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Book Thief And Night: Literary Analysis

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The past is an interesting and intriguing thing. It holds many life lessons, good and bad, and makes us realize certain things about it when the future comes around, that we never thought about in the moment. When we look back on the past, whether it involved us or not, it can strongly affect the way someone is living now, and their perspective on theirs and others lives. The Holocaust definitely had a huge affect on society and still does today. The Book Thief and Night had two very different stories and views of the Holocaust and what occurred during it but, the two books themes connect together and in a way, give off the same message. One of the biggest themes in The Book Thief is the power of words. Words play a very big part in character relationships in this book. From …show more content…

One particular Jewish man is weak and clearly suffering from hunger and exhaustion, and Hans rushes to him and gives him a piece of bread. It’s a small act, but it shows kindness. It lets the Jewish man know that not only does Hans not hate him for being Jewish, but he also pities him and wants to ease his suffering. Immediately after, one of the Nazi soldiers mercilessly whips Hans and the Jewish man. The act is cruel to begin with, but its cruelty is heightened by the fact that it comes in response to Hans’s kindness. The great difference between these two acts is astounding. Number one, it was not the Jew’s fault that Hans decided to be a decent human being and try to help him. Therefore he should not have had any punishment for a kind act given upon him. And number two, it is very sad that a kind man could be whipped for feeding someone that is starving and struggling to survive on his own. The Nazi soldiers truly did not have and remorse or feeling towards the Jews. In their minds, the Jews were completely

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Elie Wiesel is not only a Jewish author, he is much more. He is a journalist, human rights activist, a Holocaust survivor, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was born September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania, being the only boy in the family and having three sisters. Elie, at 15, and his family were forced, to relocate to a Nazi death camp during WWII. In 1945 he and two of his sister were freed from Auschwitz.

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In some cases he accepts a few cigarettes in exchange for his services and other times he gets nothing. Also in the novel, Hans tries to give a piece of bread to a dying Jew. By doing this he is putting himself in a very vulnerable position just to help a person who he does not know.

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Hans, ascertaining the line of hopeful starving Jews walking, impulsively decides to “[hold] his hand out and present a piece of bread [to an old Jew]” (394). This instinctual act exhibits Hans’ willingness to sacrifice his body and reputation for someone he does not know. He only realizes the crucial mistake of his deed after he was “whipped on the street,” having the satisfaction beat out of him (394). While Hitler’s philosophy becomes prevalent in German society, Hans remains faithful to Jews because “A Jew had once saved his life” and “most of his customers were Jewish” (180). One of the only Jewish shopkeepers left in Molching, Joel Kleinmann, has his store vandalized.

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Holocaust Literary Analysis The novel Night as well as the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas adequately show the amount of indifference and unprovoked suffering that the Jews had to endure in the Holocaust. However, despite both the novel and movie showing similar themes, they both had scenes in which they portrayed their theme in different ways. The novel Night is about a family being stripped of all things humane in their life and being separated and forced into a life of excruciating work and suffering. The movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is about the son of a German soldier at the time of the Holocaust who moves near a concentration camp and becomes close to a young Jewish prisoner.

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In Markus Zusak's novel "The Book Thief," Zusak showcases the human capacity for goodness rather than simply focusing on our capacity for evil. Zusak chose to showcase how Hans didn't even think and reacted with humanity when "The Jew stood before him, expecting another handful of derision, but he watched with everyone else as Hans... held his hand out and presented a piece of bread, like magic" (Zusak 394). The Jew had expected to be beaten or shamed, yet by writing about Hans presenting him a piece of bread instead, Zusak decides to highlight the human capacity for goodness. Hans didn't give any thought to what he was doing and reacted with kindness. The Jew had expected evil, yet was met with goodness instead, due to Zusak favoring kindness

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There were several sacrifices made in The Book Thief. One that stuck out to me the most was when Hans gives bread to the Jewish man that is suffering terribly while the Nazi soldiers were parading the Jews to Dachau. Though the Jews suffered a worse fate, the Germans suffered too, in a way, having to sit back and witness the event at hand with little to eat. This is just one example of the many times that Hans shows the purity of his heart, even if he didn’t realize the dangers in that moment Immediately after giving the bread, Hans and the man are both punished. At home, Hans realizes the seriousness and the consequences of his actions.

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We love unconditionally yet we can also be as harsh as a storm. Altogether, we each have our moments where we either influence the people around us negatively or positively. The Holocaust was a major event that left a negative scar on our history. It was a horrible time, but it carries with it a valuable lesson to those who come after. The ability to be tolerant and inclusive of everyone is vital to ensure this tragedy does not reoccur.

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The Holocaust was one of the most horrible things that have happened in this world. There are friendly and evil people in this world and knowing if they are generous can be really hard. People are good at heart because, a lot of people are making sacrifices, trying to stick together, and therefore kids like Anne still think people are kind at heart. History has gone through some rough patches, but with history comes change. If you haven 't already heard, the Holocaust was basically a Jewish sacrificial offering that is burned completely on an altar.

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Growing as a Character Every event in our lives happens for a reason, whether it is to learn from our mistakes or to gain experience from them. In Markus Zusak's novel “The Book Thief,” Liesel Meminger uses her experiences with living in the 1940s to learn life lessons and experience first hand the many terrible things Hitler is doing to people around her. She learns how to deal with the many obstacles that are thrown at her. Liesel grows as a character by following her step-father’s footsteps in being a kind and generous person, going through childhood with her best friend Rudy, and being aware of what is going on around her by learning from Max.

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“ I must accentuate that I personally don’t have anything personally against them. It’s true that I view the Jews as enemies of Germany.” If you don’t have anything against the victims of the Holocaust, especially the Jews then why even bother hurting them in the first place. The Jews didn’t do anything to you. You don’t have the right to hurt them anyways.

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Markus Zusak has assembled ‘The Book Thief’ using a variety of narrative conventions. These include a unique narrative viewpoint, plot structure and use of imagery, all of which provide meaning to the reader. (33 words) A narrative’s point of view refers to who is telling the story. In this case Zusak’s narrator identifies himself as Death.

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Fear is Destructive Fear causes people to makes judgements. It’s what makes people cautious and skittish, mostly in unsafe situations. Without fear people’s life would be at risk. Throughout the memoir Night fear builds up over time, starting when the Germans taking over Sighet, they slowly start to take over their lives.

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People Who Helped in Hidden Ways Topic: Germans that helped Jews during World War II Working thesis statement: Helping Jews was very dangerous in Nazi Germany during World War Two because of Hitler’s bigoted nationalism, yet numerous Germans civilians and soldiers assisted a Jew in some way during the time of war. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel’s fictitious family and friends help Jews in the same ways that real life Germans helped Jews to hide and escape during World War II. Rolling Introduction Introduction Paragraph #1 Introduction Paragraph #2 Religious intolerance and persecution of Jewish people was common in Nazi Germany; however, there were some Germans that helped Jews despite the dangers. Some brave German soldiers and

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The characters in a story. They are hard to bring to life, yet a story would be incomplete without them. I love to write, and I often don’t have troubles creating my characters. But what makes every character stand out is that special thing about each and every one of them. That’s one thing that I loved about “The Book Thief,” by Markus Zusak.

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The Nazi’s did not leave a single person alive and showed no mercy. The Nazi’s killed the innocent Jews, because they believed they were right and did not feel guilty. Even though they did not like killing at times; on that night Goethe says how he “wishes this night would be over,” they still killed because it was right in the eyes of their society. This killing of innocent people, due to the fact that society believes they are evil, shows that the Nazi’s in the movie are ethical

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