Liesel's Life Revealed In The Book Thief

Books and other written works have been around since the first century. Written in different formats and telling unique stories, each book has helped someone learn or has given someone hope for the future. In The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger, a nine year old girl who has just been dropped off at her foster parents home, is at loss for words and cannot read nor write. Liesel understands that there is a great power in words and a certain hunger starts to grow in her to hold these words in her hands. This earns her the title book thief. After just witnessing the loss of her younger brother and her birth mother abandoning her, she starts to form an important relationship with books, each stolen book having to do with an important event in her life.
When Liesel’s younger brother passes away on the train ride to Molching, Liesel and her mother exit the train to a graveyard, where the boys fragile body is buried. Liesel has a hard time believing that her brother is dead, so she spends a few minutes digging into the snow, trying to bring her brother back, when she suddenly

stops. “There was something black and rectangular lodged in the snow. Only the girl saw it” (24). This was the first time that the book thief struck. This black, rectangular book was The Gravedigger’s Handbook, which for Liesel was a momento that marked the beginning of a new life and letting go of the past. Also, this book for Liesel symbolized her feelings of loss, her grief, and an immense feeling of abandonment.
Liesel strikes again on the Fuhrer’s birthday. On this occasion, the Nazi Party and the small town of Molching, Germany celebrate by burning books and other items in a giant bonfire. At this time, Liesel has started to piece together the pieces of the Fuhrer’s intentions. She starts to think that the word communist she has been hearing, this large bonfire before her, and the suffering of her mother and her brother all has to do with the Fuhrer. “It was blue. The cover felt like it was woven with hundreds of tightly drawn strings and clamped down. Red letters were pressed into those fibers” (120). This book was soon to be known as The Shoulder Shrug, and to Liesel this book symbolized a small rebellion against Hitler. She believed that Hitler was the one to take her mother away, so she takes the book to show that now she has taken away something of his that he wanted destroyed.
Throughout the novel Liesel receives books as gifts from those she loves dearly that symbolize certain events in her life as well.

On her twelfth birthday, Liesel receives a book called The Mud Men from her mama and papa. “It was called The Mud Men and was about a very strange father and son” (221). This book symbolizes the relationship between Liesel and her mama and papa. By receiving this book as a gift, Liesel knows that her mama and papa would do anything to make her happy. Another book that Liesel receives from a person that she loves dearly is The Standover Man. “In the morning, when she woke and rolled over, she saw the pages sitting on the floor” (237). This book symbolizes the growing friendship between Max and Liesel. Max has given Liesel this book to show that he truly does appreciate all that she’s doing to keep him a secret and how she is keeping him entertained as the days go

by.
Our society today could care less about books. Our generation throws books away and destroys them, when Liesel would kill to have those books. Even though they are still greatly important in helping to discover new mysteries in life, numerous look past the significane of these written works. Books help us gain insight or perspectives on issues that matter to the reader that help them have a better understanding of the world around them. Certainly Liesel’s society had a closer relationship to books because for some they were a simple passtime, while for others, like Liesel, they brought her hope through hard times that she endured. In today’s society, we have so many different points to access information from and to spend the day on, like the internet and TV.