Book Thief Theme

“It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.” (Zusak 5) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak can be summarized by the former quote. The Book Thief was published by Picador in 2005. This publishing date has nothing to do with the events in the book because the book takes place during World War II. It has been made into a movie adaption and was nominated for the Golden Globes Best Original Score award. I selected this book because of the intriguing narrator. The narrator of this book is death, which adds an element that most holocaust books do not have. Overall, The Book Thief is an intriguing book that delivers the harsh

She is a blonde haired, brown eyed ten-year-old. Liesel’s lack of education is often confused with lack of intelligence, but when her foster father, Hans Hubermann, starts teaching her she proves those stereotypes wrong. Due to all of the loss of the rest of her family, Liesel is an angry young girl. This is shown when she gets into fights with boys and isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Liesel faces much loss in her life, but her main struggle is words. When she first comes to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her foster parents, she does not even know how to spell her own name. She then gets bullied because of this, which motivates her to learn more. Hans helps her learn to read and write to some degree, but he only has a fourth-grade education, so Liesel ends up teaching herself through reading her stolen books. By the end of the book, Liesel is writing her own book with impressive language and elegance. While Liesel is a serious young girl she also tries to have fun with children her own age. Rudy Steiner is Liesel’s best, and only one her age, friend. Rudy has bony legs, sharp teeth, gangly blue eyes, and hair the color of a lemon. The supporting characters make Liesel a well rounded young

This really makes the reader think, and try to constantly decipher the difference. Throughout the book, Hitler has a large influence. The swastika-emblazoned Nazi flag is one of the most terrifying symbols found anywhere through history and has a great influence throughout the book. The symbol is always looming around wherever Liesel is reminding her, with shame, of her traitorous, communist, father. The use of death as the narrator makes the quality of the writing very vivid and a total page turner. The narrator also helps the author connect to the reader, for death is something that affects all humans and that all humans can relate to. The story follows a slow pace until the end when some drastic events take place. The theme, as one might guess from the title, is literature and writing. It focuses on a young girl learning how to read and write but more importantly learning the importance of reading and