Topic > Analysis and reflection on "The Book Thief"

The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger narrated by Death. She is a nine-year-old German girl who is about to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann, a married couple in the German town of Molching in 1939 after her mother decided to give up both her and her brother. But tragedy strikes when on the train to Molching, Liesel's younger brother Werner dies, and Leisel is left traumatized forever, causing her to have nightmares about him for months. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At his brother's funeral, he steals his first book, The Grave Digger's Handbook. When she arrives at Hubermann's house she acts coldly until her adoptive father, Hans, plays his accordion to try to cheer her up, which brings them closer. Hans calms Liesel when she experiences her nightmares and helps her learn to read, starting with a book that Liesel stole from the cemetery where her brother is buried. Liesel quickly befriends a boy from their neighborhood, Rudy Steiner, who falls in love with her. Liesel later steals another book from a book burning and realizes that her father was persecuted for being a communist and that her mother was likely killed by the Nazis for the same crime. Ilsa Hermann witnessed the theft of the book and later invites Liesel to read in her library. Keeping a promise he made to the man who saved his life during World War I, Hans hides a Jew named Max Vandenburg in his basement behind some paint cans. Liesel and Max become close friends, and Max writes two stories directed at Liesel about their friendship and how Hitler came to power. But during a parade of Jews being taken to a concentration camp, Hans openly gives bread to a Jew, which leads to him being publicly whipped. Max leaves so as not to get Hans into more trouble than he already is. Hans and Rudy's father is drafted into the army at a time when air raids on German cities begin to occur more and cause more death and destruction. But after Hans suffers a broken leg in a car accident, he is sent home. Liesel then sees Max as he is being taken to the Dachau concentration camp. Later, Ilsa gives Liesel a book with blank pages so she can write. Liesel begins writing her life story in the Hubermanns' basement during the night, which allowed her to somehow survive an air raid that kills Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and everyone else on her block except Rudy's father who is still in the army. at this point. Liesel survives the war and meets Max as it draws to a close. She goes on to live a long life and eventually meets death himself in old age. Words and stories are one of the most important themes of the book. There are many examples of how words and stories are intertwined with history. One of the first examples is the alphabet. Whenever Liesel had her nightmares, he would take her to the basement to teach her the alphabet which formed a deep bond between the two of them. “The Word Shaker,” the story Max writes for Liesel, also supports this theme. In it, he suggests that words are one of the most powerful forces, using the example of Hitler who used words to conquer the world, not weapons. “ Yes, the Führer decided that he would rule the world with words. “I'll never shoot a gun,” he thought, “I won't have to.” The story essentially dramatizes how Liesel used words to deal with Nazi Germany, and Max also managed to find refuge in her words. Liesel later reads from her book to calm her neighbors during the air raids. He also reads to Frau Holtzapfel to console her. But the example.