English Asessment 3 Final

The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel written by Markus Zusak. The book chronicles the upbringing of Liesel Meminger, a German girl, living with foster parents during World War II. After her brother died and her mother disappeared, Liesel was sent to a place called Molching, a small town near Munich. There she lived on Himmel Street and was looked after by the Hubermanns. Liesel’s early life contained both good and bad times. She witnessed both profound sacrifice and chilling cruelty. The opposing duality of human nature, which is capable of both great good and utter evil, is encapsulated by the actions of the central characters in The Book Thief. Humans are capable of amazing acts of kindness and selflessness. This is evident when the Hubermanns, Liesel 's foster parents, take in a Jew named Max Vandenburg. Hiding Max is very significant given the Hubermanns lived in Nazi Germany, a society that killed Jews and anybody who would dare to associate with them. “For me, the sky was the color of Jews. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.” This is a quote from Death, the narrator of The Book Thief talking about the countless amount of Jewish people who died at the hands of the Nazi Regime in Germany during the Second World War. Zusak uses Death as the narrator to show how dire the situation was for any Jew or anybody who attempted to help them. This is effective as a technique because death has a sense of