The Book Thief Analysis

Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak was born on June 23rd, 1975 in Sydney, Australia. His mother is German, and his father is Austrian. When he was just a boy, his parents told him stories about what happened during world war two, and these stories would eventually inspire him to write The Book Thief. He even included specific events that he learned about from his mother, such as the parade of Jews, and when Munich was bombed. He began writing when he was but a teenager, and stated that his inspiration came from The Old Man and the Sea.

Importance of Setting

The Book Thief is set in a small fictional German town called Mulching, which is said to be right outside of Munich. The story begins in the midst of the troubles of world war two, when Hitler has been in power for a decent amount of time. Zusak wanted to portray the story of the German side of things, showing how information about what Hitler was doing was not commonly known. He wanted to show the struggles that can happen in even the smallest towns, emphasizing Nazi influence throughout the book. Some Germans full of pride, others with regret, even more with fear. This is just a small town, but even what they do has consequences, and this shows how much of an actor you had to be to stay alive if you disagreed with the Gestapo.

List of Characters

Death

The introduction of death is an oddity that should be expected, as a spiritual superstition given form should always have some sort of mystery about them. Death is the narrator of The book Thief, telling the readers the tales that he finds interesting while supplanting seemingly meaningless interjections of facts and other such trivial things. In the beginning of the book, he tells us of his use of distractions and their...

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...esel’s mother and brother where they were travelling when death made his first appearance in the book thief’s life. He took the soul of her brother and only glanced at the girl truly, not taking real note of her as he did his job. She knew that her brother was dead at that point, but the shock wouldn’t truly take her until she snatched a book from where it had fallen near her brother’s hastily made grave. After he was buried, Liesel and her mother continued on their way, arriving at the town of Molching, where she met Hans and Rose Hubermann. She did not accept them with open arms at first, but when Hans showed his great ability of showing affection and being there when she needed him, she warmed up to them both.

In the first few months that she had arrived, nightmares plagued her mind, haunting her with images of Werner, her brother, and his cold dead eyes.