The Book Thief is based in Germany 1938, in a fictional town called Molching. Germany in 1938, censored many things books, newspapers, religion, and freedom of speech in a strict all-powerful dictatorship. When Liesel arrives to Molching, she is introduced to her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa. She goes to her very first book burning organized by the Nazis to celebrate Adolph Hitler's birthday. Liesel doesn't really know what it means to be living in Nazi Germany and hears a Nazi spokesman calling for the death of Communists as well as Jews. Liesel's foster parents, Hans and Rosa, are forced to hide a Jewish boy named Max in their home whose father saved Hans life once before. Hans made a promise to Max's mother that if she ever needed anything …show more content…
she could come to him no matter what. Before Max went to Hubermann's house, he was hiding in a closet without food, light, or water. A friend of his brings him fake identity papers and a map hidden in Hitler's autobiography book, to get him to Hubermann's house in Molching. Upon his arrival to Molching, Hans and Rosa hide him in the upstairs room where Liesel was staying until he recovered. They began talking and getting to know each other and became friends. Later on he was put down in the basement just to be safe, so that he wouldn't be seen. Max gets sick and falls into a comma, Hans and Rosa worry about how they will dispose of his body if he dies without anyone noticing. Meanwhile Liesel is sad, she begins to read and talk to Max while he is in his comma, and hopes the he will wake up soon.
After months, Max finally recovers and wakes up. But the allies begin bombing nearby Molching, and Liesel and her foster parents take shelter in a neighbor's basement. But Max is to stay in the Hubermanns basement alone and risk the basement's roof collapsing on him. The war begins to intensify, and Nazi soldiers began to move Jewish prisoners to the concentration camp. Hans attempt to stop a Nazi soldier from taking his Jewish neighbor aroused suspicion around himself, making it unsafe for Max to stay in the basement any longer. Later, Max leaves the Hubermanns basement and says his goodbyes. Throughout "The Book Thief" there is many intellectual censorship. When Liesel goes to the book burning they are burning books, pamphlets, art, and anything that was authored by a Jew. The book burning to the Nazi soldiers was the destruction to the Jewish people. Many of the ideas were censored in a strict all-powerful dictatorship because dictators believed it can create a better society. A democratic society needs a free press because in the first amendment it states that the government is prohibited to infringe on the freedom of the
press. The Great Debaters impacted many areas around the United States of America. Wiley College debated if negroes should be admitted to state universities and if civil disobedience is moral. Wiley College debates with Oklahoma City College if negroes should be admitted to state universities. Wiley College begins with introducing their argument that denying a negro's admission to a state university is wrong and absurd. Oklahoma City College denys and responds saying that forcing something upon the South that they are not prepared for will result in racial chaos. Wiley College responds with Oklahoma City College conveniently chose to ignore the fact that W.E.B Dubis was the first negro to ever acquire a Ph.D. from Harvard College. Oklahoma City College argues back that Dr.Dubois himself says that a negro to receive a proper education at a white college is impossible. Wiley College rebuttals saying that Dubois says it's impossible for a negro to get a proper education because the white man's resistance to change, but that’s no reason for a black to be kept out any college. Wiley College and Harvard debate if civil disobedience is moral. Wiley College argues that a moral weapon for justice is civil disobedience. Harvard rebuttals and argues that moral must have violence, and that civil disobedience can't be moral because it's nonviolent. Instead they argue that civil disobedience is the true face behind anarchy. Wiley College responds with a dark turn, they argued that in Texas they saw a man hanged and lynched. They asked themselves what was this negro's crime for him to deserve such punishment.
“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
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.
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.
The Book Thief: A novel taken place in Germany during War World 11. Throughout this novel we meet a girl named Liesel meminger,
Liesel steals this book from the book burning because of her deep animosity for the Fuhrer, because of what he has compassed to her family. The fifth book is Mein Kampf. Liesel receives this book from Hans because it will disguise her from being against the Nazis. The sixth book is The Whistler. The Whistler symbolizes Liesel’s relationship with Rudy, and the faith they have between them.
Much of The Book Thief revolved around a common German family hiding a Jew. During the Holocaust and the book, Jews and other people seen as insignificant were imprisoned in concentration camps. Max, the Jew that the Hubermanns were hiding, could cause them to get into deep trouble. However, they still hid him. The Hubermanns lived in a town close to a concentration camp and often saw marches of prisoners through town. Even with a potential prisoner living in their residence, the Hubermanns, along with most everyone else in Molching, were unaware of the events that actually happened in the concentration camp and marches.
(Page 102) Many great works of Jewish authors and even American authors were burned. The point of the book burnings was to erase any form of non-German knowledge and to only allow ideas that supported the Nazi Party. In the book, Liesel steals a book from the fire, which turns out to be a Jewish book. The was caught for stealing by the mayor 's wife, but was easily forgiven and was even allowed to read books in her private library.
In this essay I will talk about The Book Thief Characters. The characters are Liesel, Rudy, And Max. I Will talk about how they are Influenced by society in This Book/Movie. I am going to three Paragraphs about these three characters. This essay is going to be a Compare and Contrast Essay.
One of the many themes that has arose is the theme of injustice. The theme of injustice stood out just by reading the back of the book. As stated before, this book takes place in the time of Hitler’s reign in Nazi Germany. If anyone had previous knowledge as to what Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” entitled, social injustice would evidently be pointed out. These prejudices could be something such as concentration camps, torture, discrimination of the Jewish race and the destruction of homes and shops. Although many Germans had no idea what was happening in Germany during Hitler’s reign, one would be quick to judge Germans as a whole. This is the perspective that is dominant in the novel, they never mention massacre or concentration camps, and they just lived their normal lives. After the author educates the reader about a Jewish man named Max Vandenburg, the narrator says: “You could argue that Liesel Meminger had it easy. She did have it easy compared to Max Vandenburg. Certainly, her brother practically died in her arms. Her mother abandoned her. But anything was better than being a Jew” (Zusak 161). This quote by itself shows how terribly the Jewish people were treated. In their daily lives, they are faced with destruction, social injustice, and discrimination. They are treated very disrespectfully; they live with racial slurs, house raids, as well as having the Star of David painted on
German citizens had to endure a challenging lifestyle, presented by Adolf Hitler, of fascism, the holocaust, Jewish laws and propaganda during World War II. From 1939-1942, Nazi Germany affected the lives of Jews, Gypsies, Slavic people, and other groups living in Germany by getting rid of the undesirables, known as the Holocaust. Only Germans with the look of blond hair and blue eyes were even considered to live, only if he or she had no defects or disabilities, anyone else was sent to and killed in concentration camps. The Book Thief takes place in a town near Munich, Germany during this time of the holocaust. The novel focuses on the lives of the people and how they cope and deal with the immediate effects of WWII. It emphasizes the danger of hiding a Jew in a family’s basement, and how they are constantly paranoid of being caught.
It was on a train with Liesel’s mother and brother where they were travelling when death made his first appearance in the book thief’s life. He took the soul of her brother and only glanced at the girl truly, not taking real note of her as he did his job. She knew that her brother was dead at that point, but the shock wouldn’t truly take her until she snatched a book from where it had fallen near her brother’s hastily made grave. After he was buried, Liesel and her mother continued on their way, arriving at the town of Molching, where she met Hans and Rosa Hubermann. In the first few months that she had arrived, nightmares plagued her mind, haunting her with images of Werner, her brother, and his cold dead eyes. Hans is the one to comfort her, and because of this she grows to trust in him and truly view him as her father. She enjoys his company as well, for he can play the accordion and is always smiling and winking at her in a joyous way. He also begins to teach her how to read the book that she picked up on the day d...
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, speaks about a little girl who's mother was taken away and who's brother died. Now she lives with the Hubermanns and quickly things begin to change. A Jew named Max starts living with the Hubermanns also. Bombs go off later and Nazis started checking basements for shelters. They realized of they get caught, Max could be killed and they can be in endangerment. Later Max leaves and Liesel tells her best friend, Rudy about Max. At the end everyone dies but Liesel and
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.
In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, beauty and brutality is seen in many of the characters. Rudy, Liesel, and Rosa display examples of beauty and brutality often without realizing what exactly they are doing, because it is a part of their human nature. Zusak not only uses his characters, but also the setting of the novel in Nazi Germany to allude to his theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature. The time in which the novel is set, during World War II, displays great examples of beauty and brutality, such as the mistreatment of the Jews. As a result of this time period, the characters have to go through troubling times, which reveals their beautiful and brutal nature in certain circumstances. Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel.
If you were a German citizen during World War II, do you think you would be a Nazi? Most people would say no even though, in actuality, most people would be. It is because people need to succumb to societal expectations to survive in a society such as that of Germany during WWII and in the book, The Book Thief, this theme of individual versus society is explored with people complying and fighting social expectations. Sometimes people side with the Nazi Party out of fear of being targeted and other times fight against Nazi Party because of love for their family and fellow man with usually terrible consequences. In The Book Thief, the theme of the individual versus society is shown many times with characters conforming and defying social expectations.