The Book Thief by Mark Zusak is about a 9-year-old girl who goes after the name Liesel Meminger. At a young age, she is separated from her mother and her brother, while they are travelling Liesel’s brother suddenly dies. She was devastated and having nightmares for several days. Liesel went to a town called Molching where she is going to be raised by her foster parents that are Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel doesn’t like her foster parents at first, but throughout the story, they teach her how to read and write which she gains respect for them.
Liesel meets a neighbour, Rudy, who falls in love with her. Later on, Liesel realizes that her father was killed because he was a communist and believes her mother is killed too by the Nazi’s. When Liesel tries to steal a book she gets caught and is invited to read in the library by Ilsa Hermann. Hans allows a Jew named Max to hide in his basement since he promised his mother to help her. After a while, Hans tells Max to run away because the basement was going to be raided. Liesel then learns about Hitler’s propaganda that is to blame for the cause of war. Liesel writes a book in Hubermanns’ basement and survives the raid that killed Rosa, Hans, Rudy, and rest of the people in the area.
One of the main themes used in this book is The Power of Words. In this book, The Power of Words shows the development of the characters through several events that have happened. This is seen as evident to Liesel’s journey. When Liesel is caught stealing a book she does not face any consequences, but instead, she was invited to read in the library. As a 9-year-old you are still learning things that are right or wrong. In this quote when Ilsa invites Liesel to read books, Ilsa does not give her any consequences for stealing, in fact, she allows her to read and encourages her. Ilsa handles the situation properly since Liesel is still learning which puts out the best in Liesel as she learns how to read and write from Hans.
Liesel becomes really good at reading and writing which she ends up writing books. Ilsa Hermann’s power of words is shown through the way she communicates with Liesel and tells her the right thing. The Power of Words is also seen when Hitler’s propaganda has a negative influence on the characters. The influence of the word is strong since they are saying that Jews should be killed and they are bad to the world. The Jews, in this case, are known as a disease that is influencing others to kill them. But, Hans ends up putting himself in danger by covering up the slurs on Jewish shops to show what he’s doing will not affect or be influenced by the propaganda.
He knows that these words are really harmful which is why is careful about Liesel hearing those word because it will put her in danger. She finds out about the negative influence of the propaganda. Also, she knew her father was a communist, which means death for the communists since it’s been said that they are affecting the world stated by the Nazi’s. The Power of Words was making the characters realize how dangerous they are such as Max realizing Jew is a dangerous word. This shows that the impacts of the words are really effective towards the character since it is dangerous.
Another main theme of this is Death. Death is introduced to Liesel at the beginning of the story where she lost her brother and separated from her brother. In this quote, death is introduced which means that there will be several deaths, meaning that everyone will die. The loss of her mother and brother haunts her throughout the story. Mostly all the characters have been through the pain where they lost their loved ones and how they have overcome it. For example, Liesel is one of the characters who were uneducated, didn’t know how to read or write, and was shy, but her foster parents taught her the alphabets, reading, writing, and being confident. The theme of death is also seen when Jews were being targeted and killed.
This quote describes how awful the Jews were treated leading to their death. This is the reason why Max was running away from the Nazi’s because he was a Jew and they were going to kill him. But, Hans helped Max out because he promised his mother. Death seems to follow throughout the end of the book where everyone dies and Liesel survives. This theme had been predicted at the beginning of the story of how it was introduced. In this quotes, it is saying that all humans in the book will die and the characters are united with death meaning that they all will be killed by the Nazi’s.
The author Markus Zusak was born on June 23, 1975. He was been told numerous stories of his parents’ childhood during World War II. Zusak had created this novel to symbolize everything in a way to show humanity as good and bad. Zusak was motivated to write this book relating it to one of the stories his mother had told him. This book starts off in January 1939 when Hitler had become the leader for four years. The reason why the Nazi’s were chasing Liesel’s family was that they were communists which is why her mother and father got killed.
This is because in 1935 the law was that if anyone that is an enemy of the Nazi Party would be arrested or killed. The sufferings of the Jewish people gave a better insight into the Nazi. This shows a better understanding of what the Germans thought of the Jews and how not everyone supports the Nazi Party. Got an insight of death and what it really means, and it was really interesting to have this book narrated by Death itself. This is to show us as readers that how the protagonist was only 9 years old when she through a lot and changed her life completely.
The author uses style and techniques to connect to the show what he is trying to get across. Metaphor is used to describe stars were too bright for him because he had never been in the outside world for 22 months. It is the irony of Himmel that means heaven, but Himmel Street was nothing like heaven because the place was bombed and everything was ruined. Since the book is narrated by death, the tone would be dark because of all the events that had happened in the book.
