The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old German girl who was given up by her mother to live with The Huberman’s in the small town of Molching in nineteen thirty nine, shortly before World War II. On their way to Molching, Liesel's younger Brother Werner dies, and she is traumatized, having nightmares about him for several months. Hans is a gentle man who brings her comfort and helps her learn to read. They started with a book Liesel took from the cemetery where her brother was buried called The Gravediggers Handbook. Liesel becomes friends with a neighborhood boy, Rudy Steiner, and he falls in love with her. At a book burning, Liesel realizes that her father was oppressed for being a Communist, and that her mother was probably killed by the Nazis for the same crime. She is seen by …show more content…
the mayor's wife Isla Hermann stealing a book from the burning. She later invites Liesel to read in her library. Staying committed to a promise Hans made to the man who saved his life, a Jew named Max Vandenberg hides in his basement. Liesel and Max become close, and Max writes Liesel two stories about their friendship, both of which are in the novel. When Hans publicly gives bread to an elderly Jew being sent to a concentration camp, Max has to leave, and Hans is drafted into the military. At the time he was drafted, air raids over major German cities were escalating in terms of frequency and fatality. Next Liesel sees Max being marched towards the concentration camp at Dachau. She loses hope and begins to disdain the written word, learning that Hitler's propaganda is to blame for the war, the Holocaust, and the death of her biological family. In spite of this Isla motivates her to write. Liesel writes the story of her life in the Huberman’s basement. There, she phenomenally survives an air raid that kills Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and everyone else on her block. Liesel and Max survived the war and she goes on to live a long life and dies at an old age. In the novel “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak I choose to apply historical criticism. Historical Criticism analyzes texts by interpreting how they influenced and were influenced by the times in which they were created. Though the book was not written during this time, the setting of the book is in Germany during World War II, The Holocaust. Being that this is a historically significant event, historical criticism was the best type of literary criticism to be applied. “The Book Thief” is based on the Holocaust, which was a war based on religion. There are many historical aspects of the book. Events, places and characters were either actual occurrences of the Holocaust, parts of it, or similar to things that actually happened. Zusak wrote much of the book based on stories from his parents. Inspiration was also drawn from what his parents had witnessed during that time. A significant part of this novel is the relevance of books to Liesel. One part of the book was committed to a book burning. Liesel attended and had to pretend to enjoy the burning of Jewish books. This was one event in the book that was an actual occurrence. Book burnings were hosted by the Nazis during World War II. It was a ceremony-like event. Many people would attend and gather around a huge pile of books. The pile of books were then lit on fire and burned. The Nazis burned books that conflicted with their political, religious, and cultural views. These burnings represented the power or the Nazis. Liesel has to be involved with many Nazi activities.
One of these activities being The Hitler Youth. The Hitler Youth she is part of was influenced by the Nazi's in the nineteen twenty’s. Although, at first the group was only for boys, it started becoming co-educational, and girls were part of it as well in nineteen thirty’s. The Hitler Youth was obligatory for all children over the age of ten. When Liesel turns ten, she is enrolled into to the Hitler Youth. This is the beginning of a chapter of the book in which Liesel will start feeling outrage towards the Nazis, but nevertheless she is still surrounded by all the propaganda, guards, and rules in a German town. Another event in the book that was based on a true event was the bombing in Munich. Zusak’s mom told him two stories that affected him quite a bit. The first story was about the red sky she saw when Munich was bombed and how the color red was correlated with death. In the book this was mentioned by the narrator, who happens to be death himself. During this time period there were a lot of bombings, war, and violence. Munich being a real city that was actually bombed adds more historical context to the
book. Also in the book, Jews were being marched to concentration camps. During the holocaust, Hitler wanted all Jews dead. There were concentration camps that they were taken to where they were segregated from their families and treated horrendously. This is what the second story was about. The second story is as follows. “One day, there was a terrible noise coming from the main street of town, and when she ran to see it, she saw that Jewish people were being marched to Dachau, the concentration camp. At the back of the line, there was an old man, totally emaciated, who could not keep up. When a teenage boy saw this, he ran inside and brought the elderly man a piece of bread. The man fell onto his knees and kissed the boy's ankles and graciously thanked him. Soon, a soldier noticed what had just happened and walked over. He then tore the bread from the man's hands and proceeded to whip him for taking it. Then he ran after the boy and whipped him for giving the man a piece of bread in the first place” Zusak stated “. In one moment, there was great kindness and great cruelty, and I saw it as the perfect story of how humans are.” This was an inspiration for Zusak to write “The Book Thief”. In the book there was also a reenactment of this particular story. During the holocaust many Jews would be lucky enough to find somewhere to hide. Some may run across a family that would be willing to take the risk of housing them. In the book a Jew named Max hides in the Huberman’s basement. They kept him safe and showed him hospitality. As he stayed with the family he started to befriend Liesel. Overtime the two developed a strong relationship with one another.
The book had so much power to it. One day, on Himmel street, the town had to get out and go to the shelter. All of the people who lived on Himmel Street were scared because there was a chance their street could get blown up by a bomb. Courageous Liesel pulled out the book, The Whistler. Liesel was sitting in the shelter and started to read the book out loud. “By page three, everyone was silent but Liesel” (Zusask 381) Liesel trapped all of the people's nervous and scared selfs to herself calm voice. The book was a power of silence. The common theme that connects the book Liesel has stolen is that the each book tell a chunk of her
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.
...er, and Liesel becomes a complete book thief. She rescues Jewish books from Nazi book- burnings and steals from the mayor’s library. Liesel is illiterate when she steals her first book, but Hans Hubermann uses her prized books to teach her to read. In the end, Liesel marries Max and moves to Australia. She has several children and grandchildren. Liesel eventually dies in Sydney.
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.
Have you ever thought that Death is a person and not a thing? Well in the book The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Death is the narrator and tells the story. In this book, there is a girl named Liesel. Liesel is going to live with her foster parents, while she was traveling with her mom and her brother, her brother died. He was buried and near his grave was a book. It’s name was “The Grave Digger’s Handbook”. This was the first book she stole, and she only continues from here. She lives on Himmel Street and which she meet kids and she has to show her worth. That is not the important part. In the end of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, it ends up really ironic. There are multiple ironic things in the book, it is practically filled with ironic and
“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”.
In 2005, Markus Zusak composed one of the most influential novels of modern day literature. His story is known as The Book Thief, a novel told from the perspective of Death. His role is to narrate the life of Liesel Meminger as a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. Death begins the story at the burial of her brother in 1939, just one of many tragic events that will occur in her life, she is then given away by her mother, and has to grow up in the care of another family. For Liesel, this change catalyzes a quest to understand the power of words. This is because she stole a book at her brother 's funeral and desires to read it in honor of him. Her new foster family, the Hubermanns, and friends help Liesel on this quest. Death describes Liesel
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.
The main character Liesel, known as “the book thief” is who Death is looking over. Liesel, her mother, and brother are on a train to Munich. On the train ride her brother dies. She and her mother get off the train to bury him. The first book Liesel steals is from the gravediggers. They continue the journey to a town called Molching, where Liesel will be raised by foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel adjusts to her new home life. Hans teaches Liesel how to read. The war is escalating in Germany. The town holds a book-burning to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. That’s when Liesel steals another book from the flames. Liesel’s job is to deliver laundry to the Hermann family. The Hermanns’ have a library full of books. Liesel is allowed to read them in the study. Meanwhile, a German-Jew named Max needs help, so he seeks out the Hubermanns. Max hides in the basement, so he is safe from the Nazis. Liesel begins stealing books from the Hermanns. The Nazis parade the Jews through the town of Molching on their way to the concentration camp for everyone to see. Liesel is given a blank notebook to write her own story. One night the neighborhood is bombed. Hans, Rosa, and the rest of the neighborhood is killed. Rescue workers find Liesel under the rubble. She leaves behind her finished book, called The Book Thief. Death, who has been watching, rescues the book. Liesel ends up living with the mayor
“The Book Thief”, written by Markus Zusak is focused on a fictional character named Liesel Meminger . Liesel changes drastically over the course of the book. The book starts with a young nine year old Liesel, and ends with her dying of old age. As the book begins, Liesel is a shy girl traveling to meet her new family in the fictional town of Molching, Germany. Liesel is less than excited to meet her new parents, and refused to go into their home. As the book progresses, Liesel warms up to her new dad, Hans Hubermann. She never completely warms up to Han’s wife, Rosa. Liesel enjoys reading books with her father. Rudy, Liesel’s best friend, shows her around and gets her into soccer. Liesel was no longer the shy sad little girl she once was. She
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.
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is the story of a young girl named Liesel Meminger whose brother had recently died on a train and then obtains a grave diggers handbook while at the burial of her brother. Soon after the burial, she is taken to meet her new foster family, Hans (Papa) and Rosa (Mama) Hubermann, who reside in the German town of Molching during the Second World War. Here she befriends a boy named Rudy whose hair is the color of lemons, steals a book or two, learns the power words, and hides a Jew named Max. The story of Leisel Meminger was scheduled to have a film adaptation that had many fans dying of anticipation, but in the end did not give a faithful recreation of novel. The movie adaptation was a major let down to the