Words have the power to save lives or ruin lives. The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, is about a foster girl named Liesel Meminger who loves to read and steal books, who lives in Molching, Germany, right in the middle of Nazi Germany. With many adventures with friends and family, words are constantly there, and death comes in and out of her life. Books were very important to Liesel. She stole them, received them as Christmas presents, and even wrote her own. The power of words and Liesel’s relationship with them changes throughout the novel into a more complex relationship. At the beginning of the novel, Liesel Meminger was afraid of words because she feels that they are more powerful than her and superior than her. Liesel also never learned …show more content…
Liesel not only learns how to read at a high level but how to write at a high level. She learns how to use words to comfort people by comforting Max. Liesel also learns that words are not more powerful than her if she uses them the right way. Liesel loves to steal books and read them. She reads to Max while he is sick and when he is well, Hans sometimes listens in as well. Max had been trapped in the basement for about a year when he finally cracked. One day, after Liesel finished playing soccer on Himmel Street, she went inside and went right downstairs to tell Max all about the goal she scored. Max was very happy for her goal, but he needed something from Liesel. “‘You told me all about the goal,’ he said, ‘but I don’t know what sort of day it is up there. I don’t know if you scored it in the sun, or if the clouds have covered everything.’” (Zusack 249) Liesel listened intently while Max continued. “‘Could you go up and tell me how the weather looks?’” (Zusack 249) Liesel hurried up the stairs, stood a few feet from their front door, and looked out the window. When Liesel returned downstairs, she said to Max; “‘The sky is blue today, Max, and there's a big long cloud, and it’s stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun is like a yellow hole…’” (Zusack 249) This made Max light up …show more content…
She starts to hate how words are so powerful and can influence people into thinking the wrong things and doing the wrong things. Liesel also loves words because she can use them to express herself, describe her life situation, and show her love for the ones she loves. She also loves them because they are a distraction for her, and everyone, from all the bad. Her relationship with Max is built around words as well. During the bomb warnings, Liesel and her family went to the Fielder’s household. Many others from Himmel Street went to this house and stayed in the basement as well. Sitting in the Fielder’s basement was very tense, everyone was nervous and scared that they would die. Liesel would lessen the tension and read her books aloud. Everyone listened and were intrigued in the books. It became a regular activity during the bomb warnings. When Hans was leaving to go into war he had a message for Liesel. “He holds her. To say something, to say anything, he speaks over her shoulder. ‘Could you look after my accordion, Liesel? I decided not to take it.’ Now he finds something he truly means. ‘And if there are more raids, keep reading in the shelter.’” (Zusack 424) Liesel knew it was the best thing for everyone if she kept reading. “‘Yes, Papa.’” (Zusack 424) This quote from the novel shows how Liesel
Part One: The first book that Liesel “stole” was The Grave Digger's Handbook. This is ironic because it was the day that her brother died and it was the last time she saw her mother. Himmel Street is ironic because Himmel= Heaven and Himmel Street did
Throughout the novel Liesel reaches new highs and new lows, overcoming her fears and succumbing to her anger. Liesel's sudden outburst at Ilsa Hermann after Ilsa asking to stop the laundry services caused her to finally accept her brother's death and even helped Ilsa accept her son's death as well. Ilsa's guilt consumed her and caused her to become a house ridden woman overcome by her grief while Liesel overcame her guilt and grief by learning how to read and write not allowing them to overcome her. "“It’s about time,” she [Liesel] informed her, “that you do your own stinking washing anyway. It’s about time you faced the fact that your son is dead. He got killed! He got strangled and cut up more than twenty years ago! Or did he freeze to death? Either way, he’s dead! He’s dead and it’s pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it. You think you’re the only one?” Immediately. Her brother was next to her. He whispered for her to stop, but he, too, was dead, and not worth listening to. He died in a train. They buried him in the snow. […] “This book,” she went on. She shoved the boy down the steps, making him fall. “I don’t want it.” The words were quieter now, but still just as hot. She threw The Whistler at the woman’s slippered feet, hearing the clack of it as it landed on the cement. “I don’t want your miserable book. ”[…] her brother holding his
In this passage, Liesel just stopped beating up Ludwig Schmeikl and Tommy Muller. Liesel is mad because she is learning how to read with Hans but can’t prove it to her classmates that she can read so they think she is stupid. Liesel tries to defend herself not by proving that she’s not stupid but with violence instead, much like how Hitler handled the Jews with killing them and destroying their homes.
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.
He is giddy with joy for the battle that will soon commence. Before the bloodshed finally erupts the Scylding king (talks) offers his sister Wealtheow to Hrothgar as a peace gift for the powerful king. Hrothgar accepts the beautiful Wealtheow and Grendel still waiting in the thick forest is suddenly flooded with emotions. Even to the point of saying, “She tore me apart as once the Shaper’s song had done. As for my benefit, as if in vicious scorn of me, children came from the meadhall and ran down to her weeping, to snatch at her hands and dress. “Stop it!” I whispered. “Stupid!”.” Wealtheow emits propaganda not by her words but her actions. Her courage and beauty cause Grendel to see the good in humans which in a way torments him. He sees the children running to her weeping and feels as if he is a child again wanting to be comforted by her. This play on Grendel’s adolescence and lack of a strong mother figure drives her message of propaganda deeper into his subconscious. (Her courageous deeds influence Grendel to the nihilistic view of the
Liesel experiences abandonment throughout her life, and the novel during a suppressed time in World War II Germany. Through her experiences Liesel’s learns to equate abandonment with love knowing that circumstance have forced her loved ones to leave her.
He is damaged psychologically and is basically put on exile by his own nature. As more humans appear to colonize within the area, Grendel meets a blind poet he calls “ the shaper” who tells the story of a man named Scyld Shefing, however being a myth Grendel is confused becomes hysterical and flees. When Grendel gets back to his cave he attempts to speak to his mother again and fails. This leads him to feel even more lonely and falls through the sea where he meets a dragon with a different philosophical view of fatalism. He shares with Grendel this view and Grendel again becomes hysterical. So it seems that when someone eventually does communicate with Grendel he is even more confused. Especially when someone has a different ideology, Grendel enters into a state of denial and
At the start of her story, Liesel is without words and cannot read. She understands that there is great power in words, though, and she hungers for them. She reads with her Papa and visits Frau Hermann in her library, one of the greatest places Liesel has ever seen. She also reads to those around her in the basement when there are air raids. Books become a source of comfort for herself and for those around her.
Suffered the loss of her brother werner, while attending his funeral “there was something black and rectangular lodged in the snow. Only [liesel] saw it. She bent down and picked it up and held it firmly in her fingers. The book had silver writing on it” (zusak 24). It was a book named “the grave digger 's handbook”. This proves that without even understanding the book Liesel was already looking for ways to learn and find a passion to mourn her brothers death. Next, is the relationship Liesel has with her papa, Hans. He shows Liesel how to read and write. Liesel, who doesn 't know how, grabs books that Hans then quietly shows her to translate. He does this through their night time nightmare hours “Unofficially, it was called the midnight class, even though it commenced at around two in the morning” (70). furthermore in the storm cellar, utilizing Hans ' paints to show her how to compose. He is staggeringly understanding, as this is an extremely troublesome and moderate procedure, and he never demonstrates restlessness or dissatisfaction with Liesel 's moderate advancement, thus proving that liesel stuck with her idea and followed through with her passion. Lastly, Liesel 's passion for reading and writing progressed when Ilsa gave her the a journal to write her story in, “[she] thought if [Liesel was not] going to read anymore of [her] books, [she] might like to write one instead.”
Grendel’s first impression was to ask his mother about the meaning of life and what was his part in it. After Grendel’s first encounter with man, he immediately told his mother what had happened. “I tried to tell her all that happened, all that I had come to understand: the meaningless objectiveness of the world…She only stared troubled at my noise”. However, she had lost her ability to speak years ago and only responded with gibberish, not once giving him an answer. Instead when he said, “the world is all pointless accident…I exist nothing else”, she hurried over and seized him pulling him close to her. Realizing that his mother probably doesn’t understand, Grendel was forced to turn to some one else for the answers he needed, so he turned to man.
Liesel’ classmates make of her because of her lack of reading skills. Fellow classmates in Liesel’s class mock her because she didn’t read the passage he was instructed to read. This shows Liesel experiences unhappiness because of her lack of reading and the power of words. “’Hey Liesel,' he ... ... middle of paper ... ...
The central aspiration of any literary work is to captivate the reader and immerse them in the vastness of their imagination. An author is able to establish a deeper connection between the reader and the text through the incorporation of various literary elements. Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, uses many aspects of literature to shape the novel and exquisitely portray the events of the story. The imaginative and unique use of elements such as irony, foreshadowing, and point of view certainly contribute to the grandeur of this book.
Death states that, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). This book shows us human doing things that weren’t even imaginable before this point. Many people give into ideas that were lies. But, we also watch a few people go out of their way and sacrifice everything for a man they barely even know. They do everything they can to keep him safe and alive. They work harder, the get another job, and they even steal. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, death examines the ugliness and the beauty of humans.
He was living in a world where communication was frustrating. All he wanted to do was be able to fit in somewhere, but he didn’t want to communicate with animals and he wasn’t accepted in the human world. Being half animal and half human was hard. To him, the animals were too dumb and vulgar. Being half human, he could speak the human language but people feared him and carried disgust towards him. Being from a long line of monsters, people will jump to conclusions too quickly and will never see Grendel as “good”. Also, his mother is not able to speak nor understand any language, therefore leaving Grendel with no one to talk too.. Talking about his mother, says, “She'd forgotten all language long ago, or maybe had never known any. I'd never heard her speak to the other shapes. (How I myself learned to speak I can't remember; it was a long, long time ago.) But I talked on, trying to smash through the walls of her unconsciousness” (Gardner 28). With his mom unable to speak to him, he doesn’t feel as close with her. Grendel, then, often starts speaking to the sky or the woods or even to himself. He says, “So it goes with me, age by age. (Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see)” (Gardner 8). Being so cut off from the world, Grendel experiences different philosophies throughout the novel. Isolation and lack of communication is what affects him the
“I bellowed for help… ‘Mama! Waa! Waaa!’ I bellowed to the sky, the forest, the cliffs, until I was so weak from loss of blood I could barely wave my arms” (Gardner 18). The love Grendel feels for his mother helps show that Grendel is not an angry beast, that humanity misunderstands Grendel, and that humanity is one of the reasons why Grendel acts the way he does towards them. Anytime Grendel is in trouble he always calls out for his mother because he loves her, and he knows that she will come to save him. Grendel is not emotionless; he has various emotions just like a human would. “She [Wealtheow] was beautiful, as innocent as down on winter hills…My chest was full of pain...and I was afraid I was about to sob” (Gardner 100). When Grendel meets Wealtheow for the first time, he thinks she is graceful and beautiful; however, eventually, after watching over her for a while, he gets agitated with her because she does not speak her thoughts and lives a terrible life away from her family. Despite this, she is one of the few people who can provoke different emotions from Grendel just by being alive. Despite feeling different emotions and expressing said emotions, humanity always turns against him. Grendel does not understand why humans would treat other humans like garbage, and the foolishness of humanity