The Book Thief by Colby Peplinski 6th hour
"I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right". This quote is from "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, this historical fiction book is about a girl (Liesel) who lives in Germany during WW2. Liesel is a smart and charismatic girl, although she cannot read at the start of the book she slowly learns. While this is happening, she is secretly stealing books and going on adventures with her friend, Rudy. She is adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubberman, she was supposed to be adopted with her brother, but he dies on the train ride to the new house. The Book Thief is to inform you about what the Holocaust and WW2 was like to a little German child. Note: this book is not
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This happens after her brother dies on the train to go live with her new parents. The grave digger dropped the book next to the grave and Liesel grabbed it before anyone noticed. She moves to a good sized house in Munich, Germany on Himmel street. Almost immediately after she meets her new parents( Hans and Rosa Hubberman) she likes Hans and not Rosa. She likes Hans because he is kind and caring, but Rosa has a screechy mean voice and bosses her around. She soon meets her soon to be best friend, Rudy. Rudy is about the size of Liesel, they may have the same blonde hair, but Liesel has dark, dangerous eyes instead of Rudy's bright blue eyes. She meets Rudy while playing soccer in the street and being the new girl Liesel gets goalie. A bigger boy runs to shoot at Liesel and shoots strong and accurate... But Liesel jumps and saves it, no one stops this boy's goals. As everyone is cheering for her a boy comes up and high fives her, Rudy. After she meets Rudy she goes on a couple of smaller adventures with him, but her life changes the most when Max comes, a Jew. There are many smaller themes in the Book Thief, but an important theme is to always help others when you can. They show this when Hans helps a Jew in the street and when Liesel helps Rudy when he gets stuck on the fence. They also show it when Liesel helps max with hypothermia or when Rudy helps Liesel back to her house when she falls and skins up her knee. This is important because many people have to help each other during WW2 especially in
Liesel yearns to discover the power of words through reading books. Throughout the story, she repeatedly steals books to grasp more information. It all starts with The Gravediggers Manuel; Liesel attains this book the day that her brother dies, while he is being buried by the gravediggers. Liesel pilfers this book from the gravediggers because the book will symbolize her remembrance of her brother, Werner. This also will start the beginning of her acrimony for the Fuhrer, because Liesel discovers that he is answerable for his death.
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.
Guilt is a prevalent theme throughout The Book Thief. Liesel endures guilt multiple times, when she steals laundry money from Rosa, gets Max sick, verbally attacks Ilsa Hermann, and experiences the guilt of surviving. All of these acts caused Liesel to experience some sort of guilt which later causes her to perform questionable tasks.
The heavily proclaimed novel “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a great story that can help you understand what living in Nazi Germany was like. Throughout the story, the main character, Liesel goes through many hardships to cope with a new life in a new town and to come to the recognition of what the Nazi party is. Liesel was given up for adoption after her mother gave her away to a new family, who seemed harsh at first, but ended up being the people who taught her all the things she needed to know. Life with the new family didn’t start off good, but the came to love them and her new friend, Rudy. As the book carried along, it was revealed that the Hubermanns were not Nazi supporters, and even took in a Jew and hid him in their basement later on in the book. Liesel became great friends with the Jew living in her basement, Max, who shared many similarities which helped form their relationship. Both of
“I am haunted by humans” (Zusak 550). The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is about the horrors of World War II. Liesel and her family help out an old friend by hiding a Jew. Liesel also steals her first book when she at her brother’s funeral. Liesel Meminger’s remarkable actions like feeling good when she steals a book and her family hiding a Jew help demonstrate why Death is “haunted by humans”.
Liesel’s mom leaves her with foster parents because she wishes to protect her from the fate she is enduring. The words Paula, Liesel’s mom, uses go against Hitler because she is a communist which resulted in her being taken away and Liesel to lose her mother and experience the loss of her. This shows Liesel experiences unhappiness because of her mother’s disappearance which is caused by the words she openly uses that contradicts Hitler.
The feeling of guilt is soemthing that almost everyone has to deal with. Guilt can often be holding you back and will push you to a goal of redeeming yourself. In the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the narrator death tells the story of tragedies Liesel Memminger suffered while living with her foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubermanns in Nazi Germany. The narrator death tells his story of how he experienced hie “life” from 1939-1943. In the book many characters were faced with guilt after the loss of a family member or friend. Markus Zusak illustrates overwhelming weight of guilt can lead to a person’s redemption.
One aspect of reading that I enjoy is getting so wrapped up in the story. When the character's heart pounds, my heart pounds. When they hold their breath, I hold my breath. It feels like I'm there in the story. I get absorbed in the plot and take in every detail. A challenge I have regarding reading is that I tend to stop in the middle of a series if the beginning of the book isn't very interesting. I want to read further, but I end up procrastinating until it gets lost under my bed. I am hoping to improve my reading this year by remembering to look up word I don't know. This will help me to better understand whatever story I am reading. My favorite text from last year was definitely The Book Thief. This compelling novel always kept me on the
Liesel is dropped off with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in a town called Molching. Rosa is insulting and shows little care for Liesel but Hans quickly wins Liesel over with his gentle and kind ways. Liesel slowly starts adapting to her new estranged life and befriends a neighbourhood boy, Rudy. Hans discovers a book which Liesel had stolen from the grave digger at her brother’s burial and begins teaching Liesel how to read. World War II is underway and the town holds a book burning ceremony in celebration of Hitler’s birthday. Liesel steals a book but the Mayor’s wife sees her.
They first saw each other when Liesel stole The Shoulder Shrug from a bonfire. She was moved to steal after Hans (reluctantly) slapped her in the face for saying that she hated Hitler. The spite from these events led her to steal. Mrs. Hermann saw her take the book and later invited her into the library, suggesting that she, “Come and see” (Zusak, 133). Her summer “consisted of four main elements”(Zusak, 142), one of which being, “Reading on the floor of the mayor’s library” (Zusak, 142). Her coping mechanism for sadness became reading at the mayor’s library. Another event of beauty after tragedy was Rosa giving Liesel the book Max made for her, The Book Shaker. It was after Max left to find another hiding place and Hans was drafted into the military, two events that stabbed Liesel in her heart. Books were Liesel’s escape from the emotional debacles of her life and helped her deal with loss and despair.
...t Max gave to Liesel as a gift. This book represents the power of words, and how words can make a difference in a person’s life.The readers are engaged because it is interesting know the back stories behind these books when we read about them in the novel. Finally, Hans’ accordion symbolises comfort in The Book Thief. When Hans leaves to go fight in the war, he leaves his accordion at home with Rosa and Liesel. This is the moment that Liesel know that Rosa truly does love Hans, although she might not show it. “Liesel watched. She knew that for the next few days, Mama would be walking around with the imprint of an accordion on her body” (429). Rosa, Liesel’s “Mama”, keeps the accordion close to her heart because it reminds her of her husband, Hans, whom she misses so much. In The Book Thief, symbolism attracts attention to certain thematic ideas and the novel itself.
In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger was nine when her brother died, then less than twenty-four hours later her mother was gone. Liesel has gone through more hardships in her youth than most people have gone through in their entire life. Throughout her life she has had an ever changing personality and is a very dynamic person. She has stolen books and the heart of a neighbor boy. Liesel is a memorable character and has a important story to tell about Germany and the life of her and her family.
The quote that stuck with me trough the book was one not so much about the emotions that can with the Holocaust, but more of the actions that people had to take during this time.
As he approached the shop door he could see the girl still hard at work in the back of the shop. He step in the shop silently keeping his eye on the girl. Quickly he asked Alex Steiner if he could speak to Liesel privately. With nod of the head Max was already proceeding toward his soon to be fiancee. Without her knowing he softly put his arm around her instantly warming her heart from the long dull day at work. Without a word He pulled her out of sight into the back room. Liesel could instantly sense something was different. He was far too giddy than normal, which probably gave max’s secret away before he even spoke. As she asked him what was up he immediately bent over on one knee and asked “Liesel, will you marry me?” Tears of joy came screaming down the Book Thief’s face. She was overwhelmed with emotions and with a blurred nod of her head they embraced one another with unconditional love. Max summoned up the bravery and said these next words “ would you leave Germany and all the grey from our past behind and move to Australia and start a new life with me?” Liesel had never been outside the country of Germany. She was nervous and scared of
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.