A Summary of “The Book Thief” Death introduces himself as the narrator of the story. He summarizes the three times he has met “the book thief,” and the story begins when he tells her entire story in in-depth detail. He tells the story of their very first encounter, on the train where Liesel’s brother suffers an unfortunate and untimely death. Liesel is then transported to the Hubermann’s, where she’ll be living. Liesel is extremely closed off, that is until Hans teaches her how to roll cigarettes, and she begins to trust him. Liesel starts getting used to her new situation, even though she is having terrible nightmares about her brother's death. Liesel then meets Rudy, a boy in her neighborhood who has a crush on her, and idolizes Jesse
Prologue: On page 4 the narrator says, “Personally, I like a chocolate- colored sky. Dark, Dark chocolate. People say it suits me.”(Zusak 4) This led me to believe the narrator is death. He sees life in color because he appreciates color more because his life is so dark and filled with death, color is in our lives and our souls will soon be filled with darkness and him and not have a colorful life.
After Liesel steals her second book she pulls it out and her father sees The Shoulder Shrug (Zusak 126). However, he tells her it will be their secret and he will not tell her mother (Zusak 126). Although her father will keep the secret, she is worried about the mayor's wife who saw her take the book (Zusak 132). Much to Liesel’s surprise, when she delivers the laundry to the major's wife doesn't scold her; instead the she allows Liesel to use her library (Zusak 134). Later Liesel finds out the mayor and his wife lost their son, probably, in World War I and she sees their grief (Zusak 145).
What is friendship? Friendship is the key to getting through tough times in life. It’s not just being for your friend when it is easy, it is being there for your friend when something traumatic is happening. In The Book Thief, Liesel meets many new friends along the way including Ilsa, Max, Rudy, Hans and Rosa. Also in The Book Thief Max also meets new friends along the way including Hans, Rosa, Liesel and Walter Kugler. Characters in The Book Thief show that friendship is the key to getting through tough times in life.
Liesel thinks of them as best friends until the day he dies and then she realizes how much she really loves him. Rudy has always loved Liesel from the day they met. Rudy saves Liesel’s book from the river and comes up asking for a kiss. He walks her to school for her first day and then they race home one day and tie. Their relationship evolves from strangers to friends to best friends. In the beginning of the story they do not realizes what good of friends they will
After Liesel learns how to read and write, she receives the task of , “completing a letter for homework” (Zusak 95). Eventually she arrives at the conclusion to write to her biological mother. Liesel then continues to write more letters, but lacks the money to purchase stamps in order to send them. On her birthday, she would give “a present from herself. She would gather all the accrued letters to her mother, stuff them into one envelope, and use just a tiny portion of the washing and ironing money to mail it” (Zusak 98). Consequently, Liesel’s foster mother, Rosa soon discovers the gap in her laundry payments. When enraged, Rosa makes Liesel break just by asking her about the missing money. It was Liesel’s guilt that made her feel the need to confess so easily to the crime.
The novel The Book Thief is a book about a young girl by the name of Liesel Meminger. Observing the life of this young girl is not easy as this is the time of Hitler’s reign in Germany. In a short period of time, this girl faces many difficulties. More than any child should ever have to encounter. She has to deal with being abandoned by her mother, the death of her younger brother, and relocation to another part of Germany. Immediately when Liesel arrives to Molching, her life is forever changed. She is forced to live with two strangers, now her new mama and papa. Liesel faces much abuse both at school and at home. At school she is made fun of for her illiteracy and at home, mama speaks very rudely to her calling her a swine and other insults.
In the novel The Book Thief, setting and point of view affect the theme and book a lot. The point of view of this novel is third person omniscient and a little bit of second and first person when the narrator talks about himself or to the reader. The setting of the story is Nazi Germany and it is based on a young girl named Liesel Meminger and what her life was like during this time. Her story is told by the narrator, death. Mark Zusak, the author, uses setting and point of view to express the theme of the novel because there was so much death happening, Liesel encountered him so many times, causing him to be able to tell her story; without this setting and the narrator, the theme story would have been different.
In the following lines from Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, Liesel has been in attendance of a bonfire in which the Hitler Youth was required to attend. The bonfire was meant for burning books, posters and other propaganda that the Jews had owned. During the clean-up of the bonfire, Liesel seized her moment to steal her second book.
On page 64, the text says ¨A patch of silence stood among them now. The man, the girl, the book. He picked it up and spoke soft as cotton.¨ This was the start of Liesel’s passion for books. She and her foster father would read and read investing and spending time with one another. Soon, their bond would be unbreakable, from reading together at night, to Hans teaching Liesel to pronounce words on sandpaper. These actions are evident to the words connecting her to her foster father. Sure, Hans has to play the role as a father since he accepts the responsibility but Hans and Liesel’s bond is stronger than a regular father bond. Hans makes sacrifices for Liesel, investing his time with her from reading to her, teaching her and even sacrifices his possessions in order to make Liesel happy. Liesel never really knew her father before and now, her new foster, Hans, is an adequate figure to be confirmed as Liesel’s father. And the words don’t stop there. Liesel was also able to form a relationship with the mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann. Both Liesel and Ilsa appreciate each other’s presence in which Liesel appreciates that Ilsa lets her enter her library and Liesel provides company for Ilsa due to the unfortunate absence of her sons. Lastly, another relationship mended by words is between Liesel and Max Vanderburg, a
The novel The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak, takes place during World War 2 in the town of Molching, Germany. The protagonist, Liesel Meminger, lives with a foster family, the Hubermann's, and has a deep love for literature. However, at the time, books are hard to come by so Liesel is forced to steal books from Nazi book burnings and the Mayor’s library. Liesel’s reading allows her to escape from the trying times of the war to the imaginary worlds of books. However, Liesel as Liesel matures, she discovers that books and words can not only be used for good, but for evil as well. The books that Liesel discovers throughout the novel directly contribute to Liesel’s growth as a human being and come to define her morals for life.
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...
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.
As time evolves, so do the words that are essential for our everyday survival. The most obvious difference between humans and animals is our ability to master the art of speech. Often, people will say the “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”, a simple nursery rhyme that helps ease a bullied child from abusive words and taunts. But does that really help cure the emotional pain? Words can illuminate and motivate the minds of people but can also shadow their self-esteem through psychological trauma. In The Book Thief, we see how fundamental words were to shape the reality of millions of people caught in the fire of World War II.
Imagine if your work was to be published, but the publishers required you to change even the most minute detail to fit their need. This work would be unrecognizable, not at all what you wanted to convey with your story. This is essentially what happens with every movie adaptation of a popular novel, and readers are always enraged. One such case is The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, which was unnecessarily changed. The lack of many important details in the movie adaptation of The Book Thief shows how obvious it is that movies must stay true to the book for full effect.