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The book thief analysis
The book thief analysis
The book thief analysis
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The Book Thief - English Honors AnnCatherine Conneen The quote that stuck with me trough the book was one not so much about the emotions that can with the Holocaust, but more of the actions that people had to take during this time. " 'Heil Hitler,' Rudy said. 'Heil Hitler,' She responded, straightening taller behind the counter. 'And you?' She glared at Liesel, who promptly gave her a 'heil Hitler' of her own. I chose this quote because as I said before, it was one that stuck with me throughout the book. Not the direct text of the quote, but what the quote means to me. I see it as, Liesel does not agree with the Nazi party and how they view and treat Jews, however, to ensure her safety she says a 'hail Hitler'. Actions like these, ones that the Germans do so that they don't angry the Nazi party and ensure they are safe. In the case of the Hubbermans, they are people that do these actions out of an obligation to fulfill their duties as Germans, the leaders of the Nazi party. They are not doing things like saying, "hail Hitler" to every German they see because they believe in Hitlers actions, but they were doing it to keep themselves and their family safe from the cruel acts of punishment. In the quote and many times in the book we can see examples of the hesitation of acting towards the German …show more content…
soldiers, or any other German.
With Lisel and the Hubbermans it is a little like pathetic irony, where we, the readers, and the Hubberman family know that they are boarding a Jew, Max, but no one else does.
It keeps a suspense throughout the time that Max is with the family. For me, the most suspenseful part was when the members of the Nazi party went to the Hubbermans to check if the basement was an adequate shelter. Everything from when Liesel pretended to get injured in soccer and got her Papa to carry her inside, she then told him about the inspections and they had to be quick on their feet and find somewhere to hid Max. It was very hard to think of a personal connection to this quote, and even the book as a whole. Although, definitely not as scary and life threatening, the one thing that I thought of when thinking about how I connected with this book was when I got a hamster. I was in the city with my friends and one of them had a spare hamster cage, so we went into the small, stinky, rabbit store and bought a hamster for just one dollar. Brining her in a small carrying cage on a bumpy minibus ride, we brought the hamster home. After getting the cage from my friends house we set it up and placed the hamster inside. For about an hour We were all like Liesel was with Max. We would check on the Hamster constantly, and put sunflower seeds or a small piece of lettuce in for her to eat. Although, when the hamster was discovered by my parents there was no punishment, if the Germans had found out about the Hubermans helping Max, the punishment would be endless.
“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
The Book Thief and The Devil’s Arithmetic both focus on the prejudice Hitler had on different types of people during World War II. Liesel and Hannah both lost someone they had dearly loved. Liesel lost Rudy and Hannah lost many members of her family. In a time of fearfulness, both had told stories to the people surrounding them. Although both were not seen as equal in the eyes of many during their time, I see them as courageous and brave heroes after what they underwent.
I chose this quote because as I mentioned before, it was one that stuck with me throughout the book. Not the direct text of the quote, but what the quote means to me. I understand it as, Liesel does not agree with the Nazi party and how they view and treat Jews, however, to ensure her safety she says a 'hail Hitler'. Actions like these, ones that the Germans do so that they wouldn't angry the Nazi party and ensure they are safe. In the case of the Hubermanns, they are people that do these actions out of an obligation to fulfill their duties as Germans, the leaders of the Nazi party. They are not doing things such as saying, "hail Hitler" to every German they see because they believe in the actions of Hitler, they were doing it to keep themselves and their family safe from the cruel acts of punishment. In the quote and numerous times in the book we can find examples of the hesitation of acting towards the German soldiers, or any other German. With Lisel and the Hubermanns it
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.
This declaration was as surprising as the justification behind it, for on page 81, that neighbor explains, “‘I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.’” This moment was something I could only describe as shocking, as it was the truth, or a crooked version of it. Hitler promised to exterminate the Jewish people
Loss can be a heartbreaking experience or just an inconvenience. It is significant in both books because of what the characters loss or what the characters loose. Whether it is a family member or an object, all the losses have some significance to the war or symbolism. In the novel, the book thief Liesel loses her mother. “ There was a chaos of goodbye”(Zusak 25). “The sudden realization that this would all be for nothing - that her mother would never write back and she would never see her again.” (Zusak 99). These two quotes explain Liesel's loss of her mother. When Liesel joined her new family and she never got a letter back, she realized that her old life is behind her and she can never go back to her mother. Her mother is thought to have
...urvivors crawling towards me, clawing at my soul. The guilt of the world had been literally placed on my shoulders as I closed the book and reflected on the morbid events I had just read. As the sun set that night, I found no joy in its vastness and splendor, for I was still blinded by the sins of those before me. The sound of my tears crashing to the icy floor sang me to sleep. Just kidding. But seriously, here’s the rest. Upon reading of the narrators’ brief excerpt of his experience, I was overcome with empathy for both the victims and persecutors. The everlasting effect of the holocaust is not only among those who lost families÷, friends,
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 Markus Zusak’s novel, Liesel does not like Hitler because he took her mother away from her. She is allowed to talk to Hans about her hatred of the Fuhrer because he agrees with her views, but she can not discuss this with anyone else, including her best friend, because most people in her country love Hitler and will either have Liesel, or Hans and Rosa, taken away or will have Liesel killed. She lived in a time where talking against her government result in extremely dire consequences. Her father, whom she idolized and told everything to, slapped Liesel when she told him she hated Hitler after his birthday celebration. Hans did stand up for what he believed in when hate crimes against Jews started. He helped a Jew fix his door after it had been vandalized and it...
The everlasting, inescapable pain of the Holocaust is so imbedded in our culture that our senses can become paralyzed by the enormity of its reverberation through the years since the last chimney fire in Aushwitz was snuffed. Through his use of symbolism, Layton is able to -it a picture in the minds of his readers, one that juxtaposes the subject matter with his choice of diction.
In the Book Thief, both Liesel and Hans have very altruistic personalities. When the Jew’s march through Himmel Street to get to Dachau, everyone knows where they are going. They watch them march by, walking around them and staring. 75 percent of Hungary’s 600,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis, and only a few brave people tried to save just one Jew. (We Are All Bystanders page 4) These people risked their lives to shelter Jews, much like Rosa and Hans Hubermann. As the Jews march to Dachau, and the residents of Himmel Street stand and watch the Jews marching towards their death at the concentration camps, Death writes, “The book thief could do nothing but watch them back in a long, incurable moment before they were gone again. She could only hope they could read the depth of sorrow in her face, to recognize that it was true, and not fleeting.” ( ) Liesel feels helpless, like she can’t do anything. She longs to call out to them and help but knows that it would be worthless. A few minutes later, however, Papa takes action. Papa quickly grabs something from his paint cart and helps an old man who was struggling to walk and gives him some bread. Papa took action when no one else would. Papa pays the consequence, but in that moment, Papa displayed moral courage. Papa’s selfless personality let him reach out to help the man, even
“’Is my mother a communist?’ Staring. Straight ahead. ‘They were always asking her things, before I came here.’ … ‘Did the Fuhrer take her away?’ … ‘I knew it.’ The words were thrown at the steps and Liesel could feel the slush of anger stirring hotly in her stomach. ‘I hate the Fuhrer’ she said. ‘I hate him.’” (115)
These quotes are just stating some of the ways that the community could help in another dilemma if one were to occur again, stopping the reactions from the Holocaust from happening again. The tremendous amount of hardships that Elie Wiesel endured to be able to deliver this speech in front of hundreds of people heavily affect its significance. He wants nothing but the central idea of how society has done wrong, but the same society must stop their wrong doings, to be engraved in each and every being’s mind. He not only aids humanity in their mindsets, but also beautifully uses point of view, rhetorical questioning, and parallel structure to do it! However, all differences aside, society has learned from this experience one way or another.
By explaining the sad, yet undeniably true facts about the concentration camp Treblinka, Wiesel spoke of how far the Nazis were willing to go in order to exterminate the Jewish people. During the year 1942, under the orders of “Operation: Reinhard”, Treblinka opened it doors to the thousands of Jewish masses being crammed inside, su...
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.