The Book Thief By Liesel And Liesel's The Book Thief

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In the beginning of The Book Thief, Liesel is traveling on a train with her mother and brother to meet her new foster parents, she has a dream about the Führer (Adolf Hitler), and one of his powerful speeches. As she wakes from the dream, she sees that her brother is dead. Death revealed that Liesel was the book thief after she steals The Grave Digger’s Handbook which was dropped by the apprentice grave digger that buried her brother. At the beginning of the novel, she understands the effect that words can have on people, despite the fact that she can neither read nor write. She also doesn't believe that she speaks very well.
When Liesel arrives on Himmel Street she cannot read and struggles to learn, because of this she is made fun of in school. She realizes how powerless she is without words; so Hans her foster father, a painter and accordion player, teaches her how to read with midnight lessons in the basement, reading from The Grave Digger's Handbook. The midnight lessons helped build a strong relationship between Hans and Liesel.
Books also help Liesel build relationships with two other people; Max and Ilsa. Liesel’s relationship with Ilsa started …show more content…

Books helped Liesel bring comfort to others, in one occasion Liesel reads to the other residents of Himmel Street in the bomb shelter during the air raids to try and calm the people down and make them feel safe. She finds comfort in books even when she gives up books; when Ilsa gives the blank book to Liesel she begins writing The Book Thief, the story of her life. Books saved her life, the only reason she was still alive after the bombing of Himmel Street was that she was staying up to edit. Throughout Liesel's life books helped her create relationships, resist against the Nazi regime, gain power and confidence over her words, soothe people, make refuge, and even saved her

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    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

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  • Examples Of Liesel's Dependence On Books In The Book Thief

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    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

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  • Liesel Quotes Analysis

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    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.

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    Through Liesel’s and Ilsa’s friendship comes an understanding of what Ilsa Hermann has experienced in her son dying. “I used to read here with my son.” (Zusak 451) Before Ilsa makes a connecting to Liesel it seems as if Ilsa was floating through life like a zombie awaiting death to cause the pain of living with out her son to stop. It was not until she comes to care for Liesel, almost as if she thinks she is her own does she have a revival of the spirit. After revealing to Liesel that she knows that Liesel is taking books from her library Ilsa gives Liesel a blank book and tells her to write her own story in it. Every night Liesel would go down into her basement because it was her favorite place to be and write down there for hours. One night there was a bombing on Molching with no warning while Liesel was down writing. She ended up surviving because of the long chain of events starting all the way back to her stealing The Grave Digger’s Handbook in the graveyard her brother lays in. (Word Count

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    This realization, although suspected by the narrator for a long time, shows the true irony of Liesel’s thefts: that she never needs to steal them. When she steals her last book, The Last Human Stranger, she even takes a plate of cookies and leaves a note. Although none of these books are featured as heavily as her first few thefts, their titles reference parts of Liesel’s struggles such as her relationship with Max, her role in uplifting her community in the bunker, her continuing education, and her status being the only survivor of the final bombing. In conclusion, the books which Liesel steals are very influential in her development through the course of the novel, with the titles themselves references other parts of her life.

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  • Who Stole The Grave Digger's Handbook

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    Liesel Meminger stole The Grave Digger's Handbook when she was leaving the graveyard because she wanted to have something that connected her with the last moments she and her brother had together. Liesel also stole The Shoulder Shrug at the fire and it was one of the books that had been set aside for burning due to its dangerous material. Liesel stole the book and it was significant because the material was opposing Hitler and supported her same feelings towards him at the time because she comes to the realization that Hitler is to blame for her separation from her mother. The mayor's wife witnessed Liesel steal the book and that is also important because if she hadn't, Isla may have never invited Liesel into her library. Liesel steals The

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    This accumulation of events which are skewed by common cultural perspectives is counteracted by the creative choice of narrator. The Book Thief, a narrative detailing Liesel, a young girl's journey of life during World War II employs this frequently. This form of biased writing within the novel byMarkus Zusak has constructed his expression of character and events to be distanced from our general connotations of the events occurring and preconceived ideas of the people of NAZI Germany. Few scenes occur outside of the context of the Hubberman's or Himmel street and no time goes by where the scene is not overlooked by the narration of Death.

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    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 ... ...

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    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.

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  • How Liesel’s Actions Place Her and Others in Dangerous Situations in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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    Every time Liesel steals books from people, she consistently places the lives of others at risk. An example of this is when Liesel is worried about Max dying and wants to steal a book and read it to him in hope that he will get better. Stealing books is her stubborn addiction. In addition, she is accompanied by Rudy, endangering his life as well. The mayor could have easily informed the police about Liesel stealing his books and she would have been severely punished. This danger, which Liesel takes just to get what she wants, is proven when her best friend Rudy Steiner says, “You didn’t go in for food, did you? You got what you wanted…” (Page 289). The quote demonstrates how Liesel would do anything just to get a book, even if it meant lying to her friend and putting them both in danger. Another example of Liesel dangerous book-stealing habit is during the bonfire where the books were being burnt. This part is very early on in the novel and is where Liesel steals her second book, The Shoulder Shrug. Stealing at the bonfire was extremely dangerous as these books were meant to be destroyed. Anyone caught trying to remove one of these books would have been severely punished or lashed. The severity o...

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  • Literary Analysis Of The Book Thief

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    She realizes that words, through cruel and wicked manners, can impact people to force acts of brutality. During the burial of her baby brother, she finds her first book, the grave digger’s manual. Even though Lisel couldn’t read at the time, she knows the memories its words hold.

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