Book Thief Themes

The novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak is set in Nazi Germany in the midst of World War 2 and considering this, is an uncommon type of novel in regards to its focus. The Jewish, or other non-Aryan people who were persecuted so vehemently are often the focus of books set during World War 2, rather than the Aryan German population. Having this seen so predominantly in The Book Thief enabled the consequences of Hitler’s regime that are more sparsely known to be displayed, accrediting a much further depth to the detriments of the war upon European society. The novel exhibits this death, destruction and tragedy implicit in war as one of its main themes. This theme is displayed by the evils which humans are able to inflict upon each other, of which there are

many considering the setting of the novel. The tragedies of war are contrasted greatly by the love and friendship, which was able to flourish despite the surrounding circumstances.

Such a contrast highlighted the moments of joy and kindness, which were displayed by three characters in particular – Liesel, Hans and Max.

The trauma and tragedy of Liesel’s life is evident from the very beginning of the novel. In the first chapter she watches her brother die and then be buried in a cold, anonyms field. Soon after only to be give to foster parents, leaving a resounding feeling of abandonment. “The car moved on, with Liesel dreading the last, lethal turn.” (P27, L9). This quote captures a moment in Liesel’s head while she is in the car driving away from her mother and towards unknown foster parents, an unknown town and essentially an unknown way of life. Consequently, it exhibits her dread for the situation and hints that she thinks that taking this step into the unknown will be deadly. However, Liesel finds ways to blossom in the face of such adversity. Max joins her in the Hubermann household, and soon is forced to hide away in the icy, dark basement. Their friendship flourishes none the less, and one afternoon when Liesel descends the stairs into the basement to boast to Max of her soccer

triumph, Max prompts her descriptive words. "The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it's stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun is like a yellow hole…" (P269, L28-30). Here, Liesel is more than happy to take the small beauties of the day, and bring them to Max. Furthermore, she does not say “Sunny and partly cloudy.” as a weather report would; she notes how the clouds look, how the sun seems and the colour of the sky. This demonstrates how, even with Max cramped, cold and hidden in the basement Liesel was able to see beyond the more prominent and unfixable problems and instead help Max in a way she could – by giving him the small pleasures of life once more. On the final page of the book, even Death recognises the moments joy and love that comes with tragedy. “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” (P584, L12-18.) Death talks of beauty and gloriousness and brutality and ugliness, acknowledging that there was nothing that even he could say that Liesel wouldn’t already have been taught through her tortured yet wonderful life.