Essay On Hans Hubermann In The Book Thief

Compared to the Earth, humans have only been on Earth for a short amount of time in the planet’s overall lifetime. Through these times many wars and epidemics have broken out, man made or natural, causing death and killing. But I believe humans are inherently beautiful in the actions they carry out to help neighbors, strangers and everybody they meet. This ideal of humans being naturally beautiful in their actions can be well represented by Hans Hubermann from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In this particular instance, Hans Hubermann is living in Nazi Germany during the 1940s, and as a “Parade of Jews” intended to humiliate this population is occuring, he feels obligated by human nature to help one starving Jewish man by giving him a crust

of bread. This particular action is beautiful because it shows Hans Hubermann (not the richest guy in the world) showing empathy and giving to somebody with nothing, and with that, recognizing his own privilege for having such a luxury.

The second example in The Book Thief is when Rudy Steiner a local teenage boy from Molching, Germany sees an Allied Force pilot fall from the sky into Nazi Germany, and when he is dying Rudy places a teddy bear on top of the man’s head, symbolizing the unity and the attempt at helping somebody by human nature, as he does not consider his affiliation with enemy powers before commiting the action. Rudy Steiner’s pureness of heart and good intention ultimately portrays a humanization in the radicalized state of Nazi Germany in a time when affiliating, assisting or aiding with anybody else other than German’s can put you in a labor camp or killed. Lastly, the helping from Hans Hubermann to the Jewish shopkeeper shows his overall good will in the world and makes his death and others in Molching an utter disgrace. When the Jewish shopkeeper had come back to a robbery and ransacking of his store including graffiti on the door of the shop and broken glass, Hans offered to help repaint his door, as he is a painter by

trade. Nothing forced him to help this man, nothing forced him to even care but he did anyway, as the humanity and beauty of the actions of Hans Hubermann and Rudy Steiner both compliment the statement that humans are inherently beautiful, and that they are more beautiful in their actions than brutish.
In the real world, many people do not care about others, as long as they themselves are in great comfort and can live their everyday lives without having to care about anybody or anything else but what they do, when they do it and how they do it.

There are some exceptions, Workers at UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) and those at several homelessness eradication organizations are two examples. At UNICEF, they base their work on children, and how to get children out of major conflicts, dangerous areas and for children in 3rd world countries not receiving proper medication for their diseases or education for professionals. A more specific example of UNICEF helping children not just in one focussed area, but around the globe is when in 2015, they raised over $586,000,000.00 or 586 million dollars (USD) for children in distress, problematic situation or need. Their work is carried out by those who care - done by volunteers, the good will of those who want to change the world for the better, and those who believe change will start with the next generation. Like Hans and Rudy from The Book Thief, nothing forces them to work as volunteers for UNICEF, except for their wholehearted actions and their human nature to help and aid anybody, regardless of age, ethnicity, religion, income, color, language and education level. Similar to UNICEF, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) helps guide homeless people to temporary shelters until they can

find permanent residences for them to live, jobs so they can support themselves and eventually a family, but also providing different services like drug rehab and alcoholism classes so they can better themselves after being addicted, but also staying off it. Although most of their work goes unrecognized, the National Coalition for the Homeless as governing.com reports that over recent years, the amount of homelessness nationally has gone down from that of previous years, showing that the general public and groups like the NCH will employ, house and aid these homeless people so they can become functioning members of society instead of continuing to be homeless. Overall, different coalitions and groups as well as the general public will try to help and aid people through all walks of life, no matter race, language, religion, orientation and wage.
Overall, the human existence and the kindness, caringness and thought behind every action we do everyday contains the beauty of our human nature over the brutal part. Hans Hubermann as a German living in Nazi Germany helped Jews, which is a crime at the time, and his willingness without thought of consequence shows his own beauty. Rudy Steiner a young and impressionable young man in Nazi Germany avoided all radicalist ideas and when the pilot that crashed near his house died, he laid the pilot to rest and made him at peace by putting a teddy bear near his dead body, showing his compassions and human nature to be kind than to be radicalized by the 1940s Nazi Germany classes and propaganda. The actions of organizations like UNICEF and NHC represent the fact that even when our neighbor is down, we help them up, as they both help people with problems based on their location, financial status or their age with solutions and help them to become functioning members of society instead of not assisting them and having them either continue or to stagnate in societal views. I believe the willingness of people to help complete strangers in need and the willingness to take a risk to help somebody is in all of us in the world, and that the beauty of human nature overcasts the brutality.