...Chapter One - How Liesel’s Maturity is Affected by the Setting “War will change people!” -Aaron Starmer. In Markus Zusak’s, The Book Thief, the protagonist, Liesel Meminger is living in the time of World War II. She doesn’t act like a child, she is mature and sophisticated. In The Book Thief, the setting influences the maturity of the main character, Liesel Meminger. The Book Thief is set in the time of The Holocaust in Germany. Liesel’s Dad is not a Nazi. In that time, if a male figure of a family wasn’t part of the Nazis then that family didn’t have extra privileges and would most likely have issues with money. This is what happens to Liesel’s family. Because of this, Liesel must do everything she can to help her family. Liesel helps her...
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...The novel The Book Thief is based on the life of Liesel Meminger, a nine year old girl, who lives in Nazi Germany during World War II. In the story, Death narrates the experiences of Liesel’s life. These experiences brought both magnificence and devastation that effected many lives that were in this era. After Liesel’s brother's death, she arrives in an upset state at the home of her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. While Liesel was there she saw many terrible things that the Nazi ruling has brought to Germany. As she sees these horrific things going on in Germany she struggles to find a way to defend her guilt in the disturbing surroundings. While the political situation in Germany gets worse Liesel’s foster parents decide to hide a man named max who is a Jew. While Max remains in the house it makes it dangerous for Liesel and her parents to stay in the home. Liesel’s foster dad, Hans, who has a close bond with Liesel, teaches her to read in...
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...novel and the film The Book Thief. She uses words to develop relationships with her foster father, Hans Hubermann; Max Vandenburg, the illicit Jew in her basement; and her neighbours. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak there is much more relationship development compared to the film The Book Thief directed by Brian Percival. This consequently causes the theme of the power of words to be less prominent in the film. The novel The Book Thief develops the relationship between Liesel Meminger and her neighbours more than the film The Book Thief therefore minimizing the theme. First, Liesel and Rudy become best friends, “Insane or not, Rudy was always destined to be Liesel’s best friend.” (Zusak 48). Rudy introduced himself to Liesel as soon as she moved in, he developed a liking for her and they soon become best friends. Rudy used his charming, and sometimes insulting, words to win over Liesel. This develops the theme because it shows that even if one does not want to like someone, their words can change them into a likable person. Second, Liesel and Frau Hermann develop a relationship, “When she came and stood with an impossibly frail steadfastness, she was holding a tower of books against her stomach, from her navel to the beginning of her breasts. She looked so vulnerable in the monstrous doorway. Long, light eyelashes and just the slightest tinge of expression. A suggestion.” (Zusak 133). Frau Hermann, the mayor’s wife, had seen Liesel steal a book after a large burning...
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...Words can have a source of power for an individual. In The Book Thief, books become a source of power for Liesel. Liesel’s life changes as she picks up a book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook. She becomes interested in books and learns how to read with the help of her foster father, who plays a crucial role in her life. She then begins to steal multiple books wherever they are found. She overcomes many obstacles in her life and those obstacles shape her to who she has become. In the short story The Book Thief, Markus Zusak uses the books The Grave Digger’s Handbook, The Whistler, and The Book Thief to demonstrate Liesel’s understanding and development of how powerful words can be. The Grave Digger’s Handbook becomes the first ever book Liesel...
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...of The Book Thief is set in the basement or under houses. Liesel spends a lot of time in the Huberman’s basement with Max and writing her book as well as reading to her fellow neighbors in the Fielders basement. The setting of the basement highlights the mood and atmosphere of the book. The basements are also under the houses which could represent her subconscious as it is the place where she is more creative and artistic. This is also the place where she has more expression and where she can be herself with Max. Although not thoroughly explained or in great detail, Liesel’s brothers death plays a major part in the development of the plot in The Book Thief. His death marks the start of Liesel’s obsession with books and learning to...
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...an innocent picking-up, turned into fence jumping and window crawling. Liesel's growing and declining habit of stealing books has an overall domino effect on her life, which is threaded through each page of The Book Thief. In the end, Liesel’s thievery keeps her alive. The Grave Digger’s Handbook was the first to be in the possession of Liesel Meminger. It was black with silver writing on the cover, found lodged in the snow of a “nameless” (22) town. After the burial of her little brother, Werner, had been cut short and Liesel and her mother would soon again board the train from the cemetery (this time with one less person), Liesel spotted the rectangular...
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...life or in a fictional book, all people have their own feelings, personalities or emotions. All characters from The Book Thief are believable because they all have emotions and that is why they should be considered as believable characters because emotions and feelings are what make those characters realistic. For example, Max Vandenburg, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, are believable from The Book Thief. Max with his anger and Hans and Rosa’s love toward their family are what make them especially believable. First of all, Max Vandenburg is a Jewish fist-fighter who hides in the Hubermann’s house because of what Hans owe from his father. “You find a small black room, in sits a scum. He is starving. He is afraid.” (Page 138) This part of the book explained how before Max moved into the Hubermann’s house, he used to hide in a small room waiting for his friend. It definitely showed how lonely Max was while hiding and waiting. This loneliness is a very realistic human feeling that makes Max a believable character. “In the blue corner, we have the champion of the world, The Fubhrer… and in the red corner, we have the Jewish, rat-faced challenger –Max Vandenburg.” (Page 251) Loneliness is not the only feeling Max has in the story but also the anger towards Hitler. As a Jewish who was constantly being hunted for at that time, he had furious feelings toward Hitler, the Nazi leader, which made him fantasize about being in a fight with him. Next, Hans Hubermann is Liesel’s foster father who shows...
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...The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, is a remarkable novel that shines a new light on how death is perceived. The book tells the story of Liesl, a young girl in Germany, who loves to read. As her family keeps a Jew in their basement during World War II, she finds herself stealing books and reading them during the bombings on her home street. Death’s narration of the book is the best way to tell Liesel’s story because he is unbiased, knows everything, and connects with Liesel. Death’s narration shows the true story of a little girl on Himmel Street, without any exaggeration. Death is an unbiased narrator for The Book Thief. For starters Death is not narrating about himself, so he can be blunt and honest. Death is not human, he can’t completely relate to humans and...
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...decides to protect a Jewish man in their basement, a young girl’s stolen books help her develop a deeper understanding of the world beyond Himmel Street, encouraging her to give a new life to Hitler’s toxic words in her own stories. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the simultaneous existence of anti-Semitic propaganda in Nazi Germany alongside Liesel’s cherished books and Max’s captivating stories demonstrate how words can be both destructive and self-delegating in an oppressed society. First, Hitler demonstrates the...
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...Reading a bunch of books a month is a hobby, right? Writing books is a job, is this true? Learning to read books is a requirement in school to pass 1st grade, correct? And what about stealing books that are going to be burnt for some lunatic that leads an entire country, is that some sort of crime? Can you still be considered a protagonist? In the story of Liesel Meminger in The Book Thief, yes, you are still considered a hero, a person of amazement, and a protagonist. But why? Why are you still considered a good guy (or good girl) if you steal a book and you can’t even read? Well, it’s because in The Book Thief, the books are a symbol of knowledge, and here’s why. The main character; Liesel Meminger or the book thief as she is known as in...
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...If it came down to it, would it make sense for one to steal something for their survival? What if it was only for the betterment of oneself? How about if one did not care or even fully realize what they were doing? Would all of these still be considered thievery? Questions like these have the power to shroud opinions about what is defined as right and wrong. These certain questions are able to challenge people on their take of the difference between stealing for survival and stealing for greed. Ideas like these, revolving around the rightness of thievery, present themselves many times throughout The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak. This novel follows the life of the main character Liesel Meminger as she adapts to her new life while trying...
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...The Book Thief Summary How It All Goes Down The Book Thief is narrated by Death, who tells us the story of Liesel Meminger. It's January 1939, and Liesel, who is about ten-years-old, is traveling by train with her mother and her little brother Werner. Liesel and Werner are being taken to the small town of Molching, just outside of Munich, Germany, to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Werner dies on the train of mysterious causes having to do with poverty, hunger, cold, and lack of medical treatment. Before Liesel arrives in Molching, she attends her brother's burial in a snowy graveyard. She steals The Grave Digger's Handbook from the cemetery after it falls from a young grave digger's coat. The kicker is, Liesel can't read. Liesel is reluctant to enter the Hubermann house on Himmel Street, but is coaxed by her foster father, Hans, to whom she takes an immediate liking. She's not sure about Rosa, though. Liesel begins school, but suffers because she doesn't know how to read yet. She also meets Rudy Steiner, who is soon to be her best friend, not to mention her partner in book and food thievery. One night, Hans finds The Grave Digger's Handbook hidden in Liesel's mattress after her usual nightmare of seeing her brother dying on the train. This is what inspires him to begin teaching her to read. When Liesel learns to write, she begins composing letters to her mother, but these letters go unanswered. Finally, we find out that her mother has disappeared. ...
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...novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, it is evident that books, reading, and words themselves represent power for different characters in different ways. Close analysis of Liesel Meminger and Max Vandenburg reveals that power can be achieved through literacy in a context where literacy is severely limited. Literacy plays a major role in Liesel’s adolescence. Liesel obtains power through literacy as it gives her a sense of comfort and control. The act of reading and writing gives Liesel the strength to cope with and heal from her emotional trauma. Reading and finishing the book The Gravedigger’s Handbook helps Liesel find the courage to move on from the loss of her brother. Although Liesel does not yet know how to read when she arrives at the Hubermann’s on Himmel Street, she keeps the book to comfort her, as it is the last object she has relating to her brother. When papa and Liesel finish reading the book, Liesel “trot[s] out, involuntarily” (Zusak 87) by explaining to Hans that her brother’s name “‘was Werner’” (87). The act of Liesel’s words being spoken involuntarily suggests that “she is finding some freedom in the effects of her disturbing experiences” (Lee 14). Liesel does not have to force herself to speak to Hans about her brother as she has gained emotional stability. Additionally, literacy helps Liesel recover from her distress as Hans reads to her nightly. Hans reads to Liesel “to soothe her, to love her” (Zusak 36). Hans’ spoken words from the books and his mollifying...
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...Courageous, imaginative and adventurous are the words that best describe the once quiet, closed off young Liesel Meminger, the protagonist in the film The Book Thief, directed by Brian Percival in 2013. During the course of Liesel's journey she has gained great knowledge through her love of reading and writing but more importantly is the way her character has been shaped and moulded into the determined, strong-minded and matured Liesel she was always destined to be, through the new relationships she discovered with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa, Rudy a young boy she learned to call a friend and Max a Jew who stole her heart and mind as she looked to him for advice and guidance. Liesel's trust had to be earned. In the beginning, she had...
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...words are the most controlling force in the universe. They can be utilized in many ways, gracious or crude. Nevertheless, words can have a major effect on an individual level, in addition to on society as a whole. Throughout The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, he thoroughly explores this idea. The reader of The Book Thief gets to experience Liesel mature and flourish alongside literature. Words play a big role within the life of Liesel Meminger, also in the lives of all individuals and societies on earth. The Book Thief takes place in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The holocaust was made possible by words, mentioned in the book that Max wrote for Liesel “The Word Shaker”. “The Word Shaker” explores the idea that Hitler uses purely words to take control of Germany. Hitler used words to manipulate a large amount of people into hating the Jewish people for irrational reasons. This is a superb example of how words alone can control human beings and their...
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