Importance Of Words In The Book Thief

Words… without them we wouldn't be able to communicate with each other,express our emotions or voice our opinions. Words are one of the most important and impactful way we communicate with each other and in The Book Thief the importance is felt all throughout the novel whether in a negative, or positive form. An example of both being the anti semitic views openly expressed by the Germans during World War Two or the calming effect that Liesel achieved through reading during an air raid.

Corresponding with the fact that the novel is set in Germany during World War Two the negative effects of words is strongly felt while reading the book mostly due to Hitler's ability to use words as his weapon. Using this tremendously underestimated

The same thing applies in The Book Thief when the characters are using German profanity. One of the most foul mouthed characters in The Book Thief is Rosa Hubermann, who is described as a squat woman with a rough exterior, who calls Liesel a Saumensch. Even though when Liesel first arrived on 33 Himmel street she was shocked by Rosa’s Profanity she quickly learned that she uses the words Saukerl and saumensch as terms of endearment. To prove that it is not only Rosa Hubermann who does this an example of Rudy Steiner (Liesel's Best friend) using one of the words like that would be his recurring request, “How about kiss

Both times writing saved two very important characters live’s. The very first time it happened was before the story begun, when Hans served in the army in World War One he was recommended by someone else to write letters while the other soldiers go to battle. The whole crew ended up dying in battle that day making him the only one to have survived. The second time was when Liesel was in the basement reading over the book she had written about her life story when bombs suddenly hit Himmel