loved. Liesel lost Rudy and Hannah lost many members of her family. In a time of fearfulness, both had told stories to the people surrounding them. Although both were not seen as equal in the eyes of many during their time, I see them as courageous and brave heroes after what they underwent.
When Liesel and Rudy steal books and food it is a small way of defying Hitler, empowering themselves, and building their identities. This is particularly true for Liesel, as the books she steals help form her own story, but for both children stealing becomes a way of taking some control over a world gone mad. Rudy has his own unique relationship with stealing and giving. He wants to be a thief, and stealing things cheers him up when something bad has happened, but he ends up being better at leaving things behind. At first it is Liesel's shoes, but then he purposefully leaves the teddy bear for the dying pilot and bread for the starving Jews. Ilsa Hermann's books also symbolize the complicated nature of this theme. First she offers Liesel her
In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak tells the tragic story of Liesel Meminger and her experiences in 1939 Nazi Germany. Zuzak incorporates compelling literary devices such as toe curling foreshadowing, personification, and vivid imagery in the form of simile and metaphors to grasp the readers’ interest. Zusak’s use of various literary devices helps to deepen the text and morals of the story, and makes the dramatic historical novel nearly impossible to put down.
In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the narrator is Death, who shows itself as sympathetic and sensitive towards the suffering of the world and the cruel human nature, through its eyes, we can get to know the heartbreaking story of Liesel Meminger an ordinary, but very lucky nine-year old German girl; living in the midst of World War II in Germany. In this book the author provides a different insight and observation about humanity during this time period from a German view and not an Allied perspective, as we are used to.
In the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Rudy Steiner undertakes a tremendous transformation from being selfish and naive to mature, empathetic and cognitive. Rudy was a skinny ten year old boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. From the outside he was a hitler youth but in the inside his idol was Jesse Owens, a black athlete, Rudy looks past all of the nazi ideals and sees no difference between himself and Jesse Owens. Through this, people perceived Rudy as a crazy kid for having those alien beliefs. In the beginning, Rudy doesn't really know what was happening around him. To show off at the Hitler youth carnival, Rudy won multiple races. To his own ignorance he drawed attention of the Nazi officials and was recruited to a special school.
In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger, an orphaned little girl living in Nazi Germany, evolves partly through her numerous literary thefts. At her younger brother’s gravesite, she steals her first book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook, which teaches her not only the method to physically bury her brother, but also lets her emotionally bury him and move on. The theft of her next book, The Shoulder Shrug, from a book burning marks the start of Liesel’s awareness and resistance to the Nazi regime. As a story with a Jewish protagonist “who [is] tired of letting life pass him by – what he refer[s] to as the shrugging of the shoulders to the problems and pleasures of a person’s time on earth,” this novel prepares her both for resisting the
In the novel the book thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel states, “as long as both she and Rudy lived she would never kiss that miserable, filthy Saukerl (Zusak, 55). Liesel Memiger, the protagonist in the novel, is the foster daughter of Hans and Rosa Huberman. When Liesel first arrives at Himmel Street, a boy with hair the color of lemons walks her to school for her first day, she does not like him at first, but little does she know he will become her best friend (Zusak, 25-34). This is ironic because Liesel never does kiss Rudy until after he is dead. Rudy Steiner is Liesel’s best friend he has hair the color of lemons `and is adventurous and courageous. He wants Liesel to kiss him throughout the whole book but she never does until he is dead. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death gives clear examples from Liesel and Rudy’s different points of view on their relationship and we can see how it changes throughout the story.
In The Book Thief, the protagonist, Liesel Meminger has a strong and emotional relationship with her neighbor, Rudy Steiner. He is a young German boy who is eight months older than Liesel, has bony legs, sharp teeth, blue eyes and lemon-colored hair. He is depicted as a kind and loyal character that is at Liesel’s side for a majority of the book. Soon after meeting each other a few days after Liesel arrives on Himmel Street, the two become best friends. Rudy accompanies Liesel on all of her adventures in addition to providing emotional aid to each other’s problems. As the story progresses, we see their already very strong relationship fortify in a way that makes the two them the most prevalent character-to-character relationship in the book. It seems fit to include them as, if not the most,
The Book Thief and Nazi Germany The heavily proclaimed novel “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a great story that can help you understand what living in Nazi Germany was like. Throughout the story, the main character, Liesel goes through many hardships to cope with a new life in a new town and to come to the recognition of what the Nazi party is. Liesel was given up for adoption after her mother gave her away to a new family, who seemed harsh at first, but ended up being the people who taught her all the things she needed to know. Life with the new family didn’t start off good, but the came to love them and her new friend, Rudy.
In modern times, it is assumed that a child with a proper upbringing and diligent parents will grow to become society’s epitome of a perfect citizen. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the development of human nature is explored as well as how experiences, relationships, and environment affect them. Rudy Steiner, a main character in the novel, represents someone who is raised to adhere to Nazi propaganda yet does not because of his experiences. On the other end, Max Vandenburg demonstrates a character who is raised to believe he is a scourge on German society but remains good because of his relationships. Lastly, Hans Junior is an example of someone whose humanity is influenced by
The novel The Book Thief is a book about a young girl by the name of Liesel Meminger. Observing the life of this young girl is not easy as this is the time of Hitler’s reign in Germany. In a short period of time, this girl faces many difficulties. More than any child should ever have to encounter. She has to deal with being abandoned by her mother, the death of her younger brother, and relocation to another part of Germany. Immediately when Liesel arrives to Molching, her life is forever changed. She is forced to live with two strangers, now her new mama and papa. Liesel faces much abuse both at school and at home. At school she is made fun of for her illiteracy and at home, mama speaks very rudely to her calling her a swine and other insults.
The narration of the narrative is unconventional in its choice of character although this is no mistake. The bias held by the reader is likely to be of negative connotations for the people of NAZI Germany. The humanisation which is proposed by the narrator helps to counteract these negative connotations creating empathy for the characters within the novel. Furthermore, the daunting choice of narration means that Death is constantly overlooking the town of “Himmel street” and the lives of innocent German people. One character which the narrator of Death specifically expresses in detail is Rudy Steiner's Father in his political deadlock.
German citizens had to endure a challenging lifestyle, presented by Adolf Hitler, of fascism, the holocaust, Jewish laws and propaganda during World War II. From 1939-1942, Nazi Germany affected the lives of Jews, Gypsies, Slavic people, and other groups living in Germany by getting rid of the undesirables, known as the Holocaust. Only Germans with the look of blond hair and blue eyes were even considered to live, only if he or she had no defects or disabilities, anyone else was sent to and killed in concentration camps. The Book Thief takes place in a town near Munich, Germany during this time of the holocaust. The novel focuses on the lives of the people and how they cope and deal with the immediate effects of WWII. It emphasizes the danger of hiding a Jew in a family’s basement, and how they are constantly paranoid of being caught.
Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel. First, Zusak uses his character, Rudy, to support his theme of the brutality and beauty of human nature. Rudy’s brutality is revealed in a certain moment when he devises a plan to steal food from the priest by causing the delivery boy to wreck on the way to the priest’s house. Rudy’s beauty is also displayed in many things he does for Liesel, such as jumping in the ice-cold river for her book.
The book takes place in WWII, and centers around what Death sees in this time. Death’s job is to collect the souls of many found dead, but he takes an interest in Liesel, who isn’t someone he really needed to pay attention to. However, he followed her because he pitied her, and The Book Thief is the story of her life, narrated by him. Everyone always tells you to find the silver lining in the bad things that happen, but this book doesn’t just tell someone to do that but shows someone how to do that. He makes Liesel’s best friend, Rudy, smile by showing him Liesel kissing his corpse. He follows Liesel because he sees something interesting in her, showing even Death has a heart. He chose to retell signs of good that he saw in the book, specifically