"The Book Thief" is a historical novel published in 2005 by Markus Zusak. This book was the Australian author's biggest hit.
Liesel Meminger is a young girl who is taken by a new family as her own cannot afford to take care of her. On the way to the new house, her brother dies and she steals her first book. Liesel was tormented by the vision of her brother's death and couldn't sleep, therefore, with her new and caring dad she learned how to read the only connection left with her brother, night by night. She quickly became an eager reader and started stealing books from the mayor's library. Between boys with lemon-colored hair, aggressive moms, rolled cigarettes, and many many words, the story narrates Liesel's tragic experience in World War
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II under a new light. We could say that the main theme of this story are words: how they teach, hook, give meaning, and, most importantly, save. Yet, this novel is also about unbreakable bonds created by a difficult situation. Death narrates this novel of friendship, love, and misery, and makes it very peculiar. In fact, the narrator isn't in the usual vests of a powerful and violent destructor, but is more of a sad character who has to carry out what destiny has assigned him against his will. “It kills me sometimes, how people die.” The reader almost feels compassion towards this mystic, philosophical being who is abandoned to himself.
His only retreat is apparently a recount of Liesel's life, which he reads caringly.
In my point of view, on a scale from zero to five, this book deserves a four. It is written in a way that is easy to understand and that flows easily. The book contains all the factors to make it an intriguing story: frienship, love, conflict, war, death and teenage struggles. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the idea death being the omniscient narrator and how it was represented. Moreover, this is mainly a book read by youngsters and I appreciated that they showed that average Germans were suffering as much as their opponents, and that Germany itself wasn't completely evil as it is often taught at school. In addition, the story about this illiterate girl who learns to read with her dad, creating a passion as well as memories, should be taught at school to make students realise how lucky they are to have had the possibility to learn and study. We often take things for granted and think that school is a burden, we think it's obvious that everyone goes to school, but there are still so many people who don't have this priviledge. The accessibility to learning facilities and the right to do so is an honor that nobody should be deprived
of.
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
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, 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.
I really enjoyed this book because it was not a story about the middle of the Second World War. Instead it was right before, when things were not as bad, but they were bad enough. It helped me understand how people lived before the hatred grew and how families were torn apart right from the beginning. Likewise, it gave me hope to see that not everything was destroyed and that some people were able to escape. I would recommend this book more for boys but for girls as well, between the ages of 13-15. Even though Karl’s age throughout the book is 14-17, the novel was written more for my age group. Once again this was an amazing book that I could not put down, and I am sure many others were not able to either.
“I am haunted by humans” (Zusak 550). The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is about the horrors of World War II. Liesel and her family help out an old friend by hiding a Jew. Liesel also steals her first book when she at her brother’s funeral. Liesel Meminger’s remarkable actions like feeling good when she steals a book and her family hiding a Jew help demonstrate why Death is “haunted by humans”.
I liked how the words flow and throw the author created an environment that you could really see and visualize. I thought the plot of this story had alot of potential and how it took elements from Romeo and Juliet, as when two families from different and The Diary of Anne Frank where the story takes place though the view of a child, however this wasn’t the case. I had a lot of problems with the characters and the historical inaccuracies. The main historical inaccuricies were how nine year children were immedialtly killed after being deemed not fit to work due to their age and strength. Another reason would be how there were tall posts which made sure no one tried to escape. This means that Schumel would have been gunned down by a sniper becuase he would have strayed away from the other people. I hated all of the characters except Schumel and Pavel because they at least had common sence. The main character, Bruno, acted like a five year old thoughout the book, providing nothing to the story and asking ignorent questions, he should know the answer to. For example, he mispernounces german words that would have come naturally since Nazi propaganda was huge during the Halocaust, especially in schools, like the “Führer” to fury or Aushwiz to Out-With. Also I thought Gretel was super annoying and I felt nothing for any of the other characters, who were mostly Nazis. Even during the climax, I still could only find remorse for the Jewish and Schumel, but then destroyed that in the final chapter, depicting it to be a tradagy for the Nazis after what happened to Bruno. I would give this book a B-. I woulden’t reccomend this book to people who actually want to know facts, not a “fairy tale” as some Halocaust survivors describe it. But I would reccomend it to people who want to know what the Halocaust was. I would reccomend Memories of evil by Peter Kubicek for people who want a more accurate
The Book Thief begins roughly around the time of Liesel 's brother 's funeral, she is only nine when this occurs, even the oldest and wisest souls find it difficult to cope with the loss of a loved one, think about the effects on someone so young and innocent. At the funeral, Death comments on the humans he does not take with him, "I witness the ones that are left behind, crumbled among the jigsaw puzzles of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs." (Zusak 22). From Death 's point of view, he sees human 's who have not died as the unfortunate ones. Soon after the brother 's death, her mother brings her to a new family because she is no longer able to care for Liesel, now living with her new family, she desires to read the book she stole at her brother 's funeral, A Grave Digger 's Handbook. With the help of Hans, her new father, she pushed through an arduous venture to read the book. Once Liesel successfully finished reading the book she manages to move on from her brother 's death. It is important to realize that with Liesel 's greatest obstacle overcome she manages to ascend her mountain trek of words. The summit of her mountain transpires when she begins to read to the citizens of Himmel Street in the bomb shelter. She reads The Whistler and the youngest are calmed by her voice, and everyone else pictures visions from the book (Zusak 362). The reason this is her summit is because at this point in the novel Liesel believes words can be used purely for good. Liesel witnesses the comfort she is able to provide to the people in the shelter. In essence, at her summit Liesel is unaware of the brutality of her words and at the moment she thinks the power of words are
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.
Everyone is obviously different, but the personal qualities of a person and external situations that are occurring in the world around them can create similarities between people who have vast differences. In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, this idea is very clearly shown through the lives of Liesel and Max. Although they come from vastly different backgrounds, the situations around them and their personal qualities reveal similarities between their lives. In The Book Thief, Max and Liesel’s lives have much in common, such as their love of literature and the impact on their lives as a result of Nazi persecution. However, they also differ in many aspects of their lives such as the degree of freedom that they were able to exercise and their attitudes toward life.
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.
In that destruction, she came across burning books and she found one of the books and took it without the notice of others except one that is Lisa. By this, they both become good friends. After this, she started knowing that she lost her mother and brother because of Hitler. Max a Jew is hidden under Liesel’s basement. Then they both started to know each other and found that they have many things in common. When many lost their jobs in Himmel Street, Liesel and Rudy joining a gang of youth who steal apples and potatoes from farmers for their living. Once they both went to mayor’s house and found her title of book thief by seeing the book “The whistler” from Hermann’s library. For the next time, they found another book with a message in it saying that Liesel can come in the front
Throughout life many people face difficulties. Depending on the person’s strength some will get through tough times, but some will fail to overcome them. Two books where characters have to face many challenges include: Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Book Thief. These two stories deal with people overcoming the difficulties faced throughout everyday life. Some difficulties include racism, religious discrimination, and dealing with others’ cruelness or kindness. Examples from these books prove that the characters have challenges throughout the stories to overcome. In the face of adversity what causes some individuals to fail while others prevail?
Part 1 of the book it explains how Liesel’s mother is incapable of caring for her so she takes her to live with foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermann. On the way, her younger brother, Werner, passes away. They have to bury him by the train and keep going. While burying him, the grave digger doesn’t notice that he dropped a book. Liesel took the book when no one was looking. That was the first time she stole a book. Liesel still has to go live with the Hubermanns. She cannot understand why her mother would send her away if she truly loved her. She is too young to realize
The first reason I would give it an A- is because the small details that really make you feel fully immersed into the book. On page 171 they it says “We heard the rumble of the explosions and saw the smoke rise over a hill on the horizon”. The reason this really sets the scene is because they have been on a death march to Sachsenhausen (another “camp”). The reason they were going there is because the allied troops were getting closer to there last camp so the Nazis were told to bring the strongest and best condition Jews to Sachsenhausen to work there. They all knew the reason why they were having to march there, the Nazis never thought the Jews would make it there alive and they wanted to save there ammo in case the allied troops came.
thinks his father is a coward because he doesn’t belong to the Nazi Party. He is anything but right when it comes to this claim because of how much bravery it takes to oppose Hitler in Nazi Germany, where non accordance can result in death.