Effects Of War In The Book Thief

Eliana Lothrop

Ms. Cook

English 10 Honors

21 September 2022

The Cruelty of War

War brings harm to everyone, even if they aren’t directly involved in the fighting. Everyone from army generals to innocent civilians living in poor neighborhoods can be affected by the cruelty of war. The novel The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, follows one such innocent civilian by the name of Liesel Meminger. This young girl faces her first major conflict in life once World War 2 begins, leaving her small family ruined. Her brother died on the train ride leaving their home and her mother went missing, leaving her alone with only a book she stole at her brother's funeral. Liesel is then taken in as a foster daughter by the Hubermanns in a small town outside of Molching,

Poverty was a major struggle during World War 2 and Liesel’s family hadn’t even been wealthy before the war had started, leaving them in a hard place. Liesel helps out her family by supporting them with funds. An example of this is when she begins helping Rosa with her clothes-washing job. More and more of their wealthier customers are no longer requiring their services, instead preferring to save money by doing their own washing. Liesel helps them keep customers because she is only a young girl who others are less likely to turn down when she asks to help. Liesel puts a lot of effort into this job as seen when the text states, “...Liesel walked the streets of Molching, from the poor end to the rich, picking up and delivering the washing.” (Zusak 93). Helping out with money was only one of many ways Liesel was able to protect her family from harm during this hard time, but it was very important in keeping them fed and sheltering

Towards the end of the story, once the war starts to get worse, air raids are becoming more common. These air raids bring stress and worry to everyone, and one way to calm them all down was by reading. For instance, the text says, “She didn’t dare to look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging on to her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out.” (Zusak 381). From this quote, it can be inferred that people were looking toward Liesel for comfort during this hard time. She was able to provide them with a distraction from their anxious thoughts. She was also able to comfort herself by sifting her focus from her worries onto her story. She calms others by reading them her stories many times throughout the story, and it’s one of people’s favorite things about her. Her love of reading was able to brighten the dreary mood during war times and allow others to experience some happiness, no matter how short. In the end, it was Liesel’s love of reading and stories that ended up saving her