Beauty In The Book Thief

How can beauty be in the wake of brutality? In The Book Thief, a young girl named Liesel Meminger struggles through life in Nazi Germany; She was orphaned, her brother died, and she even had to hide a Jew. Her life is filled with constant brutality and danger; however, beautiful events still take place. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Liesel’s life is still beautiful despite struggles and death because Zusak’s poetic writing enhances this beauty.

Liesel’s life is full of struggles, but beauty can still be found. Liesel had to hide a Jew named Max, a crime punishable by death. She is filled with the constant stress of hiding him, and is even tempted to say “There’s a Jew in my basement.” (245). This stress is obviously no good for a little girl, or anyone of any

On Liesel’s birthday, Max “Came closer to the bed and placed the pages on the floor...a late birthday gift.” (237) and when Max was sick, Liesel “was on the lookout for discarded items that might be valuable to a dying man.” (321). These two quotes together show that Liesel and Max have a beautiful friendship. Max knew that Liesel loved to read, and made her a homemade book for her birthday as a surprise. While Max was sick, Liesel searched for items every day for Max to wake up to. They both worked hard to make each other happy during this stressful event, and that is beautiful. Liesel struggled with school. Liesel could not read, and was told “You Dummkopf - you idiot.” (78). She was bullied for not knowing how to read, and that was going to stop. However, Liesel wrote that “it was not so much school who helped me to read. It was Papa.” (64). Because she struggled in school, Liesel was able to spend more time with her Papa while simultaneously learning how to read; an important tool in life. She had already lost her brother and mother, and it is beautiful that she still has a parental figure to look up to. Liesel also struggles with poverty, and