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In this essay I will talk about The Book Thief Characters. The characters are Liesel, Rudy, And Max. I Will talk about how they are Influenced by society in This Book/Movie. I am going to three Paragraphs about these three characters. This essay is going to be a Compare and Contrast Essay. Also about the choices they make. I will also talk about what are they are characteristics and how both Liesel and Max are compared Liesel is nine years old, almost ten, at the start of the book. She is about fifteen toward the end of the book when the bombs destroy her home and kill her loved ones. The book ends when she is an old woman and Death comes to collect her soul. Liesel is the book thief. At the start of her story, Liesel is without words and cannot read. She understands that there is great power in words, though, and she hungers for them. She reads with her Papa and visits Frau Hermann in her library, one of the greatest places Liesel has ever seen. She also reads to those around her in the basement when there are air raids. Books become a source of comfort for herself and for those around her. 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 …show more content…
He is known for painting himself black like Jesse Owens after the 1936 Olympics and running the track at Hubert Oval. He is in love with Liesel and is constantly trying to get her to kiss him, but he only receives his kiss after it is too late. Rudy is a good student and a great athlete and often sticks up for Liesel, protecting her in any way that he knows how. Together, they steal apples and potatoes, as well as books from the mayor's house. He calls Liesel a Saumensch just like Rosa Hubermann does. Liesel calls him a Saukerl, just like Rosa calls
“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
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.
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
The story takes place during an extremely destructive time, and death is seemingly around every corner. The theme of death is so prevalent that even the narrator of the book thief is a personified version of it. As Death, the narrator, watched Liesel 's story unfold, Millions of Jews were dying in concentration camps, soldiers were dying for their country, and countless civilians were perishing in bombings. Himmel Street was no stranger to these horrible deaths. Most of the characters living on Himmel Street experience sorrow from the sudden passing of a loved one as a result of World War Two (WWII), and this influences the novel in many ways. Neighbors, sons, daughters, parents, and grandparents all died as a result of the cruelty of WWII and this, along with Death’s cynical narrating, creates a dark and dangerous tone. A death in The Book Thief also changes a character’s entire life. For example, the death of Robert Holtzapfel proved to be too much for his brother Michael, and he committed suicide. This death then causes the death of their mother, Frau Holtzapfel, when her sadness over the loss of her only children consumes her. “He placed his hand on hers, as she fell back to the hard ground. He allowed her screams to fill the street (503).” Towards the end of the novel the readers get a glimpse of how Death feels about this kind of pain and suffering, which millions of others also experienced
Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel. First, Zusak uses his character, Rudy, to support his theme of the brutality and beauty of human nature. Rudy’s brutality is revealed in a certain moment when he devises a plan to steal food from the priest by causing the delivery boy to wreck on the way to the priest’s house. Rudy’s beauty is also displayed in many things he does for Liesel, such as jumping in the ice-cold river for her book.
The two books by Markus Zusak and Paulo Coelho tells the stories of two characters, Liesel Meminger and Santiago, each in their own respective stories. In The Alchemist, Santiago’s story is a much lighter tale with an overall optimistic and adventurous air. He journeys from Spain all the way to Egypt and back before his adventure ends. Zusak’s The Book Thief, sharply contrasts Coelho’s story with the much darker and dangerous world of Nazi Germany.
At his funeral, Liesel steals her first book, The Grave Diggers Handbook (24). The book is the gateway to not only her becoming a book thief, but also the gateway to her papa teaching her to read. This fact comes in handy during one of the air raids (381), when Liesel reads to the others in order to distract them from their anxieties. In The Giver, when Jonas is made aware of what life was like before Sameness, he realizes that the way the community has been living isn’t truly living. There is no emotion, no individuality, and everything is a shallow version of what it was in the past. Deciding that the members of the community should no longer have to live in the bland reality that has been created for them, he and the Giver devise a plan: Jonas must leave the community and release the memories so that they find the people of the community (117). Jonas gives up his family, his friends, and the only home he has ever known, all to give the community a chance to feel emotion and individuality once more. Both characters exhibited strength in moments where it was necessary, strength given to them by the things they deemed
The Aryan campaign against the Jews began in 1933 with a boycott of Jewish businesses (“36 Questions About the Holocaust”). While there was no organized protest, many German citizens refused to comply with the boycott and continued to shop in Jewish businesses. Others carried on in their lives doing what people do every day -- going to work, paying bills, raising children, and occasionally enjoying a celebration. Systematic “desensitization” worked exceptionally well in Nazi Germany and people simply did not ask (Ezard). Because the German government never published its “Final Solution” plans, Germans were not overly concerned about the relocation of Jewish families, and for that, the German people have been treated with derision for
The imagery of color in this excerpt is death telling us about the colors of the earth and sky while he is doing his job. Death is interested in colors and he mentions that he saw the book thief three time and along with those three times three colors stood out to him. The first time was white and he states for those who believe white isn't a color that it most definitely is and you wouldn't want to argue with him because he's death. He mentions that his favorite color of sky is dark chocolate. He states that colors sooth him, help him relax, and are his vacations. He says that most people notice the colors of the sky at the day's beginnings and ends but he notices that throughout the day the sky goes through thousands of shades from waxy
Death introduces himself as the narrator of the story. He summarizes the three times he has met “the book thief,” and the story begins when he tells her entire story in in-depth detail. He tells the story of their very first encounter, on the train where Liesel’s brother suffers an unfortunate and untimely death. Liesel is then transported to the Hubermann’s, where she’ll be living. Liesel is extremely closed off, that is until Hans teaches her how to roll cigarettes, and she begins to trust him. Liesel starts getting used to her new situation, even though she is having terrible nightmares about her brother's death. Liesel then meets Rudy, a boy in her neighborhood who has a crush on her, and idolizes Jesse
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.
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.
The published review I read was John Green’s review about the novel The Book Thief in the New York Times newspaper. Green did a well job on the review of the novel and gave some positive elements of the novel such as style of writing and characterization. Green recommended the novel and I agree with his decision for the many reasons. Green talked about the authors amazing style of writing, the author of The Book Thief is Markus Zusak. I agree with his review due to the fact that Zusak used descriptive words that created brilliant passages which allows the readers to visualize what is occurring in the novel.
Liesel Meminger is nine in the beginning. Her younger brother died and her mom gave her up to go live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel is hurt by her brother's death, but Hans ends up being a decent foster father. Actually, with his help, she learned to read and eventually found happiness in reading books. Many of the people she loves eventually leave her life because of World War II and the Holocaust. Basically, Liesel learns to use words to influence humans to act towards both good and evil as she experiences the good and bad in society. Max Vandenburg is a 23-year-old Jew who hid from the Nazis in the Hubermanns' basement. Max was a fighter growing up, and as a teenager he refused to die without a fight. Max was upset because of his decision to save himself over his family, but when he meets Liesel they both become friends who each share a broken past. As their friendship grew, Liesel starts reading to Max every night. Max made two books for Liesel; both had mini stories about their friendship and Nazi Germany. Max leaves the house af...
The Device Thief “Get ready we are leaving for oregon. ”my mom said with excitement. “Five more minutes.” I said with laziness. come on get up, get up” she exclaimed.