Imagine a world where people live in oppression because of their beliefs.That is true about the Holocaust which also took place in this book, “The Book Thief. This book is about a little girl who lives in Nazi Germany during World War 2, during the Holocaust. In the book Thief; Rudy Steiner is a dynamic character; in contrast to Hans Hubermann who is a static character. The main character,liesel is a little girl on a train with her mom and brother, her brother dies on a train on the way to them being dropped off to a house to stay with another family, there is where we learn death is the narrator, once she gets dropped off at her new parents house she meets her kind father “Hans” and her angry mother “Rosa”. Leisel discovers the art of books and stealing. As she settles into her new home and has made a friend …show more content…
In the end, the town gets bombed and everyone dies except Lisel. But I'm here to talk about a static character, and a dynamic character. A static character is a character that doesn’t change throughout the story. And a dynamic character is a character that changes throughout the story. The 2 characters I'm comparing are Rudy Steiner, and Hans Hubermann. Rudy Steiner is the best friend of Liesel Meminger (the main character). Hans Hubermann is the adoptive father of Liesel Meminger. Rudy Steiner is a dynamic character. The first and most dramatic change that Rudy makes is when he goes from stealing apples, to giving bread to Jewish people on their way to Dachau (concentration camps). 2 quotes that support this evidence is; “they had to steal something back, it didn't matter what. It needed only to be stolen” this quote shows how Rudy was just humiliated so he wanted to steal something to get a win. This quote is at the end, which shows his change “In the tree shadows, Liesel watches the boy. How things have changed from fruit stealer to bread giver” this quote shows how Rudy has evolved from stealing fruit to
“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is narrated by death and begins when Liesel’s brother dies on a train with her and her mother. At her brother’s burial, she steals her first book, “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” and soon after is separated from her mother and sent to live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in Molching, where the majority of the book takes place. At school, Liesel is teased because she can’t read so Hans teaches her to read when she wakes up from her frequent nightmares about her brother’s death. Hans is a painter and an accordion player and also plays the accordion for her after her nightmares. Liesel grows very close with Hans and also becomes close friends with her neighbor Rudy Steiner who constantly asks her to
In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak communicates an over-arching topic. This topic is; all objects convey dark tones. The idea is transmitted into the writing subtly throughout the excerpt, as well as the story.
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 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
Much of The Book Thief revolved around a common German family hiding a Jew. During the Holocaust and the book, Jews and other people seen as insignificant were imprisoned in concentration camps. Max, the Jew that the Hubermanns were hiding, could cause them to get into deep trouble. However, they still hid him. The Hubermanns lived in a town close to a concentration camp and often saw marches of prisoners through town. Even with a potential prisoner living in their residence, the Hubermanns, along with most everyone else in Molching, were unaware of the events that actually happened in the concentration camp and marches.
Society teaches that everyone is equal; however, between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi party deemed Jews inferior. Some people agreed with the party, other silently rebelled. Either way, in 12 years around 6 million Jews were systematically murdered. One person who silently rebelled was Hans Huberman. In “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, Hans Huberman’s compassionate actions and beliefs are influenced by the Nazi party’s treatment of Jews.
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.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young German girl of about ten years of age, who is fostered by the Hubermanns’, in a small town in Germany between 1939 and 1943. In the prologue, the reader is informed that ‘It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery’. It is however, much more. Despite the immense sadness and heartache of the overarching context, Zusak employs powerful techniques including; Death’s distinctive narrative voice, the symbolism of words and the inclusion of graphic stories to encourage the reader to feel enlivened throughout the story.
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
Human nature has many elements that reveal the growth and personality of a person. In Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief”, the author successfully portrays various aspects of human nature through Hans’ conflicts that originate from the tough reality that he lives in. Elements of human nature can be seen as a result of Hans’ constant struggles with guilt, kindness, and love.
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.
In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, beauty and brutality is seen in many of the characters. Rudy, Liesel, and Rosa display examples of beauty and brutality often without realizing what exactly they are doing, because it is a part of their human nature. Zusak not only uses his characters, but also the setting of the novel in Nazi Germany to allude to his theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature. The time in which the novel is set, during World War II, displays great examples of beauty and brutality, such as the mistreatment of the Jews. As a result of this time period, the characters have to go through troubling times, which reveals their beautiful and brutal nature in certain circumstances. Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel.
Reath Roth Stefan Wasylyk ENG2DE-02 1923 April 32 Book Thief Essay. How were you taught to see people? With kindness or with prejudice? In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, the author argues despite the citizens of Germany during World War Two being taught to have prejudice against the Jews, the novel illustrates that who the citizens associate with ultimately determines one's views. Through characters like Liesel Meminger and Rudy Steiner, Zusak shows how the power of a proper environment can change from a positive bias to a negative one, highlighting the important role of a proper influence in shaping perceptions of the world.
If you were a German citizen during World War II, do you think you would be a Nazi? Most people would say no even though, in actuality, most people would be. It is because people need to succumb to societal expectations to survive in a society such as that of Germany during WWII and in the book, The Book Thief, this theme of individual versus society is explored with people complying and fighting social expectations. Sometimes people side with the Nazi Party out of fear of being targeted and other times fight against Nazi Party because of love for their family and fellow man with usually terrible consequences. In The Book Thief, the theme of the individual versus society is shown many times with characters conforming and defying social expectations.