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Everyday one may see dozens of small acts of compassion. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a compelling story set in Germany during the Second World War; a difficult time for compassion. The story follows a foster family living in Molching, Germany and their acts, big and small, against the Nazi regime. In The Book Thief, Hans Hubermann exemplifies the inherent compassion of humans. This can be seen through Hans’ act of offering to black out the windows of families for little or no payment, giving bread to a starving jew, and teaching Liesel how to read. All acts indicating his dedication to aid those stricken by misfortune. There were many dangers during the Second World War, but perhaps the biggest for the small fictional town of Molching
“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
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.
A example why people are brutal in The Book Thief is when the bomber planes were dropping bombs on the small town killing many people. My thoughts on this is even though the Nazi started this doesn’t mean they should kill innocent families.
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.
Compassion has became something rare in our society, and something that a lot of people lack. The author, Barbara Lazear Ascher, explains to us that compassion is not a character trait, but rather something that we learn along the way with the help of real life situations we encounter, such as the ones she encountered herself. Ascher persuades her audience that compassion is not just something you are born with by using anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and allusions.
Hans supports the Jewish community, who are viewed as ‘undesirables subhumans’ by society. The ethical values which Hans holds are apparent in the way he treats starving and helpless Jews traveling through Molching, “The Jew stood before him, expecting another handful of derision, but he watched with everyone else as Hans Hubermann held his hand out and presented a piece of bread” (Zusak 395). As a consequence of rejecting societal expectations and ideologies, the character Hans Hubermann solidifies the notion that every individual deserves basic human respect. Therefore, Hans develops a love for humanity and the individual he is helping through refusing to obey corrupt societal expectations. Aiding those who are injured is a gateway to love as it changes the world for the individual one is
Anybody who reads “A Crime of Compassion” can easily find it very emotional. I believe the pathos plays a very important...
Towards friends and neighbours, Hans aids all of those that need it. After Mr. Kleinmann’s clothing store was vandalized, Death, the narrator, observed,“In sloppy lettering, the words JEWISH FILTH were spilling over at their edges.[...]Hans moved closer and stuck his head inside. “Do you need some help?” Mr. Kleinmann looked up.[...] “No, Hans. Please. Go away.” Hans had painted Joel Kleinmann’s house the previous year. He remembered his three children. He could see their faces but couldn’t recall their names. “I will come tomorrow,” he said, “and repaint your door”(181). Despite not knowing them very well, Hans still offers help towards those who have nothing, even if it may affect his own financial situation. As women who had nothing would come up to Hans and ask him to paint their blinds black, he said, ““Frau Hallah, I’m sorry, I have no black paint left,” he would say, but a little farther down the road, he would always break. There was tall man and long street. “Tomorrow,” he’d promise, “first thing,” and when the next morning dawned, there he was, painting those blinds for nothing, or for a cookie or a warm cup of tea”(354). Even though it was against the values of WWII Germany’s society, Hans still felt the need to help anyone, even if they were Jewish. “Papa reached into his paint cart and pulled something out. [...] The Jew stood before him, expecting another handful of
The Book Thief is a novel, written by the author Markus, about a young german girl named Liesel who suffers the death of her brother, and the separation from her mother while becoming part of a small town in Germany called Molching. The narrator in The Book Thief, Death, tells Liesel’s story while giving hints that show the paradox of humanity does exist in the context of the main character’s actions during WW2. For example, at the end part 9 when Liesel and her best friend Rudy witnessed a plane crash in the town of Molching after many bomb attacks occurred, both approached the devastating scene. When both of them discovered the man in the plane was still alive, Rudy had reacted, “Carefully, he climbed to the dying man. He placed the smiling teddy bear cautiously onto the pilot’s shoulder. The tip of its ear touched his throat. The dying man breathed it in. He spoke. In English, he said, “Thank you.” (Zusak 490-491). In other words, Rudy had given this suffering man trapped in a crashed airplane a teddy bear, to comfort him in his death. The paradox of humanity can be found in this quote because Rudy, not caring about the fact that this man was probably off to kill people of Germany, gave this man comfort and an act of kindness. We can see two different sides of human behavior in this particular scene. One human showing care to another human that had different intentions of doing good
“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship” (chapter 8). The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, elucidates the power of friendship. During these times, life was rough. The power of friendship helps makes Lisel not focus on these hard times.The power of friendship in The Book Thief is between Hans and Liesel, Rudy and Liesel, and Max and Liesel.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, once said “frequently people think compassion and love are merely sentimental. No! They are very demanding. If you are going to be compassionate, be prepared for action” (values.com). When one thinks of compassion, sympathy and sorrow come to mind. However, compassion also is accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. This can be accomplished by standing up for what one believes is right. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee deeply develops her theme that compassion is understanding someone else’s perspective and using this compassion to stand up against society.
We watch death explore the beauty and ugliness of the human race in Markus Zusak’s book The Book Thief. We watch as Liesel, Hans, and Rosa do everything they can to help out a group of people who were treated with such disrespect during this time period. This group, the Jews, were beaten for taking food that was given to them, and when they died no one would even care. But, these few people gave them food, a place to hide, a sense of belonging, and and a reason to live. They have to work day and night, and do everything they can. Even though people aren’t so beautiful at all times, there is still hope. As we have learned in this book that even when 99 percent of humans aren’t so marvelous there is still that one percent that is to delightful that it would touch anyones heart.
What is suffering? If one were to look this word up it is defined as the state of undergoing pain, distress or hardship. How can such few words truly capture the meaning of a word with such simple terms? Here’s your answer it cannot. Suffering is unique to each and every person and their own personal experiences. In the case of “The Book Thief” two characters, Max and Liesel both endure a great amount of suffering. Even though Liesel wasn't Jewish, she endured the greatest amount of suffering in The Book Thief because she had to deal with the oppression from the German government and their laws, she experienced so much loss at such a young age and she had to keep a life endangering secret from the world
In Chapter 15 of To Kill a Mockingbird Scout’s compassionate actions eliminate the tension of the lynching mob, reading to Ms. Dubose, helping Dill or Boo. These are few of many examples of compassion in the story that emphasize on compassion. The most memorable event of compassion was where Scout faced the lynching mob. In this situation a mob is after Tom to lynch him but are stopped by Scout. She uses compassion to stop the mob by trying to connect with Mr. Cunningham who was with the mob at the time. She tries to hold a connection with him by talking about the things that he is interested about, this was taught by her father Atticus. She succeeded this by connecting him with his son Walter, showing compassion to him and making
In this everyday world seven billion people occupy, sacrifices are one object that can make or break ties to anything. Although sacrifices are not an actual human being, it is safe to say they should be treated like one. Every person in this non-cookie cutter universe has their own up close and personal experiences. In the The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, a world full of these so called sacrifices is unveiled. Each character has their own story and it is certainly told. Hans Hubermann is one of those characters that is impossible to forget. Throughout the duration of the book, the readers illustrate the values of Hans based off the sacrifices he makes. The values that are portrayed of Hans based off the sacrifices in the story are selfless, caring, and courageous.