Let’s see if a handful of words can interest you in this paper. If you’ve gotten this far, then the words have done their work and made their power known. Words are powerful and can do many things; they can persuade people, make them happy, make them sad, words can even kill someone. In the case of the Holocaust, it was about 6 million Jews. The Book Thief cites many instances where the power of words is present in Nazi Germany, through Hitler, through books, through many characters of varying personalities and through our main character herself, Liesel Meminger. A quote from the books says, “She was a girl. In Nazi Germany. How fitting that she was discovering the power of words.” (Zusak, 147). Liesel is a girl who lost her family and is now …show more content…
Words give people a voice, words connect people. Liesel bonded with both Max and Hans over words, over reading. Liesel bonded with Ilsa Hermann over the books in her library. Liesel’s life was changed and saved by words. Ilsa gave Liesel a notebook to write her story in after Liesel ripped up one of her books because she hated what the power of them did. Liesel wrote that 10 books had impacted her life greatly. “When she came to write her story, she would wonder exactly when the books and the words started to mean not just something but everything.” (Zusak, 30). Words meant everything to Liesel, and their power changed her life. As for saving it, that happened when she was rereading what she had written in her notebook down in the basement. That’s when the bombs came down. The Nazis said that the basement was too shallow to be a bomb shelter, but it was better than up in bed, like everyone else on Himmel Street. Liesel was the only survivor. Words can save people, not only in that physical sense but mentally too. When the air raids went on everyone in the shelter was terrified, just waiting for the bombs to come, for everyone to die. People were screaming, crying. The only thing that distracted from death looming above was words. “Everyone waited for the ground to shake. That was still an immutable fact, but at least they were distracted now, by the girl with the book...only when the sirens leaked into the cellar again did someone interrupt her. “We’re safe,”...she continued reading with no fanfare or added speed. Just the words. ***Duden Dictionary Meaning #4*** Wort- Word: A meaningful unit of language / a promise / a short remark, statement, or conversation…” (Zusak, 382). The dictionary definition proves that the words and meaning, and the reading in the cellar proved the words had power. No matter what Liesel was reading, the words in themselves held power. Liesel reads to Frau Holtzapfel too,
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.
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 this passage, Liesel just stopped beating up Ludwig Schmeikl and Tommy Muller. Liesel is mad because she is learning how to read with Hans but can’t prove it to her classmates that she can read so they think she is stupid. Liesel tries to defend herself not by proving that she’s not stupid but with violence instead, much like how Hitler handled the Jews with killing them and destroying their homes.
It all started on a train; Liesel and her brother were being separated from their parents; and all because their communist political view represented a threat to the Nazi Party. In this same trip, which meant the
She loves how words can fill her up, but then she also realizes that words can be ugly things, especially in the way Hitler can use words to encourage the German people to carry out horrific violence and cause so much suffering. She
Through Liesel’s and Ilsa’s friendship comes an understanding of what Ilsa Hermann has experienced in her son dying. “I used to read here with my son.” (Zusak 451) Before Ilsa makes a connecting to Liesel it seems as if Ilsa was floating through life like a zombie awaiting death to cause the pain of living with out her son to stop. It was not until she comes to care for Liesel, almost as if she thinks she is her own does she have a revival of the spirit. After revealing to Liesel that she knows that Liesel is taking books from her library Ilsa gives Liesel a blank book and tells her to write her own story in it. Every night Liesel would go down into her basement because it was her favorite place to be and write down there for hours. One night there was a bombing on Molching with no warning while Liesel was down writing. She ended up surviving because of the long chain of events starting all the way back to her stealing The Grave Digger’s Handbook in the graveyard her brother lays in. (Word Count
Between Night and The Hiding Place, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are clearly proved to be essential in order to survive in these death camps. Corrie, Elie, and other victims of these harsh brutalities who did survive had a rare quality that six million others unfortunately did not.
Fellow classmates in Liesel’s class mock her because she didn’t read the passage he was instructed to read. This shows Liesel experiences unhappiness because of her lack of reading and the power of words.
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
...at the power of words entailed in the novel, The Book Thief, words really are very powerful. Three examples were given above as a few powers that the novel captured throughout the story. Words can manipulate and divide people, but at the same time connect people. Despite the fact that words have so many contradicting powers, one can use the words to their full extent when their intent is moral. In fact, words are meaningless if it doesn’t have an impact on an individual, society, or world. Words can do both good and bad, however, if one uses them in a proper way, it can result in a positive statement for our world. The novel gives the readers the lesson that we should comprehend the power of words and use words in a moral way. Just remember this: “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” (pg. 413)
Liesel experiences abandonment throughout her life, and the novel during a suppressed time in World War II Germany. Through her experiences Liesel’s learns to equate abandonment with love knowing that circumstance have forced her loved ones to leave her.
"You see, for her words were medicine; they were magic and invisible. They came from nothing into sound and meaning. They were beyond price; they could neither be bought nor sold. And she never threw words away." --Pg. 85
The novel, Book Thief, and the infamous Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler both share the same concealed theme of the power of words, but the embedded elements of literature within these written words make these two books both similar and different. While comparing and contrasting the power of words as represented in The Book Thief to the way that Hitler used them in Mein Kampf, one can conclude that the tone, mood, and tactic of persuasion used in both pieces of literature exemplify could affect people’s lives and the lives in their surrounding
In addition to the backstory of how he was taken away. Liesel learns about what Max has gone through as a Jew, and shows her how wrong the Nazi’s doings are. She portrays human dignity by realizing Max wasn’t getting the self-respect he deserved. Liesel was a strong character who exhibited human dignity fairly, whereas her teacher displayed the theme
Words that are spoken can be seen as powerful. In the play Othello, words are used to express lies and truths in the play. Without words, Othello and Desdemona would not have been