Isolation In The Book Thief

What is isolation? The answer will differ for everyone, but they will all be similar. According to dictionary.com, Isolate means to “set or place apart; detach or separate so as to be alone.”. Three people who have experienced isolation are Max Vandenburg, Anne Frank, and Jaycee Lee Dugard. The characters are all different, but their situations and feelings of isolation are very similar. Max Vandenburg, a fictional character in a book called The Book Thief was experiencing isolation because he was a Jewish man during the holocaust. Max was hiding in the basement of a german family and was not aloud to leave the basement because he would risk exposure if he did so. In the text, it says, “He had not seen the outside world for twenty-two months.” and “There were stars,’ he said. “They burned my eyes.” (Zusak 378). This shows that after being isolated for a long period of time, he couldn’t contain himself from looking outside. He appreciated the stars more than he had before he was in hiding and he hadn’t seen them in so long his eyes weren’t used to that natural light that it hurt his eyes.

Anne Frank, while in hiding, wrote in a journal her experience during that time. The title of the journal is Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, which was later turned into a book. Anne’s journal, containing her feelings and situation during her isolation makes her similar to Max Vandenburg because he had a journal that he wrote his experience in. In Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl, it says, “---- looking at the sky, the clouds, the moon and the stars really does make me feel calm and hopeful.”. In The Book Thief, it says “ Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment. ‘There were stars,’ he said. ‘They burned my eyes.’”. This show that they both wrote about nature in their journals and this is what makes their situations and feelings of isolation